Oak Knoll’s Hope Memorial Library in the Upper School and the Bonaventura Hall Library in the Lower School offer a spectacular selection of reading and resources for students. Upper School Librarian Elinor Takenaga and Lower School Librarian Betty Castello are experts at pointing students toward age-appropriate casual reading and material that supports classroom projects. In addition to tens of thousands of books, online academic research databases, magazines, and newspapers ensure our students can turbo-charge their passion for learning and their pure enjoyment of the written word.

Just a few weeks before the close of school, Takenaga spearheaded a series of field trips to the local Summit library so that students could receive their public library card and tour the facility to investigate its resources. They discovered that many local libraries now go way beyond offering written resources that students and their families can use over the summer for recreation, college planning, passion projects, and much more. Open the doors to your local library, and you may discover some quirky and welcome surprises.

With warm weather on the horizon, the popping sound of pickleballs will soon return to our neighborhoods. As an avid fan of pickleball and skills-based learning, I often think about the life skills acquired in pickleball. Combine this with my position as a history teacher, and my mind wanders to the question, can pickleball save democracy? I know it sounds like a stretch but stick with me on this for a bit.

Perhaps it’s 8:30 p.m., and your preferred method of emergency notification buzzes to inform you that your child’s school will be closed tomorrow due to inclement weather. Alternatively, the notification alerts you to a late start or early departure the following day. 

Snow day decisions bring glee and unexpected freedom to even the most dedicated students. Still, on the part of many parents, they bring anxiety over last-minute schedule changes, not to mention second-guessing whether the school has made the right call and whether other schools in the area are making the same decision.

While the decision to interrupt in-person school due to inclement weather is challenging for all school administrators, it is especially complicated at an independent school due to various unique considerations. Four distinct characteristics of independent schools make them particularly cautious regarding impending weather.

Labor Day has come and gone and school children across the country are back in class. Joining a private school at any grade level can be a social adjustment, as it can also be for new parents and guardians as they get to know a brand new community and school culture. Will I fit in? How can I get to know others in the community? How involved should I be with the school and other parents?

Fortunately, private schools like Oak Knoll offer a variety of mechanisms and activities to help new parents feel at home and a vital part of the school community. If you are joining a private school community for the first time, or switching to a new school, note the following ideas to more rapidly get involved, stay in touch, and leave a lasting impact on your new school community.

Welcome back to a whole new season of the Happy Kid Project. Throughout the upcoming school year, we hope to bring you a variety of student voices so you can hear in there own words how Oak Knoll is a school that cultivates people with purpose. But seeing as school only just began, we thought we’d use this episode to introduce you to some wonderful adults that are just joining the community. We couldn’t get to them all, but here are just a few of our new faculty and staff as we came together the week before school began to get to know each other and the school during orientation and in-service days. You will find a complete list of new faculty and staff, along with their credentials, here.

Join us on Friday, April 21st at 7:00 pm in the Mother Mary Campion Performing Arts Center where multiple creative arts disciplines will converge for our annual Dance Concert. Listen to this short podcast as Creative Arts Teacher Carlee Bennett describes what's in store! Admission is free but reservations are recommended. Call 900-522-8150 or email carlee.bennett@oakknoll.org.

During a recent three-day Community Impact Symposium in Washington DC, four Oak Knoll High School students gathered with students from across the country to share ideas on how they could make more positive and systemic changes in their school and local communities.

The goal was to work in teams to identify various approaches taken to local, state, and national levels and work with their schoolmates to draft a vision statement and action strategy to take back home to Oak Knoll.

Earthquakes are perhaps the world’s most terrifying natural disasters. They trigger the fight or flight mechanism yet neither is possible and aftershocks can continue for days. On February 6, while most people were fast asleep in the area, a massive quake occurred devastating vast sections of Eastern Turkey and Northern Syria. So far the death toll exceeds 35,000 souls and is expected to reach 50,000 or more. Millions have been left without shelter, belongings, and utilities. The cold winter weather is expected to kill many more of the unsheltered. The best way you can help the victims is by contributing financially.

One of the seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching is the Option for the Poor and Vulnerable. It states, “A basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring.” From the comfort of our suburban homes, so many miles from the devastating quake, it is not likely we can physically lend a hand in the rescue and recovery effort, but we can certainly give of our financial resources. Donating cash, rather than sending food, clothing, and other goods, helps organizations on the ground purchase locally, respond more rapidly, and jump start the economy in the process.

Here are some reputable charities that have hit the ground in both nations and could use your financial support.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, from 2002 to 2017, the number of Black-owned businesses with employees increased by 31.2%. While this is something to celebrate, the pandemic has disproportionately affected Black-owned businesses. A higher percentage of Black-owned companies shuttered during the pandemic, and of those that did survive, only 10% described their business as “profitable and growing.”

By intentionally seeking out and supporting Black-owned businesses, we can help to reverse this trend, inject more equity into equality, and do our part to combat structural inequities that have plagued Black business owners for centuries.

We recently posted a blog entitled, Reading Aloud to Your Pre-Kindergarten Student. Yes, research supports the notion that this act improves cognitive development, but who needs an excuse to cuddle up with a wee one during the holidays or any other time of year!

As a follow up, Lower School Librarian, Betty Castello, put together this list of some of her favorite holiday-themed book recommendations for the little elves in your life. Book descriptions are courtesy of amazon.com.