Good Afternoon HNES Families,
I hope this email finds your family healthy and happy. This next month is going to be fast-moving with lots of information to absorb from the school. Be prepared for many communications directly from the school’s email addresses, website, and school-sponsored Facebook page. The school is no longer posting school information on the Mom’s and Dad’s Facebook page due to several political posts. As a non-profit, we are not allowed to take political sides and felt it would be best for the school to dissolve our connection to that page. We can not jeopardize our non-profit status as it is too vital to our school. Everything you need to know will be at your fingertips while utilizing the school’s three communication tools. We are also in the process of app development! More on that exciting information later!
Next week is full of important meetings and planning as the HNES Operations Team works nonstop on our Fall 2020 plan. The school continues to work hard in being proactive in the areas that it can and yet flexible as changes occur outside of our control. Some exciting news is that our enrollment is filling up quickly, only a few openings left in Jr. Pre-K, 2nd, 3rd, and 8th grade! I would tell your friends to call Mrs. Terry to grab a spot while they can! Due to the COVID19 classroom design plans, we might reach a point where many grade levels are full!
As we look to the future, we also have additional faculty to welcome to our team!
Nancy Bleich retired after last school year, and she left a big hole in the Middle School team. We will miss her, and I hope she visits often! God continues to deliver us top-quality educators, and Alicia Gainer is most certainly one of those! Alicia will be teaching Language Arts to our 7th and 8th-grade students. We are excited to have her join our team. Alicia has a Master of Science Degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on English Education and Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Florida State University. She is certified with the State of Florida in Elementary Education (K-6), Teacher Certification for English Language Arts (6-12), Reading Endorsement, and ESOL Endorsement. Alicia’s teaching experience comes from having taught at Bay Haven, Everitt Middle School, and Parker Elementary. She has served on many leadership committees within each of these schools and comes to us with numerous awards! Alicia’s son, Pierson, will also be joining our 2nd-grade class, and the students are going to be excited to meet him.
As you can tell by now, the school is going through lots of exciting changes. One of those changes involves our BASE program. Darcey Sinicrope will be making a change within our team, and we are happy to have her on board in a new capacity. Darcey will be working with our preschool program as well as assisting in middle school electives. She wears a lot of hats for the school, and we have many fun things planned that require only Darcey’s special touch. Now you’re wondering who will be our Base Director! Welcome to the team, Julie Lucas! Julie is the niece of our very own Johnny Vallas. She is a hard worker and comes to us with lots of fresh ideas for our BASE program. Julie was named by Publix as a promising leader within their organization and completed a distinguished leadership program within their company. This program was utilized to identify promising leaders who provided a good example of work ethic and those that the company believed exhibited leadership qualities! Julie attended Mosley and Gulf Coast State College. She is a local girl with local ties and her Dad even owned Tidewater Deli. She is married to Drew and they happily reside in Panama City. Their daughter, Grey, will also be joining our Kindergarten class, and the students are going to be excited to meet her. Also, BIG news, Julie will be having a baby any day now! Our prayers are with her as she gives birth and starts this new chapter in her life!
I hope that you can see that HNES will continue to move forward into the future, even in the face of adversity. I have to say this has been a very humbling experience as I officially start my first days as your new Head of School. I would also like to encourage all of our families to treat each other with love and compassion. While many of our opinions might differ, it does not change that we are all in this together, and together is what makes us stronger in the end. Don’t forget to wash your hands, wear your mask, and stay home if you are sick. I will continue to pray for God’s guidance and strength as we make plans for the future of Holy Nativity Episcopal School.
To quote a segment of one of Bishop Curry's sermons, "Public health officials have told us that we all need to start wearing these when we go out in public. These face masks. And it's interesting when you put the face mask on, it's not fun to wear. They've told us that you're putting it on not to save yourself. You're not putting it on to protect yourself. The reason for wearing the face mask is I wear it so that I don't spread anything to you. I wear it to protect you. It's a small inconvenience, a little sacrifice that actually may be a symbol of what it means to love. And the possible miracle could be that if I wear to protect you from me, and you wear it to protect me from you, or the virus within you, we get protected, and we all win. And that is the power of love."
More to come next week!
Cynthia Fuller
“Be strong and courageous the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”? Joshua 1:9