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Dear SAAS Community,
One School, One Block: from Spring Street to Madison, and from 12th Avenue to 13th, the SAAS community will be unified on a purpose-built, centered around a spacious and inviting central courtyard. Beginning in September, this vision will go from a long-held dream to our daily reality.
We’ve all experienced spaces that bring people together and elicit a shared connection: around a table with friends and family to share a meal; filling a theater with cheers and applause; rising to our feet with thousands of others at a game; attending ceremonies and events where we share memories to mark passages and achievements.
The power of those moments is immense. The importance of the spaces that make them possible is less obvious, but noticeable in their absence.
As exciting as it is to have a new Home of the Upper School, this moment is about far more than a new building. What matters most is what happens in the building, and the impact: for the first time since the very early years of the SAAS story, the entire community will be together on one block, in a cohesive campus.
What will that look like on a day-to-day basis in the Home of the Upper School and in the daily lives of kids and faculty?
SAAS on one block will look like an Upper School commons filled with students eating lunch, preparing for group presentations, gathered in groups to recount the game from the night before or in anticipation of the performance later that week. It will look like students quietly studying, kids meeting and making new friends, and faculty checking in all of the intentional and informal ways that make “know the kid” tangible in the lives of their students.
It will look like amazing performances in community spaces, breakthrough presentations and speeches in the classroom, lasting friendships and an appreciation for the growth, not just in one’s self, but in others around us.
One school, together on one block, will look like everyday moments of student life — hallway hellos, classroom debates, and spontaneous collaborations.
In addition to being transformative for the kids’ daily experiences, being together on one block will be equally impactful for faculty and staff. It will provide everyday moments for growth and connection for teachers – consulting a colleague, sharing a successful moment, meeting with students outside of class to better understand how to nurture their growth.
We are a school that values the full range of human potential, in all of the interesting, powerful, and dynamic ways that it shows up in our students and faculty. The impact is the resonance of a successful mosaic, where the parts are more than the sum of their whole. Even in the healthiest ecosystems, there are distinct zones where life is nurtured in unique ways.
At SAAS, we’ve long been proponents of distinct ecosystems for the Middle and Upper School, and a healthy separation between them. That won’t change with the unification of SAAS on the 12th Avenue block. The needs of 6th graders who are but a year away from elementary school are vastly different from the needs of students on the verge of attending university. They need their own spaces, just as they require a different academic experience to provide the right level of challenge and growth.
That’s why the Middle and Upper Schools will have their own “homes” on the block, and that use of purpose-built spaces extends to all of the programs within SAAS.
Biology labs where students are engaged in cutting edge research are distinct from the seminar room where the integrated Honors American Studies courses and their signature projects occur.
Magic happens on the stage and on the volleyball court, but those spaces require specific characteristics to make growth possible.
Dancers will train and rehearse in the studio and theater in one way, and the robotics team will design and build competitive robots in the shop and lab in different ways. Those programs — and the students in those programs — thrive in purpose-built spaces and all contribute to the whole in unique ways.
But for there to be a “whole,” there has to be a unifying element — the Mission.
The SAAS mission starts with “SAAS is a dynamic community.” That’s the Who – that’s us.
The part that follows commits us to action. Our dynamic community “challenges students to Question, Imagine, and Create...” That’s the What. And “in order to Contribute Boldly to a Changing World” is the Why.
And now, finally, we can speak to a cohesive and connected “Where.” One School, One Block.
As we walk these new halls together, we’ll carry forward the spirit that has always defined us: one of collaboration, courage, and care. We’ll continue to foster a culture where every voice is heard, every idea has room to grow, and every student feels at home. That culture is expressed in spaces that range from stage to lab, classroom to corner nook, Middle School to Upper school, and courtyard to commons.
One School, One Block. So many possibilities. We can’t wait to open the year together.
Welcome Home, SAAS.
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