Welcome to all returning and new Cooke families! It is gearing up to be an amazing year, with many wonderful new additions to our programs. Here’s what you can expect this year:
First, Cooke will be enhancing its programs through the addition of new staff, including physical therapists at the Grammar School and the Academy. For the first time, we have added a recreational therapist at our SKILLs Transition program to help students reach their physical fitness and therapeutic goals.
Our new recreational therapist will improve health and fitness among our students, while expanding community access for our 18- to 21-year-old students.
This year, we have added a curriculum director to help align the goals and content of K through 12 programming. The curriculum director will focus on Humanities this year, managing and supervising all ELA, social studies and writing content for grades K through 12. We hope to add additional staff to our math and science departments next year.
We are very excited to welcome Jackie Bediako as Assistant Head of the SKILLs Transition program. Jackie, who has been with SKILLs for many years, brings an incredible amount of experience and talent. Under her solid leadership, the program will continue to grow. We are lucky to have her.
As we look forward to the 2020-2021 school year, excitement grows over our “new buildings.” I say “buildings” because, in addition to the construction of a new facility for the grammar and high schools, there will be changes in store for our SKILLs Transition program. The SKILLs Transition program will be moving to 60 MacDougal Street (the current home of the high school) with some renovations to better support the program.
For our new school building, we have organized committees to explore resources in the new neighborhood, and Cooke families will have opportunities to visit the site. We will spend this year preparing students and staff for the merger of two amazing programs. There will be weekly updates and information on both building projects. More details to come!
I look forward to working with you all this year. Keep an eye out for Parent School Association announcements, newsletters, and information from your child’s school. It is going to be a great year for all of our wonderful children.
All the best,
Francis Tabone
#WeLoveCooke💛💚💙
