August 7, 2025

Dear St. Andrew’s Families,

I hope you have enjoyed a restful, rejuvenating, and healthy summer. We have been working hard at St. Andrew’s to prepare for the 2025-2026 school year. Our warm, light-filled campus is ready to welcome our Lions back a few weeks from now. I’m particularly happy to share that our Kiplinger House renovation and expansion project remains on schedule for completion by late October, at which point every campus building will have been newly built or renovated in the past 10 years. 

Thanks to our positive environment and dedication to research-informed teaching, learning, and leadership, St. Andrew’s remains a destination school for students and teachers alike. Faculty and staff retention remains near 95%, allowing us to select first-choice candidates for our few openings with great care. We are thrilled with the professional and personal qualities that our newest colleagues will bring to campus this year.

Our faculty and staff are deeply excited to welcome your students back, and I know our 180 new students and their families are eager to join the community and begin their St. Andrew’s journeys. Demand for a St. Andrew’s education continues to remain strong, as we set another record for admission applications and yield on accepted students. Through carefully managed growth in grades where space allowed, 2025-2026 enrollment grew slightly to approximately 735 students. This approach provides a rich social and academic experience for our students and ensures that we can continue to know and inspire each Lion well. 

Aside from the ongoing renovations to Kiplinger, our campus has been quite busy this summer. The Student Center, Lower School, and athletic fields hosted camps and programs for all ages, while the main building provided academic enrichment courses for older students. The Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning (CTTL) continued to raise St. Andrew’s global profile, with hundreds of researchers, teachers, and school leaders from across the United States and around the globe attending our annual Science of Teaching & School Leadership Academy in July.

As part of our ten-year reaccreditation process, last year we surveyed all parents and guardians, all faculty and staff, and all students in grades 5-12. In our upcoming fall magazine, you can expect to read in-depth takeaways from these surveys, which were conducted by Stanford University’s Challenge Success program. For now, I want to highlight three particularly notable items:

• When asked to choose three words to describe St. Andrew’s, 74% of parents and caregivers chose words like caring or welcoming. At similar schools that used Challenge Success, that number is about 15% of parents and guardians.
• Factors that support student success - including a sense of belonging, low or moderate levels of stress and worry, the length and relevance of homework, and a sufficient amount of sleep - are all strong according to our student surveys. Challenge Success has data on half a million students and, compared to similar schools, 21% more students at St. Andrew’s believe that they receive just the right amount of homework to support their learning and academic success.
• A positive faculty and staff culture strongly influences student well-being and success – that’s why St. Andrew’s places such emphasis on the relationships, growth, and purpose of our employees. Not surprisingly, 92% of my colleagues report feeling a high level of engagement (about 20% higher than similar schools), and 82% feel a high level of belonging (also about 20% higher than similar schools). 

Handbook

The revised St. Andrew’s Handbook is available online. Please read the handbook carefully and discuss St. Andrew’s philosophy, values, and expectations with your child in an age-appropriate way. Please note that the school expects students, as part of their membership in this community, to uphold the rules, reputation, and spirit of St. Andrew’s at all times.

Each student’s parent(s) or guardian(s) must digitally sign a Handbook Acknowledgment Form before the first day of school. Click here to read the handbook and when you are done, please sign the Honor Code and Handbook Acknowledgement Form, which can be found after signing into the website (you will see a yellow banner directing you to sign the form). Both must be done prior to the first day of school.

Health and Safety Forms and Information

All student health forms are due on August 8. Thank you to the overwhelming majority of families who have met this deadline. If you have not yet turned in your forms, please do so as soon as possible. Students can not attend classes or participate in any on-campus activities, including orientation events or preseason athletic practices, until their completed forms have been uploaded to Magnus Health. Information on our health and safety protocols can be found in the handbook (pages 21-30).

All-School Directory and Community Guidebook

In the coming weeks you will receive the school directory, which contains the contact information of your fellow parents, as well as a break-down by grade and zip code. We hope you will utilize this information to build social connections and to facilitate carpool opportunities for families seeking to share rides to and from campus.

Along with the directory you will also receive a community guidebook, which provides information for families new to St. Andrew’s. This guiding document highlights important events and school customs for families across divisions. Whether this is your first year at St. Andrew’s or you have been a Lion family for a decade or more, we expect this guidebook to help you throughout the year.

Keeping Connected with Life at St. Andrew’s

I strongly encourage every parent to log in to the school’s website throughout the year. By doing so, you will be able to see your child’s schedule and report cards as well as important resources like parent-teacher conference sign-ups when ready. As part of orientation and during the first few days of classes students will be instructed on how to access Canvas, our online learning management software where our faculty post homework and other assignments. During Back-to-School Night (September 4 for US, September 11 for MS, September 18 for LS), parents will receive information from our Technology Office on how to access and use Canvas. 

For the most current news, information and updates on the school, we encourage you to follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Links to all of our social media can be found at the bottom of every page of the St. Andrew’s website. You should receive your first parent newsletter on Friday, August 29. Please read each email newsletter carefully to stay up-to-date on school life and upcoming events. Please let our communications office know if you do not receive your first newsletter by emailing communications@saes.org.

Please Join Us for Our Opening Chapel Service

On Friday, September 5 at 8:45 a.m., St. Andrew’s annual Opening Chapel service will take place. Students in K-12 will attend this brief service in person at Washington National Cathedral, and all parents are welcome to attend. We are delighted that Brooks Hundley, parent of a St. Andrew’s alumna and Senior Chaplain at St. Albans School, will deliver the homily.

Over the coming weeks, you will receive additional back-to-school information from division heads and other school administrators and coaches. This will help you and your family have a smooth re-entry to school life.

Like you, I am so excited to have our full Lion community gather on campus in September and hope to see you at our SAPA-sponsored Coffee on Campus on Tuesday morning, September 2 (invitation with details coming in the mail). Please do not hesitate to contact the school with any questions about the upcoming school year. Best wishes for a healthy and restful summer and a great start to 2025-2026!

Faithfully,

Robert Kosasky

Head of School