DATE: 01 March 2008 Dear Parents, Guardians, Alumni, and Friends of Good Hope,

Greetings and much good will to you as The Good Hope School community heads-off on spring break, and bonjour, to our students and chaperones already in France on our Upper School foreign language trip! Ms. Swan and Mrs. Cedano have sent home spring update letters, so you might see a sampling of the many things that students have been doing and are planning at GHS during this season of renewal.

As a reminder, we are now in our school's reaccredidation cycle with the guidance and supervision of the Middle States Association. You will be hearing a great deal more about this process in the months to come, however let me be the first to tell you – it is critical that all parents complete and return the GHS parent survey which is a key factor in achieving a positive reaccredidation. In April, you will be introduced to the process and the survey. The process is being led by a steering committee consisting of administrators, Mrs. Cedano, Mrs. Kalila Quow; and myself; parent, Mr. Ato Hodge; parent and trustee, Mrs. Stacey Plaskett; faculty members, Mr. Ned Washburn, and Dr. Pam Kimble, who also serves as the committee convener.

On March 3, 2008 The Good Hope School board of trustees approved in principle the second draft of our 2008-2009 school year operating budget. In the months to come this budget will be refined further; I am pleased to share with you that board has approved the school's intention to hire a separate Lower School director. While we must wait for some details in the budget to be finalized, we have already begun preparing for this search process. We do not anticipate any major changes in the Lower or Middle School programming or schedules, but we may need to rename some positions. Mrs. Cedano will become the administrator in charge of grades 4 through 8 and our new administrator will be in charge of pre-Kindergarten through grade 3.

With no surprise to anyone, the next two months of school will be active ones. Some of the highlights for parents to be aware of are:

• 8th grade trip to St. Thomas and St. John – week of April 1
• Spring Musical, Annie, – weekends of April 12 and April 17
• GHS Family Fun Day and Admission Open House – April 12
• Student Art Show – weekend of April 17
• Middle/Upper School spring concert – May 1
• AP and Stanford test – week of May 5
• Intel Science Fair winners go to national competition – week of May 12
• 40th Anniversary Celebration – week of May 12
• Lower School Festival of Song and Dance – May 16
• Grandparents Day – May 16
• 5th grade trip to St. John's VIERS eco-camp – week of May 27

I will look forward to seeing of you, more than once, in the months to come. Thank you all for making The Good Hope School the great school that we are.

Michael Mongeau
Head of School