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| on the mountain Summer/Fall 2012
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better as a community. It also asked
alums specifically how they wanted to
be involved with Storm King. According
to Irene Seguin, “We emailed it to 753
active alums and heard back from 111.”
The majority rated their SKS experience
positively. A few used the survey as an
opportunity to rant, expressing pent up
attacks on the Board of Trustees and the
administration. The survey results will be
published in the Annual Giving Report
in October. Some results are shown on
page 11.
This leads me to introduce Our
Common Ground and its purpose. It’s
a newly featured hybrid space in OTM
created specifically to give alumni an
opportunity to reconnect and remember
our shared past. Our voices, ideas,
energies, talents, memories and current
news are welcomed. The survey revealed
that several alums would like to write
something pertaining to their SKS
experience. That’s great. It’s a direct
response to the outstanding turnout
and passionate outcry at last October’s
alumni meeting when we met with the
board. We spoke up and they listened.
Although OTM is published twice yearly
it is my hope that we will establish a
regular monthly presence on the
School’s website, too. I’m curating the
space. You can reach me at:
I recently met with Paul Domingue,
our new head of school, and received his
full support for Our Common Ground
and for a robust productive alumni
voice. Communication was the topic on
both our minds. He’d recently returned
from an engaging three-day strategic
planning retreat held at the Black Rock
Conference Center. I’d served on the
Advisory Committee last summer and
fall along with alums, Michael Spano ’73
and Gary Springer ’72, as SKS searched
for its next head of school, so we weren’t
strangers. Paul told me about the
retreat which was attended by trustees,
administrators and faculty. “It provided
the opportunity to discuss the mission
and core beliefs, to envision the school
of the future, to determine concrete
quantifiable objectives and to begin the
process of developing a strategic plan to
guide the School toward that vision.”
Paul already recognizes the “rare quality”
that exists here. I didn’t need to ask him
to define what he meant because I knew
it too. He quoted the opening words
of the vision statement like this, “In
2022
Storm King School will be…” We
must fill in the blanks and the concrete
quantifiable ways to achieve this. And
the money to make it happen. You can
read more about Paul in the recent (July)
posting on the SKS website. He also
writes a quarterly essay he calls “From
the Head’s Desk” which was distributed
by email and posted on the website.
He’s energetic, authentic, has loads of
experience running schools, and he
laughs a lot. Several events are scheduled
for alums to meet Paul including a
Homecoming Day on Oct. 6. Stay
connected to the website to learn about
them all.
Rich Roberts ’60 deserves our
gratitude and thanks for many miles
traveled from his home in Maine,
reaching out by email, phone and letters,
to more than 300 alumni in the past two
years as our Association president. Rich
generously told his own story to a wide
and varied audience; that of a young
man with no particular direction, whose
mom, a single parent without financial
means for private school tuition, got
him to Storm King. I’ve heard him say
many times, “I’m the person I am today
because of what Storm King did for me.”
Does that ring true for you? It does
for me. I’ve heard this exact sentiment
repeatedly at every school gathering I’ve
attended over the years. It’s a powerful
commentary on this unique community.
It’s at the essence of Storm King as it
continues to nourish a new generation
of students. It’s our shared past and it
deserves our support and attention.
This is a unique time in the School’s
history and in technology. Thanks to
a grant from the Benedict Foundation
for Independent Schools and with the
support of the Board, an iPad will be
provided to every student this fall. It’s
an innovative learning tool and it’s
green. You can read more about the SKS
One-to-One iPad Program online.
We welcome Scott Cantor ’73,
our new president of the Alumni
Association. His open and moving letter
of welcome is posted on the website and
LinkedIn. Mike Brower ’63 is our new
chair of the Board of Trustees. Alumni
Lon Gratz ’61, Michael Spano ’73
and Joseph Blount ’74 also joined the
Board. New parent members are Hillary
Ackerman and Michele DeFreece.
We also welcome Myles Megdal. New
bylaws that align with NAIS standards
are in the process of being written and
are expected to be approved by the
October 2012 trustee meeting.
Whew! There’s clearly been a lot going
on and that’s a good thing.
I welcome your questions, comments
and inquiries about writing for Our
Common Ground. Email:
Diane Kletz Travers ’72 was the eighth
coed admitted to Storm King in 1970-71.
She went on to study photography and
documentary filmmaking at Hamilton
College and in Denmark. She holds an
MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence
College. She lives in the Hudson Valley and
teaches memoir writing classes to the aged
and those with mild dementia.
Our Common Ground, continued
from page 3
