NewsUpper SchoolFaculty/StaffPre-K to 8
Faculty orient themselves to new school year
Aug 20, 2001 8:00 AM
By Stefan Eady - Faculty
Each fall, the new school year begins a week earlier for some Darlington folks. Faculty and staff meet throughout the week before school starts to make sure everything is ready for students’ arrival on the first day of school, this year on Monday, Aug. 20.
Meetings for teachers kicked off first thing Monday morning but most consider the official kick off for the week to be the dinner welcoming new faculty members. The event returned this year to Home-on-the-Hill hosted by President David Hicks and his wife Betsy. The School’s new food service, Sage, provided the meal and faculty and spouses enjoyed an end-of-summer evening spent under the purple-and-white striped tent.
Tuesday morning’s devotional by Lower School Principal Mark Tayloe charged all faculty and staff to set a compelling vision of their obligations to one another and to their community. Tayloe used the stories of David in 1 and 2 Samuel to urge all to do “king work” in whatever they do.
“David did king work in everything he did,” Tayloe said. “He viewed all tasks, even menial ones, as we might view tasks like serving as ticket takers at games or driving a school bus, as opportunities to serve God.”
“He surrounded himself with misfits and united them,” Tayloe also noted. “We start with misfits, students who are very diverse and who don’t know how to fit in here yet, and we come together to support them.”
He used the fact that David was the “runt” of eight sons and yet was chosen to become Israel’s greatest king to emphasize that no one student should be overlooked. “Our job is to identify gifts in each student and maximize them,” he reminded the group.
Hicks gave his view of the years behind and the year ahead for the School. “Our School is blessed because we have stayed so close to its original mission,” he said. Reading from an article published in the September 1943 issue of Southern Coach and Athlete and written by Dr. Thomas Cutt, then head of Darlington's foreign language department, at the beginning of World War II, Hicks noted that even then the School was thought of as a family. Cutt wrote in the article that the “Y” Cabinet and the Honor System were in place and students conducted chapel services. The School offered lots of activities from which students could choose to meet individual needs and interests.
Hicks' review of last year’s accomplishments included: conversion to the House System adding prefects and a House Senate; construction of the Huffman Athletic Center; completion of a campus master plan; drug screening before registration; creation of the Information Communication Technology Department; more information on the School’s Web site with all class syllabi on the Web and a confidential student page; selection of a book for students, faculty, parents, and alumni to read this school year, Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger, and a new marketing effort based on the theme, “The Journey Begins at Darlington.”
In looking ahead to this year, Hicks noted that the Houses continue to be the key to the School’s mission. “Every faculty person has a role in one of the Houses,” he said.
Projects that are not completely funded yet include the physical changes that were made in converting dorms to Houses and renovations to Home-on-the-Hill. Funds still need to be repaid to the School’s endowment fund for money that the School had to pay as the result of a bad pledge made to build the library a number of years ago.
“We are very grateful, however, for an anonymous donor who has made a $1,000,000 challenge grant to repay the endowment fund,” Hicks announced. “The Development Office has already raised almost $700,000 towards meeting that challenge.”
Hicks reminded the group of the importance of the Annual Fund to the School. “We’re a gritty independent school,” he said. “We don’t have a big endowment and our tuition is lower than comparable schools, so we depend on generous gifts from all members of the Darlington family to help us meet our operating budget each year.”
Meetings for teachers kicked off first thing Monday morning but most consider the official kick off for the week to be the dinner welcoming new faculty members. The event returned this year to Home-on-the-Hill hosted by President David Hicks and his wife Betsy. The School’s new food service, Sage, provided the meal and faculty and spouses enjoyed an end-of-summer evening spent under the purple-and-white striped tent.
Tuesday morning’s devotional by Lower School Principal Mark Tayloe charged all faculty and staff to set a compelling vision of their obligations to one another and to their community. Tayloe used the stories of David in 1 and 2 Samuel to urge all to do “king work” in whatever they do.
“David did king work in everything he did,” Tayloe said. “He viewed all tasks, even menial ones, as we might view tasks like serving as ticket takers at games or driving a school bus, as opportunities to serve God.”
“He surrounded himself with misfits and united them,” Tayloe also noted. “We start with misfits, students who are very diverse and who don’t know how to fit in here yet, and we come together to support them.”
He used the fact that David was the “runt” of eight sons and yet was chosen to become Israel’s greatest king to emphasize that no one student should be overlooked. “Our job is to identify gifts in each student and maximize them,” he reminded the group.
Hicks gave his view of the years behind and the year ahead for the School. “Our School is blessed because we have stayed so close to its original mission,” he said. Reading from an article published in the September 1943 issue of Southern Coach and Athlete and written by Dr. Thomas Cutt, then head of Darlington's foreign language department, at the beginning of World War II, Hicks noted that even then the School was thought of as a family. Cutt wrote in the article that the “Y” Cabinet and the Honor System were in place and students conducted chapel services. The School offered lots of activities from which students could choose to meet individual needs and interests.
Hicks' review of last year’s accomplishments included: conversion to the House System adding prefects and a House Senate; construction of the Huffman Athletic Center; completion of a campus master plan; drug screening before registration; creation of the Information Communication Technology Department; more information on the School’s Web site with all class syllabi on the Web and a confidential student page; selection of a book for students, faculty, parents, and alumni to read this school year, Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger, and a new marketing effort based on the theme, “The Journey Begins at Darlington.”
In looking ahead to this year, Hicks noted that the Houses continue to be the key to the School’s mission. “Every faculty person has a role in one of the Houses,” he said.
Projects that are not completely funded yet include the physical changes that were made in converting dorms to Houses and renovations to Home-on-the-Hill. Funds still need to be repaid to the School’s endowment fund for money that the School had to pay as the result of a bad pledge made to build the library a number of years ago.
“We are very grateful, however, for an anonymous donor who has made a $1,000,000 challenge grant to repay the endowment fund,” Hicks announced. “The Development Office has already raised almost $700,000 towards meeting that challenge.”
Hicks reminded the group of the importance of the Annual Fund to the School. “We’re a gritty independent school,” he said. “We don’t have a big endowment and our tuition is lower than comparable schools, so we depend on generous gifts from all members of the Darlington family to help us meet our operating budget each year.”
