Five years ago, when Jean-François Genay, our Executive Director at the time, decided to get the LILA community together to help set priorities for the school, people responded.  People came on the given Saturday and invested much thought and time into discussing how LILA should grow responsibly.  Stakeholders at the time had modest ambitions: they wanted a solid program, a more structured administration, they yearned for stability, they wanted to see more students, and they felt we needed to own our sites and fundraise more. 

When I look at how far we have come since then, I am amazed…  To look at just a few things… We are more financially sound than we have ever been.   In 2003 LILA had 641 students... This year we will hit the 900 mark.  One French inspector stated we were the fastest growing junior high amongst French schools in the country.  Our administration has expanded, incorporating the largest pedagogical team amongst French schools in the country, we have the biggest teacher training budget per capita, and have been recognized by officials as being a school in which “things happen” in the classroom.  We are even aggressively moving forward on purchasing our first campus in Hollywood for secondary grades and have made offers on a permanent home for LILA-Orange County in coordination with their development committee.

In many ways, we are not the same LILA we were back then… and yet, we are very much the same LILA.  What it means to be part of LILA has not changed. 

 And so now in 2008, it became time to meet again.  I called Jean-François Genay and asked if he would do the honors of running a strategic plan meeting for us once again.  He graciously accepted, and again we were launched… I was astounded at the positive response for the project and saddened that we had to limit the number of people who would be able to attend as many came forward.  Ultimately, 75 teachers, parents, board members, students, and administrators showed up on Saturday October 11, 2008.  Thanks to efforts of our own Pasadena parent Marionne Epalle, we were able to hold the meeting in the lavish Guggenheim complex at Caltech.  And we talked, and planned, and strategized, and finally we dreamed of what the perfect LILA would be. 

The day was filmed, notes were taken, and now the work begins.  This Saturday meeting was but one step… and now we must actually plan out which elements to focus on, and how, strategically, we will be able to reach our goals… For this we will form committees that will work on various areas together to set strategies in place and create action plans.  These committees will be composed of some of the people present last Saturday as well as more… more teachers, more parents… who knows, maybe you have something you want to bring to the discussion to help LILA grow.

In the weeks to come, more information and details will be given with regards to the focus groups and committees that will be launched…  

 I look forward to working with all of you!