Dear Families and Friends,

Each spring, our team of educators collaborates on a curricular theme for the upcoming school year. When the planning process began last May, we reflected on the successes and challenges of the previous year. Inside our school we marveled at the bridges that our diverse student body built among themselves and out into the community. We cheered the inception of our Green Team, which instituted a recycling and environmental awareness program in our school. In the bigger picture we recalled how in January we celebrated the inauguration of our nation's first African-American president. We realized, however, we still live in a world where discrimination, environmental degradation and inequality exist.

With this in mind, we decided to make Bridges the theme for this school year. We build bridges to make it possible to connect worlds separated by an obstacle. Building a bridge requires communication and teamwork; compromise and agreement; a shared vision for the future grounded in the realities of the present and the lessons of the past. Teachers will evoke the Bridges metaphor to give meaning and purpose to their lessons and units, and to make meaningful connections between various subject areas.

Our longstanding partnership with Lincoln Center Institute will once again be a focal point of this year's CS experience. We will explore three works of art in depth, including a mime performance, an adventure told through the art of puppetry, and a visual art exhibition. We have also accepted an invitation by LCI to serve as a research partner school to collaboratively study the impact of arts education upon overall student achievement. In addition to our longstanding partnership with LCI, our commitment to arts education is celebrated in regular subject classes, visual arts classes, our musical theater production of Anything Goes, our fine arts, drama, and dance electives, our instrumental music sectionals and jazz ensemble, and of course, our annual talent show.

In keeping with the past, we will continue to engage students and families in ways that expand horizons and strengthen the sense of community that is the centerpiece of the CS experience. Our advisory and elective programs, community service requirements, Writing Center, peer-mentoring program, participation in the Young Writers and Artists competition, Geography Bee, local visits to cultural institutions, overnight trips, and Respect for All day are examples of our deep commitment to community building and experiential learning.

All of us at the Computer School look forward to our 27th year as a year of progress, outreach, and bridge building.