Saint David's Environmental Awareness and Action Committee Continues Tremendous Efforts

Several years ago, Saint David's Environmental Action and Awareness Committee (EAAC) was founded by art chair Jenna Boccella. A Faculty/Staff volunteer-run organization, the group sought to find ways to reduce their carbon footprint, both individually and school-wide; thereby making Saint David's as environmentally conscious as possible. Over the years, efforts have targeted paper, plastic and energy use.

Following a COVID-hiatus, the group instituted a new recycling initiative for the 2021-22 school year, one which encouraged our community to enhance paper and plastic compost habits and to practice sustainability whenever and wherever possible. Reduce and reuse are two primary points that we want to drive home, and then after those two options have been exhausted, we aim to recycle. A Recycling Challenge was called in which homerooms and offices vied to be identified as most successful in their recycling efforts.

The plan was so well received and successfully integrated that this year we took a next step in limiting the food waste that ends up in landfills by instituting a school-wide composting program. Each day at the end of lunch, boys deposit their leftover food waste into clearly marked food waste bins, which our composting vendor picks up curbside five days a week.

I would like to commend the leadership of the faculty and staff in making this venture possible: Ms. Boccella, Mr. Donnelly, Mr. Binaco, and many others have brought this concept to life. Our collective hope is for the success of last year's Recycling Challenge to be just the start of good practice becoming good habit. We want to maintain the enthusiasm by ensuring that our boys make it student-driven and student-led; that they are mindful about the impact that small actions can have on a greater good.

Please click on the video below for a demonstration by Mr. Donnelly, who shows how to use each of the colored bins at school to properly reduce, reuse, recycle:

Thank you, Saint David's community, for your hard work and continued practice in helping the planet and one another!

www.saintdavids.org

The Wisdom Within - A Matter of Trust

The Teaching Boys Initiative (TBI) is a cornerstone of Saint David’s School’s strategic vision, aimed at developing a robust framework of evidence-based best practices in boys’ education. The initiative’s primary goal is to empower educators with the knowledge, skills, habits, and dispositions of reflective practitioners, enhancing their professional growth and the overall quality of teaching and learning for boys. In TBI's new quarterly blog series, "The Wisdom Within," our faculty share stories that inform, inspire, and encourage reflective practice using evidence-based approaches in teaching and learning for boys. The following inaugural entry, "A Matter of Trust," was written by reflective practitioner and Master Teacher Tom Ryan, who has been inspiring generations of Saint David's boys for more than 53 years. A MATTER OF TRUST …but, I digress. I cannot possibly begin any writing piece, and/or class, without some digression that, as I have said to my s...

Jack Mullin '12 : Reflections on a Mom's Love

The Chapel talk tradition at Saint David's provides faculty and alumni with the opportunity to share with our boys meaningful and inspiring personal stories: their experiences, lessons learned, challenges overcome. The annual Fifth Grade Mother-Son Chapel gathers our fifth-grade boys and their mothers or mother figures for a special shared pre-Mother's Day experience; a Chapel Talk by a young alumnus who reflects upon the role his mother has played in his life. This year, we welcomed former Student Council President Jack Mullin '12. Jack's family has deep roots with school. His older brother Patrick graduated in '08 and his dad, Terry, in 1973. Jack's talk centered on the impact both his alma mater and his mother, Immy, have had on his development into the man he is today. Below are excerpts that I would like to share: "My family's multi-generational lineage is a testament to the incredible sense of community Saint David’s fosters, and I too hope I have...

Strong Values

You can feel it in the air: the indescribable yet readily recognizable excitement of the start of a new school year - in our boys, teachers, families, administrators, and staff. Below, I share excerpts from my opening letter that speak to our 2024-25 school-wide theme, "Strong Values:" "To-morrow I cease to be a puppet, and I become a boy like you and all the other boys."* We teach boys. That’s what we do. And we want our boys to think for themselves. And we want that thinking to be rooted in and guided by “strong values”—our school-wide theme this year, found in the last line of the mission’s second paragraph. In keeping with the school’s classical tradition, these strong values are shaped at Saint David’s by the cardinal and theological virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and courage, along with faith, hope, and charity. To many Western philosophers, possession of these virtues makes a person good, happy, and thriving. Something we want for all of our sons. ...

David O'Halloran, Headmaster - Saint David's School, New York City

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