INSIGHT: Building Community

By Vickie Baldwin, Director of Institutional Advancement

If you’ve attended an EPS open house (and certainly most of you have), you know that community and culture are two important aspects of our school. When Eastside Prep started seventeen years ago, building community was an easy task—a handful of faculty/staff and sixteen families made for a small enough group that gathering was pretty effortless. Knowing that a sense of community is a hallmark of our school, we’ve focused yearly on building and maintaining rapport in our community.

The efforts to bring our student body together may be most apparent to all. From advisory groups, to Fall Overnights, to grade-level socials—each plays an important role in making sure students are known within their grade and division. Efforts are made among our faculty/staff community as well. Our program development days and social outings for employees serve to create strong relationships among the adults who spend the better part of their week with your children. Those bonds serve as a foundation for our students on a daily basis. The efforts made to enhance a spirit of camaraderie within our parent community are significant. Grade-level coffees, Head’s Table meetings, parent education opportunities, and Parent Association gatherings are each components of our endeavors. Next Friday’s Fall Harvest event offers the opportunity for parents and faculty/staff to gather in a social setting and begin or continue relationship building. Our faculty and staff enjoy the opportunity to meet with parents in a stress-free environment while parents have the chance to learn more about faculty and staff members than might be visible on a typical day at school. Please join us next Friday, September 20, for an evening of conversation and community building.