Linking to “The Book”

Dear Employees and Faculty,

There is something unique about working at a young, start-up school. Each person wears many hats, decisions have to be made daily about the policies and direction of the school with the emphasis on flexibility and adaptability. As schools grow and mature, though, more and more policies and procedures have to be fixed in order to provide predictability and order. This is the natural process of maturation for any school and SSIS has been experiencing this over the past few years.

As mentioned in an early article, the administrative team has been working to consolidate and update SSIS policies, procedures and handbooks to reflect where we are as a school, provide clarity for our employees and offices, and set directions for the future. We are gathering these into one publication, uninspiringly called “The Book,” and plan to release versions of this to different constituents (e.g. the Board – who will see everything, faculty – who will receive most chapters, parents and students who will see only some chapters relevant to them)

We are now posting sections from this book as PDFs to a google folder which can be accessed here.

A few points of explanation:

1. The chapters will be posted as they become ready.
2. We are organizing them in the same fashion as the google calendars. That is, no item or topic appears in more than one chapter. This is to simplify updating and editing in the future and prevent confusion when something is updated in one location but not another.
3. We have attempted to turn all email addresses and phone numbers into “clickable” links. That is, clicking and holding on email addresses should open up your email program and fill in the “To:” and “Subject:” fields automatically, and clicking and holding on phone numbers (on your smart phone) should open up the option to dial the number.
4. Where possible the team has tried to identify when any particular policy, procedure or process was created or last updated. This has not always been possible, though.
5. There are several new policies, procedures and processes contained within. Some of these have been prompted by questions raised over the last two years by teachers. Some have been requested by the board. Others have been required by our insurance provider (e.g. the non-fraternization policy and the policies on harassment). The admin has tried to gather examples of best practice and adapted them for SSIS.

The end results will be a PDF specifically designed for the iPad and other digital readers, easily searched with as many useful links as possible. Pages numbers at the bottom of currently available chapters give you an idea of how big a project this is.

Comments, corrections, and suggestions are always welcomed and can be email to me at any time. The goal is clarity and transparency.

Sincerely yours,

Mark Iver Sylte, Head of School