My View
EDUCATIONAL HOMECOMING
By Lizbet Carroll Fuller
The light has changed, the crickets are chirping, and there is a chill in the air… summer is on the wane. While the first day of school approaches, first we celebrate the opening

of our new Lighthouse School! The Lighthouse School community joins with friends and family to celebrate our ribbon cutting with a back to school BBQ and ceremony on Saturday, September 1, beginning at 3 p.m. This is an exciting moment in the development of Lighthouse School!

This summer was unlike summers past in that there was much

activity in and about our school.

There was the Lightship 070707 fundraiser and the storytelling event with renowned storyteller Jay O'Callahan. The Building Committee, Bluestar Construction and other subcontractors, and parent volunteers have been working hard to finish the school in time. It is beautiful! 'Thank you' just does not seem enough of a response to the time, talent, energy and concern that a dedicated group of people have donated to this building project. However, Steven Blashfield, John Sundell, Chris Powers, Mike Schwed, and Patrick Hehir and all of you who have been working on behalf of Lighthouse School- Thank You!

I will be our 'new' Small School teacher. Having stepped out of the classroom for a few years to focus on the development of the school as we expanded to encompass pre-school through the fifth grade, I am ready to jump back into the schoolwork I like best. We welcome Rita McCarty to our faculty as the Primary Class Teaching Assistant. Rita has worked with children, teachers, childcare providers and schools in varied capacities. She has been a consulting teacher and a resource coordinator for childcare providers. She has assisted students with special needs and substituted in public schools. We are excited to have a new Teaching Assistant for the Small School and Aftercare program. Elizabeth Obremski, a.k.a. Lizza, has a B.A. in Early Education and Theatre and has most recently been a T.A. in NES.

While we are moving into a new building and a new year, this is also a year of coming home. Our school traveled from a rented space in NISDA to find a temporary residence on Hooper Farm. It soon grew beyond its walls and expanded into our outpost on Rugged Road. Be it barn, '70s ranch house, or doublewide, our teachers, staff, and children have always made it a vibrant, dynamic, imaginative and cozy educational home. The life and spirit of Lighthouse School is truly housed in the people that come together each day to make 'school' happen. I am grateful that we have been so fortunate to have gathered and retained the talented and dedicated faculty that works each day to creatively express the spirit and thoughtfully interpret the philosophy and practice of our school in the classroom. It is especially important to our school and to me that in this new year and in this new building we have our tried and true Lighthouse faculty making our new school home. I am thankful for Lighthouse teachers Alisa Allegrini, Erin Dancik, Monika Geerling, Alicia Keller, Sandy Mitchell, and Dina Warren (and Carole Watson who is with us in spirit though she is on maternity leave). Cheryl Evans, our Administrative Director, and Susan McGinnis have been working tirelessly in our office and where would we be without them? Thank You!

In the beginning weeks of school, we are involved in the flurry and busy-ness of the daily and practical realities inherent to the new school year. In the classroom, we build the structure of the school day and grow attuned to its rhythms. In individual classrooms, we steadily construct the rules, expectations, and ways of communication that will help us to work and to play safely and happily together. Most important, we are establishing new relationships between teachers and children, children and children, parents and teachers, and teachers and teachers. There is a degree of awkwardness inherent to the first weeks of school, as everyone is being thrust into these significant relationships with people they may not know very well. While we all recognize that sharing the care and education of a child requires the utmost trust, honesty, and mutual respect, we are only beginning to create the foundations for that partnership. This is also true, to a lesser degree, for children and teachers who have already spent a year together. Over the summer, a child continues to grow and comes back to school in a different mood of childhood, with new capacities and, thus, interests. With each new year, the composition and dynamic of the class changes, so every year is truly a new one.

We look forward to a sparkling and joyful new year in our new home!

- Lizbet Carroll Fuller is Director of Education

at Nantucket Lighthouse School