• Letter From Principal:

     Dear Benesch Family Members:

     I am honored to return for my third year as principal of Alfred A. Benesch.  This will be an exciting year as we are welcoming new and returning partners to ensure we build on our growth.  Most significantly, we will launch Leader in Me, which is a Youth Leadership Development Program that develops our scholars’ natural leadership abilities through teaching the 7 Habits of Happy Kids.  Through this program, we will help your students take ownership in their learning, have voice and choice in the school community and cultivate their own voices as advocates and leaders.  We invite all of our parents to participate in this process by becoming Lighthouse Families; families that have participated in activities along all of the seven habits.  As always, we will have ample opportunity for family and community to participate in the school as well.

     We also are proud to announce the return of our partnership with City Year.  City Year is an organization where motivated young college graduates dedicate a year of service to promote math and literacy in schools.  They pride themselves on developing meaningful relationships with scholars that foster academic achievement.  You can look forward to after school programming provided by City Year as well.

     While Benesch had our share of growing pains last year, grow we did!  For the third straight year, third grade reading passage rate went up from 0% in 2016 to 17% in 2017 and 46% in 2018!  Our conditionsl for learning numbers continue to grow, especially in grades 4-8, where students are feeling more comfortable in school.  Finally, we are pleased to announce a 5 point gain in our Performance Index, which compiles data across the school from attendance to academics to get a full picture.  This is the first significant growth in 2 years!  Congratulations to scholars, families, educators and community alike; we all have to push together to move our school! 

    This year our focus will be on Literacy in all grades and reduction in all discipline through application of our leadership model.  We look forward to celebrating good news with you all year as we get the privilege of educating your scholar.

     Sincerely,

    Erin K. Murphy, Ph.D.

    Principal