Co-ed+Boarding

Colleagues,

We will meet as a faculty in the Board room on **Wednesday, October 6th--next Wednesday at 9:00AM. Neal is preparing a special schedule for Wednesday so that we do not have to have an early start for this meeting.**

The purpose of the meeting is to receive your input on the topic of **coeducational boarding** before our Board of Governors meets on October 8-9.

I will present the powerpoint that I have prepared for the Governors, and ask for your feedback so that I can offer the board an accurate picture of your views and your range of views.

As you know, this topic is active with our Board. Our faculty, students, staff, alumni and parents, when polled last year, appeared to be overwhelmingly in favor of moving in the direction of co-educational boarding. The Board appears to be inclined to agree.

Our question is how to go about it, what timetable to adopt, and what planning steps to take. There are a number of possible models. I will present two potential scenarios and ask for your thoughts. Many of you have been involved with the preliminary work of our consultant last year and so much of the research and thinking has been completed.

Please note: How we go about this is the Board's decision, but they are eager to have our input. Our parent organization, Church Schools in the Diocese of Virginia, has the final approval, so our Board's decision on a matter this significant is only a recommendation to the Trustees of Church Schools and must be ratified by that board. Finally, there are costs associated with such a change, and money matters will figure significantly in any decision and timetable.

I will look forward to a lively discussion next week.

Thank you!

JEB