INSIGHT: Welcome to Year 17

By Dr. Terry Macaluso, Head of School

Eastside Prep is celebrating its seventeenth first day of school on September 4, 2019.

This year we have no new buildings to open.  The grounds are beautiful and ready to receive all of us who have been here for a while, as well as ninety-one new students, and twelve new employees. There are a few slight real estate alterations, but those will be discovered through the natural course of events.  Some art has been installed on the third floor of TALI Hall, Mr. Gummere is now living on the third floor of TALI, while Dr. Stegeman moves into the Upper School Head’s office.  Advisory groups will have an opportunity to get the lay of the land in time to be able to find classes, offices and lockers, and, perhaps, most important is the fact that the LPC Dining Staff is ready to roll!

I’m sure it’s because I’ve been at EPS for eighteen of the school’s seventeen years;  that may explain my continued interest in comparing statistics from the early days to the current ones.  Here are a few numbers that caught my attention:

When we open this year we will have a grand total of 946 accumulated years of teaching—373 of those years at EPS and 573 of those years prior to coming to EPS—among teachers leading our classroom experiences.

Watching EPS become the community it is—over time, with the help and support of hundreds of people—has been extraordinarily satisfying.  But this is just year seventeen!  Looking back through the years…just THINK about where the school might be three years from now—when  EPS celebrates its twentieth anniversary, and this year’s entering ninth graders walk across the stage to receive their diplomas.

Don’t blink.

Welcome to 2019-2020!