News from Dr. Rita

We can already feel the crush of the school year accelerating toward the closing day, May 25th. It seems that the days are flying by much too quickly, especially as I watch my tenure at GSA ebbing away. I cannot complain, however, as this year has been an unexpected gift to me and one that I had not even contemplated a year ago.

April 14th was a very busy GSA day. We participated in the Safe Place annual walk which was an amazingly painless 2 miles with the camaraderie of the group. The girls carried our banner and chanted as we walked along. The afternoon and evening brought the self-portrait show at Jerry's Artarama. Nancy Hoover certainly inspired a wonderful show by our very talented girls and Mr. Bonneau organized strings performance by grade to compliment the art show. It all was Fantastic!

The next few weeks will be very busy. Our gala committee members are working hard to prepare a fun filled evening for all of us. The girls are preparing very thoughtful questions to ask our panel of women in music. It is a pretty impressive lineup of women!

Tuesday and Wednesday morning May 1st & 2nd our girls will be taking the Stanford Achievement Test, 10th Edition. The SAT tests math, reading, language arts, spelling, social studies, and science but only requires 2 mornings to administer. The scores last year were very high and there is every reason to expect the same this year.

I have been talking with Lisa Schmitt by telephone and we are emailing each other about plans for next year. Lisa has such a good sense of humor and is very thoughtful in her decisions. I am thoroughly enjoying our communication. She will be in Austin Saturday, May 5, through Tuesday noon. She will, of course, be at the gala Sunday evening.

This is a bitter sweet time for me as we finish the last month of school and plan for next year. Exciting things are coming and while I won't be part of the every day life of GSA, I plan to volunteer next year. There is no way to go “cold turkey” from The Girls' School. It is such a special place. Treasure it and keep it always.