Board of Trustees Update Dear Park Community, I have completed my second term as President of the Board of Trustees and am pleased to say that it has been fairly stressfree for many reasons. First, I want to commend the strong leadership of the school by our Head of School, Lisa Conrad, as well as her administration and our tremendous faculty. Again this past year, Lisa has improved on all of the metrics to which we as a board pay close attention - enrollment, attrition, cash flow, and debt level, to name just a few. I am pleased to share that we opened the 2025-26 academic year with nearly 300 students, and the administration is confident that we will exceed that number next year. These enrollment numbers are being achieved without sacrificing the quality of admitted students, and the word is spreading that Park is the premier PreK-12 school in Western New York - the place to send your kids. My second stress-reliever is how successfully the Power of Park Campaign (POP) is going. As you may recall from my letter last year, one of the things we as a board are focusing on is bringing the Strategic Plan to completion, which means building a Performing Arts Center that will seat 400 as well as increasing our endowment to $10 million. By all accounts, our community is enthusiastically supporting these efforts. Last year, the board decided to go back to an organizational Sincerely, Mark W. Karrer ‘73 President, Board of Trustees Mark Karrer '73, President Joe Burwick, Vice President Gil Dickoff, Treasurer Sheryl Davies, Vice President Christie WittBerardi, Secretary Melissa Archer Phillip Snyder Kevin Coppola '03 Kevin Kearney Spencer Patterson '78 Michael Zorn Crystal RodriguezDabney, Esq. Judith Warren Little '64 Guy Gunzberg '58 Madeline Connors '11 Lynne Bader structure in which a singular Head of School manages all school operations. In making this transition, we eliminated the position of President, which Keith Frome had occupied for the past four years. Thankfully, and intentionally, we did not lose Keith at Park, as he is now our Executive Director of the Park Foundation. Keith’s love of educating children, and his keen knowledge of Park's philosophy of education founded in the works of John Dewey make him a natural for this position. With both Lisa focusing on school operations and Keith steering our major development efforts along with our strong POP Campaign Committee, I’m confident we will reach or exceed our campaign goals. Third, I’m honored and proud to lead a hard-working, passionate, and talented Board. I want to welcome new members, Phil Snyder, Lynne Bader, Melissa Archer, and Kevin Coppola ‘03. Lastly, I want to thank the Board members whose terms recently expired for their service: Brenda Feldstein, Macarena FritzCefaratti, Todd Levin ‘86, Harry Lipsitz ‘10, Ken Peterson (who sadly has passed), Lillie Wiley-Upshaw, and David Taylor. 4 “No one can tell what the challenges of the future may be; but, if we courageously pursue the pioneering spirit under which this school was founded, I am certain we will not fail.” - Former Head of School Adolphus Cheek (1936-1951)
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