AOSR - VIA CASSIA 811 Phone: 06-334-381 Web:WWW.AOSR.ORG May 2006 AOSR PLANS FOR 60th BIRTHDAY By Dr. Larry Dougherty, Headmaster In June, 2007, AOSR will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary. The school has served thousands of May children and families throughout the years. From the founding of the school until today, the Important Dates school has had strong traditions and exceptional teachers. Some of the programs we take for granted today, including the elementary social studies curriculum with its emphasis on ancient Greece and Rome, the Shakespeare Festival and Declamations, were started thirty or forty years 13 MAYFAIR ago by Madeline Fabris and Marcia Roberts. Alumni who return for reunions will go on the 11:00AM - 4:00PM stage of the Hillside Theater and recite lines from a play or relive their declamation. Just as our alumni remember their outstanding teachers from the past, our students today will look back on 15 their experiences here as rich and rewarding because of the teachers who work so hard to help & them learn and grow. 16 IB Exams at AOSR At the same time, the school has made significant changes in programs and in facilities. While 17 & the school has remained true to the commitment to preparing students for American and interna- 18 Bookfair: tional colleges and universities, it has adapted and modified curriculum to ensure that students Lion Bookstore, have the skills, knowledge and experiences that will not only ensure their success in college but 8:30 - 4:00 will also prepare them to meet life’s challenges. The school has added programs in computers, technology and expanded Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs, and it 19 MS Shakespeare Play has also increased offerings in art, music and drama to reflect the school’s long standing commit- 7:00PM ment to the fine arts and humanities. As an international school, AOSR has recognized the im- portance of foreign languages. Recently, for example, Spanish was added to the high school pro- 25 HS Sports Banquet gram. Over the years the school added ESL and programs for students who need extra support. AOSR intends to use the occasion of this anniversary to kick off a major fund raising drive to further upgrade the campus and the academic programs of the school. The school needs to up- grade and improve the Hillside Theater, the science laboratories and the gymnasium. You will be receiving information about the Sixtieth Anniversary Campaign in the mail and in your email shortly. I hope that you will consider how you can help current students and the future genera- tions of students to enjoy the same high quality programs that have existed at AOSR for the last sixty years. continued next page Contents News from AOSR Headmaster 1 Pre-K News 6 Il Foro 15 Greetings from New Principal 2 Elementary News 6-7 Book & Library Resources in 16 Rome Reaccredidation Process 3 Middle School News 8-10 School Information 17 All-School News 4 High School News 11 Rome n’ About 17 PTO Corner 5 Sports Briefs 12-14 May Calendar 18 1 Continued from page 1 AOSR ENDS BOARDING PROGRAM AOSR initiated a boarding program eleven years ago. Initially the program was established to provide an alternative for US military dependents stationed at Gaeta and La Maddelena. The program began with 14 students eleven years ago and the peak enrollment was 32 students in the fourth and fifth year of the program. Three years ago the U.S. Department of Defense decided that they would no longer support boarding programs in Italy and all students here would have to go to their DoD school in London. A few students were grandfathered to complete the program and graduate from AOSR. The last two years the enrollment has been around 15 to 17 students. For the past eleven years the program has been housed at Hotel Villa St Dominique. The Hotel recently informed the school that the floor in the hotel that has served as the dormitory for the last 9 years will not be available next year. Of the current group of students, only 4 will return and two had already made plans to live with family members or friends of the family outside of the dormitory next year. We will not be enrolling any new students and we will miss having a program that has brought so many wonderful young people to AOSR from the US and across the world. At the time when the high school had an enrollment of about 130 students, the boarding students added a vital source of students and revenues that helped AOSR overcome the financial difficulties it faced at that time. Several people worked hard throughout the years to ensure the success of the program, including Don Levine, who worked hard to get the pro- gram started, Alessandra Cozzi, Ray Ross, Sylva La Trofa and Estelle Dougherty. A special thanks to the current super- visors, Kate McKenna, Toby and Debbie Tebo, Kim Murphy, Heather Duffy Stone and to the Head Resident, Matt Tup- per. Greetings from Mr. Matt Neely AOSR’s new principal I wanted to write a quick note to let you all know how excited I am to be joining the AOSR community as the new Pre K-12 Principal, replacing Dr. Pfannl who moves on to become Head of School for 2006-2007. As some of you may know, I am currently an Assistant Principal of a high school in California, where I have worked for 15 years. After my education at Yale and Stanford, I began my teaching career in English and Social Sciences and became an administrator in 1997. I am also proud to be a City Council member and former Mayor of my city, Mountain View. Obviously, leaving my community is bittersweet. However, what makes the move so exciting for me and my wife Erica, is the incredibly strong sense of community that I observed and experienced in my two trips to Rome this spring. During both visits, I was struck by the sense of family and teamwork at the school. As someone who loves young people, watching younger students interact with older ones was exciting and heartwarming. More, the sense of quality, excellence and compassion was evident in the teachers, students and the many parents who were on campus at all hours. The values and mission of the school were resonant in the teaching and learning, the collegial conversations and the daily actions of staff and students. (I also like the cappuccino!) I am so honored to be welcomed as part of this community. Of course, moving to Rome also has its benefits. Erica and I are busy “packing up” our life here in California, practicing our Italian and trying to learn the difference between “codice fiscale, permesso di soggiorno and a marca di bollo. As a policy maker, I am also eagerly reading about the excitement of Italian national politics. My intro- duction to calcio will come after my arrival. As we readjust, Erica and I are counting on even more of the wonder- ful hospitality that we received during our last visit in April. As your principal, I can make the following commitments. I will work with passion, energy, intellect and caring to continue to provide you and your children an excellent education at AOSR. I will also listen to, learn about and take seriously the hopes, dreams and concerns that you have for your children. I firmly believe that teaching is a solemn obligation and that families place incredible trust in those who educate their children. I know that I have much to learn about our school and our common values, but I can assure you that I am prepared to plunge into this incredible opportunity and become an integral part of our school community. I look forward to meeting each and every school family beginning this summer. Until we meet, feel free to contact me at [email protected] 2 Ciao! Parent’s View of the Reaccredidation Process By Susan Haight, parent representative on the Steering Committee (This article was to have appeared in the April issue discussing Reaccredidation.) For over a year I have had the honor of serving as the parent representative for the Steering Com- mittee preparing for the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges reaccredidation visit to AOSR. Over the last ten years, my two children had attended the elementary, middle and high school grades at the school and participated in a wide range of extracurricular activities which also gave me a good range of experience of the programs at AOSR. Parents participated in the self-evaluation process by giving their ideas for the rewriting of the school’s Mission Statement and Beliefs at a few PTO meetings and by filling in the NSSE parent question- naires that were distributed last spring. All of this input was used in the Self-Study documents covering every aspect of the school from curriculum to facilities that were filled out by faculty and administration. Parents with long and short term attendance representing many nationalities and grade levels at the school met with two members of the visiting team from Middle States to answer questions about their children’s experience during the four day visit. The Steering Committee met weekly to assess the progress of the comprehensive work being done by all the faculty and administration. Teachers and administrators worked tirelessly, on top of their busy schedules, to prepare their reflection Self-Study reports in committees with their colleagues in the same curriculum areas and with representatives outside their curriculum areas.