The whistles down on the fields tell me that we have more than 300 athletes here each day for upper school practices; the more elegant sounds coming from the band room tell me that another three dozen student musicians are coming in each day for intensive study; the yelps from the parking lot tell me that over the weekend 88 of our rising seniors headed down to Drey Land to kick off the year. Tomorrow, our book sales begin, and students will learn the teachers they will have the opportunity to work with this year. There is no turning back now. The 89th year has begun.

It has been another good summer at Burroughs with near record numbers at Burr Oak Camp and very successful Aim High and August Days programs. We were able to get some much-needed work done on the campus, and the first things you'll notice are the newly paved front circle, the refinished doors and the renovated weight room. However, the projects you may not notice will likely have a greater impact on our students. We have completed the next stage of development for our wireless Internet, so we will now have it throughout the Brauer Building and Schnuck Wing, the field house, the library, the fine arts and the science buildings. (We don't have it in the student commons, senior lounge or auditorium…but that is by design.) We were also able to overhaul the heating and air conditioning systems in the science building, which will make them run not only more efficiently, but significantly more quietly, so that teachers should never have to shout over the hum of the machinery again. While we were there, we redid all of the office lighting in the science building along with all of the lighting in the field house with much more energy-efficient bulbs in an effort to continue to move toward a more sustainable campus.

We have also spent a great deal of time with the architects from the Lawrence Group developing drawings for the new Master Plan. Continue reading

In This Issue:

August 16, 2011

JBS Family Picnic
Producers' Kick Off
In Our Gallery
State-of-the-Art Training
2011 STARS
Herb Harvest
2012 Grand Canyon Trip

News

News & Events

Athletics

Calendar

Parents Council

JBS Family Picnic

The family picnic coincides with Blue and Gold Weekend and a full line-up of JBS-MICDS athletic contests. The picnic for all JBS families starts at noon on Saturday, September 10, in the quadrangle. (Invitations are in the mail. Please RSVP, with the names of people attending). Come early and stay afterward to support the Bombers in action.

Producers' Kick Off

Susan Sherman and Laurie Garland, co-chairs of The Producers (a Parents Council Committee of parents who support the arts at JBS) will host a cocktail party from 6 to 7:30 pm, Wednesday, September 14, at the Shermans' home in Clayton. The Producers serve as ushers and sell concessions at events, help with set building, produce marketing materials and host receptions for cast members and their families. If you are interested in attending the "kickoff" cocktail reception in September, please RSVP to Susan Sherman.

In Our Gallery

An exhibit of paintings and objects completed by Howard Jones (Fine Arts) during his sabbatical in 2010-11 will be on display in the Bonsack Gallery from September 2 through October 11. All are invited to an opening reception from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, Friday, September 2, in the gallery.

State-of-the-Art Training

Burroughs has a new brand of athletic training with a totally overhauled weight room and a coach—Kevin Kinney—whose job it is to shepherd all students (not only star athletes) through a program that is safe, promotes wellness and enhances performance. Continue reading for more about Coach Kinney, the program and the facility.

2011 STARS

Seven JBS students were among the 79 St. Louis-area high school juniors and seniors to graduate from the 2011 Students and Teachers as Research Scientists (STARS) program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The students conducted research in university and corporate settings for six weeks during the summer and presented their projects at a graduation ceremony on July 15. From left (row 1) are Elizabeth Soffer '12, Trisha Bhat '12 and Vicky Liu '13 and (row 2) Josh Gollub '12, David Gu '12, Danny Nightingale '13 and Joe Roddy '13.

Herb Harvest

For the second year, Sage Dining Services will season school lunches with herbs harvested from the school's garden just outside the kitchen door. The pungent plot contains mint, basil, purple basil, rosemary, thyme, lemon grass, sage, chives and tarragon. At right, Joann Patrick dries the herbs in the proofer/warmer that the Parents Council purchased for the kitchen during the 2009-10 school year.

2012 Grand Canyon Trip

The Science Department is planning ahead to its 2012 exploration of 1.5 billion years of exposed geologic history at the Grand Canyon (June 6-12, 2012). Current eighth graders will receive information at their first class meeting on September 20. Parents should know that space typically fills up soon after that meeting. For more about the 2012 trip for the Class of 2016, see the photos from this year's trip or contact Margaret Bahe. Parents can register online.

Welcome, Parents.

Committees are already gearing up for the 2011-12 school year, as evidenced by the Parents Council highlights postcard included in the informational packet sent by your child's principal in July. This new postcard format is a way for us to communicate some of the many ways that parents can get involved in the life of the school. We hope it will provide a helpful, brief synopsis of upcoming events.

Now, before the school year has even started, is a great time to think about how you want to get involved in Parents Council activities. The Producers committee, which had a very successful inaugural run last year, welcomes parents to help support the arts at JBS. Our three major fund-raisers—Unique Boutique, Potpourri and the JBS Auction —provide countless opportunities to get to know faculty, staff, administrators and other parents. Other volunteer favorites include helping in the library, attending and/or helping plan Family Network events, working in Lost and Found, chaperoning student parties and activities and much more.

If you haven’t already, let us know how you’d like to get involved by filling out the online volunteer form. Spend a little time (or a lot!) checking out the Parents Council pages on our website. They’re filled with useful information that will be updated throughout the year. Please feel free to contact me or any of our committee chairs with your questions.

For more from the Unique Boutiqe, Potpourri and International Student Exchange committees, continue reading.

—Dorothy Swicord
Parents Council President