[I was the MC of the ribbon cutting… and I offered up the opening and closing remarks. First, here are my opening remarks:]

Ladies and gentleman, parents, faculty, distinguished guests, I present to you the students of the Class of 2010, the first class of the Science Leadership Academy.

(students enter)

Thank you all for joining us in celebration today. Everyone in this room has come together in service of a powerful idea – that when we challenge to students to own their own education, to dare to ask the hard questions and work with students so they discover their own answers, there is no limit to what they can achieve.

We stand today in a moment of a national crisis in education. We live in a time where, all across our country, students believe that the most important question they can ask in a classroom is “Will this be on the test?” But here in Philadelphia – here at this school – because of the vision of people with whom I share this stage, and the people who have sheparded this dream to its reality, Mr. Vallas, Dr. Thornton, Mr. Bichner, Dr. Wint, Dr. Parssinen and Ms. Savitz, because of your vision, and the dedication and belief of so many people in the School District of Philadelphia and The Franklin Institute, and because of the creativity, intelligence and passion of the teachers here at SLA, we dare to believe that the most important questions we can ask are the ones we create, teachers and students, side by side, learning and leading together. At Science Leadership Academy, we attempt to live our core values of Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation and Reflection every day, in our classes, in our hallways and in the interactions between all of the members of our community.

There is another idea central to the creation of the Science Leadership Academy – and that is that schools can no longer exist in a vacuum in our society. We need students to be able to see beyond the walls of their school, beyond the boundaries of their neighborhoods to the see themselves and their learning as part of a much larger world. We live in an age of interconnectedness, where the global village has allowed us access to information at a rate faster than in any time in human history. We must give students the tools to critically analyze that information, to make judgments for themselves, to draw their own conclusions and then to join that debate as informed and impassioned citizens of this country and our world. Today, more than ever before, it is our task to prepare students to be involved in the world around them, to be content producers as well as content consumers, and to be active participants in their immediate community of Philadelphia and the world beyond our city limits. Our students must understand that learning is not limited by the walls of the school or the hours of the school day, but rather that it is a lifelong, 24/7/365 endeavor.

And what better partner could we have in that journey than The Franklin Institute? The Franklin Institute has never been a museum where you went, stared at the walls and hoped that, somehow through osmosis, learning happened. Instead The Franklin Institute has, for decades, stood as a place of hands-on, inquiry-based learning. Students from all over our region and beyond have come to The Franklin Institute to learn by doing, by taking part in interactive exhibits, by taking part in their youth programs and by seeing science and scientific learning as active, on-going and, dare we say, even fun. The students and teachers of SLA have already benefited from and will continue to benefit from the relationship with The Franklin Institute. And we are thrilled to share this day, this celebration with Dr. Wint, Ms. Perelman, Dr. Parssinen and so many of The Franklin Institute community.

To the faculty and staff of SLA, you all embody the best of what the word “teacher” means. Whether it was late-night planning sessions on-line this spring, arguing over the details of a rubric at our summer workshop or carrying box after box of furniture off a truck and into the building, the care and dedication you have shown in service of our dream has been inspiring. And yet for all of the passion you have for the subjects you teach, it is eclipsed by the passion and care you have for the students you teach. And at this moment, I would ask that the faculty stand and the students and parents take a moment to applaud them and thank them for all the work they have done to create this school.

And finally, to the parents and students of SLA, thank you. To the parents, thank you for lending us your children for four years. Thank you for always being active and involved in your children’s lives, and thank you for believing in our dream with us. To our students, thank you for all your hard work, for your willingness to walk this journey with us, and for your energy and excitement in building this school along with us. You inspire and humble all of us every day.

And so, as we begin our official ribbon-cutting festivities, thank you all for coming and welcome to the birth of the Science Leadership Academy.

[My closing remarks were a chance to thank and acknowledge everyone who played a part this year. It’s impossible to thank everyone, and I’m sure there are people I forgot — making a public thanks for everyone who came to our Curriculum Summits, for example, but I think the spirit is there.]

I cannot hope to thank everyone who has been instrumental in the building of SLA. I look out onto this group of people, and I see the last year of my life and I see all of the people who helped to make this school a reality. From Philadelphia Management and Stephen Varenhorst Assoc., to Len Finklestein, to the members of the Educational Technology Group and the Curriculum and Instruction Office, to the Facilities and Design and Construction teams, to all of the members of the High School and the Development Offices, to our Center City Regional Office and our wonderful superintendent, Dr. Janet Samuels, and the staff of The Franklin Institute, the support shown to make this dream a reality has been overwhelming, and we could not have done it without you.

There are a few people that do need to be thanked by name. Two of them just spoke to you. Ellen Savitz, your door was always open, your counsel was always wise, and your faith in this school – and in me –has been never-ending. Words cannot thank you enough. And Carol Parssinen, it has been my distinct honor and pleasure to work with you, to plan with you, and to find a true partner to share the vision of SLA. Our planning year is over, but our work together has just begun. Thank you.

And finally, there is one person who made this happen. Whether it was staying late for an Open House, coming in at 7:00 am to oversee deliveries, tracking every piece of equipment and furniture that came, keeping me focused, working with our faculty or just being my sounding board, Danielle Floyd has gone above and beyond the call of duty over and over, dedicating herself to seeing this day happen and this school open. Danielle, on behalf of the entire SLA family, I would like to invite you up to receive this plaque to honor you for all you have done. It states “The Hero Award – Presented to Danielle Floyd – Our Friend, Our Advocate, Our Guardian Angel, without you, there is no Science Leadership Academy.”

