Heads of School Dr. Charles Fasano and Dr. Michael Dealy sent the following letter to the school community on September 8. 2017.
 

This is an exciting time of the year for us. Just look at all the happy faces featured in the First Day of School video we posted yesterday on social media. It features so many cheerful smiles and a familiar tune.

A little over 20 years ago, right around this time of year, another back-to-school video became popular across the country. It was a commercial produced by Staples, the office supply super-store, that featured Andy Williams' "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" signaling the end of summer vacation for students and a return to normal routines for parents. The commercial showed parents delighted to be back-to-school shopping while their children were disappointed. At Bay Ridge Prep, it is such a pleasure to have the opposite experience. Looking at our back-to-school video again, you can get a glimpse of the genuine enthusiasm and eagerness our students and teachers have when faced with a new school year.

For us, this truly is a wonderful time of the year. Every September means a fresh start for all of us who go to and work in a school. Students have an opportunity to embark on a new ten-month experience, try new classes, meet new friends and discover new passions. As educators, we have a chance to welcome new families to our community, introduce new lessons and technologies and innovate our school operations. In fact, at our faculty and staff orientation last week, we spent a few hours discussing how we can continuously improve ourselves as individuals and enhance student life at Bay Ridge Prep.

As this new school year begins, we're happy to introduce the following exciting advancements:

• Google Classroom is now being used throughout the Middle and Upper Schools to make it easier and more efficient for teachers to communicate with students about homework, projects and class information.
  
  
• A brand new, modern gymnasium has been secured to serve as our Tigers' home court for basketball and volleyball games (look for more on that soon!).
  
  
• The robust offering of electives continues to expand, allowing students to explore new interests and fields of study.
  
  
• Our partnership with the Hybrid Learning Consortium now runs from sixth grade all the way through senior year and gives students the opportunity to take dozens of other courses.
  
  

You can count on hearing more about our continuous innovation in the weeks and months ahead. For now, we just wanted to write to you and let you know how happy we are that you were part of another successful opening day at Bay Ridge Prep. Thank you for making this the most wonderful time of the year.

Sincerely,

Charles Fasano & Michael Dealy
Heads of School