Dear Lower Division Families,

Thank you for your continued trust and partnership. As part of Stevenson's recent WASC accreditation and strategic visioning process, we've taken time to reflect on the strengths of our Lower Division program and to explore how we can continue delivering an exceptional experience for our students and families in an ever-changing landscape.

We know the program we offer here in the Lower Division is strong – nurturing, academically rich, providing high-quality, joyful learning that helps every student thrive. Our team takes a thoughtful, data-informed approach to every aspect of our students' educational journey – from guided reading groups and math workshops to our writing curriculum in the Writing Workshop model.

Central to this work is our ongoing and extensive investment in professional development and foundational programs such as math and literacy. These investments ensure that our faculty are trained with the most successful strategies and our curriculum meets the needs of all of our students.

We are also proud to share that, just this week, Stevenson's Lower Division became a fully certified Responsive Classroom division. This milestone reflects our ongoing commitment to creating a learning environment that is not only academically engaging but also focused on social-emotional growth and positive community-building.

As we look to the future, we are making a few thoughtful adjustments designed to reinforce these strengths and ensure sustainable excellence. These changes align with the WASC recommendations and reflect the need to adapt to feedback we have heard from you in our annual surveys and the shifts in enrollment we are currently seeing. We are confident that these steps will position us for success and allow us to continue offering a world-class education to our students.

To that end, we are making a handful of adjustments for the upcoming school year:

• We are in the process of refining some of our Lower Division staffing structures, moving to a model that pairs a lead teacher with a support teacher. This is a model used in virtually all peer schools nationwide. We will start this transition in some of our classrooms this fall.
• We are also reviewing our current specialty programs, which will lead to adjustments in staffing and scheduling. These changes will be communicated as we develop the schedule for the upcoming school year. We will ensure that all students have the right balance of enriching specialty classes, maintaining current offerings, while preserving sufficient time for homeroom teachers to build strong academic foundations.

The changes we are making will result in a structure that meets or improves on the student-to-teacher ratios and access to special programs when measured against our peer schools across the state based upon extensive research, while continuing to honor the unique warmth and care of the Carmel Campus.

We remain deeply committed to the extraordinary learning and community that define the Carmel Campus. As part of that commitment, we will be scheduling a parent meeting where we'll share more about this process, what's ahead, and how we'll continue working together to support every student's growth. We will share those meeting details soon.

We look forward to connecting with you and continuing this important work as a community.

Sincerely,

Dr. Dan Griffiths
President

Nifemi Ogunsuyi
Head of Lower Division