In a moment, we will cut our ribbon, and as befitting a science high school, our ribbon cutting has been designed by the students of Mr. VanKouwenberg’s Intro to Engineering class. After the ribbon cutting, I invite everyone to take a tour of the building, our students will be stationed throughout the building to talk about what you see, and I hope that everyone will also stay and enjoy the refreshments and celebrate with us. And with that, I would like to call our student safety team to take their place next to our ribbon-cutter, and I would like to invite Dr. Samuels to join us on stage as we cut our ribbon and officially open the Science Leadership Academy…

Today was our official grand opening… it was really an amazing day for all of us in the SLA community. I’m officially exhausted (in fact, I am only awake because of Theo’s midnight feed, and I’m soon to head back to bed.) There are those days when ceremony really does mean a great deal, and to see all the SLA students and parents together with all of the SDP people who helped make SLA a reality was unbelievable. The school has gone from an idea to a reality, and we’re well on our way to building the school we want it to be.

(Sadly, I don’t have pictures of our two student speakers, Khari and Alison, who were incredible.)

A word about the ribbon cutting itself. We’re a science school… so we didn’t do the classic “big scissors” ribbon cutting. The students in Mr. VanKouwenberg’s Intro to Engineering class designed the ribbon cutting as a Rube Goldberg-style adventure. If I can get a copy of video of it, I’ll post it here, but until then, here was the sequence:

Dennis Wint, CEO of The Franklin Institute, pours the marbles into a tube.
The marbles land in a mug (with the SDP logo, actually) which rests on a scale
The extra weight tips the scale
Which lifts a lever
Which tips a ball– tied to a string — into a tube
As the ball falls, the string is pulled
Which releases a stopper
Which allows glycerine to fall onto a plate of potassium promagnate
Which sets off a reaction which burns
Which burns through a string
That releases the guillotine
The cuts the ribbon

And it worked!

If you look closely at the crowd as we cut the ribbon, you can see Dr. Thornton, Chief Academic Officer of the School District of Philadelphia, looking on intently and really clearly enjoying the moment. It really was a great day that, I hope, allowed everyone who has been part of SLA’s development to take a great deal of pride in what we are becoming.

It was a really emotional day, somewhat unexpectedly. I like to think that I’m not someone who stands on ceremony much, and with all of the work we’ve been engaged in to get SLA up and running, I wasn’t concerning myself too much with the details of the day until this week — and even then, I was trying to make sure that the day didn’t distract us too much from what we were really trying to do, which was, of course, invent ourselves as a fully functioning school.

But that was my mistake, because today was 100% part of what we are trying to do. Today was the day that we all stood up in front of our families (and a lot of the faculty had family there, myself included) and the larger educational community in Philadelphia and spoke proudly about who and what we are. And the larger educational community as represented by Paul Vallas, CEO of SDP, Dennis Wint, CEO of the The Franklin Institute, Marsha Perelman, Chair of the Board of the Franklin Institute, Carol Parssinen of the Franklin Institute, and Ellen Savitz, Sr. VP of Development of SDP spoke about their roles in SLA and their hopes and dreams for us. And many, many people, from our parents to all the folks who take justifiable pride in their role in helping us over the past year were there to celebrate with us.

And all that matters powerfully. There was the moment when I was on stage, and I looked into the front row and saw Ellen Savitz crying. Ellen, as much as anyone, is responsible for SLA. I must have spent dozens of hours in her office this year, talking, listening, strategizing, planning and dreaming. She has been an amazing mentor for me as I moved back to Philadelphia, and to see her moved by the emotion of the day was a moment I won’t forget. And I admit, there were several moments when I was speaking when it wasn’t easy to keep speaking with all the emotion in my voice.

We decided, after everyone had gone, that the perfect way to memorialize the day was to walk over to our partner, The Franklin Institute, and pose on the steps with everyone… and including that picture seems like the perfect way to end this post. So with that, I give you a picture of the Class of 2010 — our first class at SLA.

Sure, schools need traditional after school activities… basketball, drama, newspaper… sure. They are all important. But this is the Science Leadership Academy. We build stuff. (And Christian, here are some photos for you!)

I can’t go into too much detail as to what you’re seeing — as I’ve promised the students that we’d keep it a secret until after the opening ceremony, but we were asked to develop a presentation during our official ribbon cutting ceremony, and well, we take that responsibility seriously. What you are seeing is day one of the official build of our presentation. Nakkera and Shareesa are the faces you see, and they are pretty excited about what they’re doing. The kids who were working after school today were the ones whose design plan won the most votes in the Intro to Engineering electives. The kids will get to show off their presentation in front of Paul Vallas, CEO of the Philadelphia School District, Jim Nevels, Chair of the School Reform Commission, Dennis Wint, CEO of the Franklin Institute, various media folks, their parents and their classmates.

Here, Mr. Van Kouwenberg, Chris and Donald explain their project to me for about the fifth time. (Really, why is an English teacher running a school where 9th graders take engineering? Good thing I learned a long time ago that the students are usually smarter than me.) At about fifteen different points in the explanation, I think I said, "Now… you are SURE this is going to work, right?"

They are sure. And hey, if they are sure, I’m sure. And they’ve got fire extinguishers and safety goggles ready, just in case it doesn’t work.