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In recent years, SAES has significantly increased the quantity and quality of its professional learning opportunities, with Zoom meetings, webinars, and in-person offerings. These are important opportunities to support our member schools’ capacities to address specific needs and offer targeted offerings, and I hope you are taking full advantage of them. I also hope that you have taken or will take advantage of a more comprehensive opportunity for professional learning which will also allow you to serve one of your peer SAES schools. That opportunity is to serve on an On-Site Visiting (OSV) Team or to nominate a member of your school’s leadership team to do so.
SAES OSV Teams consist of 4-10 members (depending on the size of the host school), and spend 3 ½ days visiting another school for its ten-year accreditation visit. Typically led by a member of the Standards Committee with support from an SAES Staff member, OSV Teams visit classes, meet with administrators and constituency groups, and fully immerse themselves in the host school in order to write a report that offers both Commendations and Recommendations to host school. The Report affirms the school’s compliance with SAES Standards and offers guidance for continued growth. But just as the Report offers direction in how the school can grow, the experience of serving on a Visiting Team is a tremendous opportunity for the growth of each team member.
Visiting another school for an extended period allows Team members to observe different pedagogical and administrative practices, as well as different school traditions and events. Team members usually leave the campus eager to share something they have seen or learned with the faculty and staff of their own school. They also find their network of colleagues expanded from their time spent with fellow Team members and with teachers and administrators at the host school. By noon on Wednesday, as everyone is departing for home, people who were unknown to each other before the visit feel like long-time friends, and in the months to come they may find that a fellow team member is the perfect person to consult about an issue that has arisen in their school.
When we return from the Christmas break, I will be sending a request to all SAES Heads of School to consider serving on or nominating a staff member to serve on a Visiting Team. From your completed form, I will build a bank of prospective team members with which to staff our Visits. In 2024-25, SAES will conduct six On-Site Visits, requiring 34 team members, and will participate in two additional joint visits for dually accredited schools. (When SAES participates in joint visits to dually accredited schools, the teams are staffed in partnership with the co-accrediting association.) If you would like to participate in an On-Site Visit or would like to nominate someone from your school, please be on the lookout for the nomination form next month. We will especially be looking for senior leadership members such as division heads; curriculum coordinators; CFO/business managers; admissions, marketing, or development directors; and chaplains. Thank you in advance for considering serving on a team or nominating someone else to do so!
"Serving on a visiting team is an unparalleled professional development experience, and you'll return home to your own school with fresh perspectives and new ideas to enrich your leadership."
–The Rev. Adam Varner, Trinity Episcopal School, Austin
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