b'LETTER FROM THE CHAIRDear GDS Community,The 2019 Commencement Exercises once again provided a full and vivid display of the dynamic educational environment our children enjoy at Greensboro Day School. One particularly bold statement stood out to me. During his Commencement speech, Ed Cone 80, a former GDS student, parent, and Board Chair, said that because these seniors had successfully navigated the academic rigors of GDS, and in particular the last two years of Upper School, our graduates are prepared for any academic challengecertainly at the colleges and universities where they will be matriculating this fall, but well beyond that. As an institution we know this to be true because we follow the successes of our graduates not only in college but in life. As parents we see that level of academic preparation and confidence in our own children.But, as Ed also pointed out at Commencement, while Greensboro Day School is a premier institution for academic preparation, it is so much more. Our school is a place that fosters intellectual curiosity, cultural empathy, ethical foundations, and the interpersonal skills that our students need to be constructive contributors to the world.This is a wonderful legacy on which to build as we head into our 50th year during the 2019-20 school year, and into our next 50 years thereafter. The Board of Trustees has been working hard to capitalize on these wonderful opportunities as we move forward.We have been blessed over the last 50 years with outstanding Heads of School, including with Mark Hales highly successful 13-year tenure. As we begin this 50th year, we are extremely excited to welcome Tracie Catlett as our seventh Head of School. We are confident that Tracie will take GDS to new heights with her innovative academic background, her inclusive leadership style, and her warm and authentic nature. I am excited for everyone in our GDS community to get to know Tracie and her family.The Board of Trustees is also focused on the challenge of building our endowment, which is critical to ensuring the long-term financial success of GDS.We must be able to continue to hire and retain the very best teachers, to keep our tuition affordable for our families, to fund professional development for our faculty, to provide outstanding experiential learning opportunities, and to support our wonderful physical campus. Our endowment currently stands at about $12 million, a good number for a school that is still young but an amount that must grow if we are to meet future challenges head on.Toward that end, the Board recently approved a major endowment campaign associated with our 50th Anniversary, with the primary focus of the campaign being to grow a variety of funds within our endowment. We look forward to discussing this in more detail with our community in the coming months. As always, thank you for your support of GDS and we look forward to seeing everyone at the many 50th Anniversary celebrations during the coming academic year.David L. BrownChair - Board of TrusteesGDS Magazine | 3'