Video Description:

In the blue background on the left side of the brief animation of motion of PSD logo of yellow hands open with white roof and columns, yellow roof and door come out. On the right side, Yellow lettering of “PB’s Corner November 2022”

Fade and Peter Bailey appear. He is wearing a maroon dress shirt with an artistic tie. He is sitting on the chair. Background: There is a blue wall with few frames on the wall. The file cabinet and shelf show in the background. There is a PSD logo on the bottom right corner: Blue and yellow PSD logo with 50% opacity.

Hello everyone. These are my updates for December 2022. December means we are almost ready to start a new year. We are done with 2022 and starting 2023. I do have some updates for you and I will share some information about what to expect for the coming months. First of all, our school participated in the city of Philadelphia’s annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was nice to be involved again this year. It is one of the oldest parades and we have been involved for a long time. We have been on Zoom the last couple of years so it was a beautiful day and a nice chance to be back in the parade in person. We know that that event is a success because of our students and our staff. I am very proud of our students and appreciative of the staff who made it successful. Next, I’d like to thank those of you who made donations as a part of Giving Tuesday. Thank you for your support of PSD. We raised the largest amount ever at almost $4,000 this year. Thank you so much for all of your gifts. Also, we have sent out the annual appeal. We typically send that out every year around November or December and then again in the spring. We hope you have received the annual appeal letter from us. If you have not yet, then keep an eye on your mail. You should be getting that soon. For those of you who have already given in support of PSD, thank you so much. For those who have not donated yet, we thank you in advance for considering your support of PSD. We are working very hard in our fundraising efforts.

Next I would like to talk a little bit about alumni. Since starting here in 2016, one of my priority goals has been to work with the alumni and help the alumni work together with each other and with the school. In the time I have been here I have seen a lot of positive changes. There has been a lot of collaboration and progress being made by the alumni. Then COVID caused a lot of delays and put many things on hold. The school had our Bicentennial celebration with PSD 200 but PSD 2020, the alumni reunion, has not happened yet. There were several postponements and they finally have a date for June 2024. I would really encourage you to consider attending this event. I urge you to reflect on the importance of participating. Yes, PSD already celebrated our school’s 200 years, but the alumni have been working hard to plan their event. Even with the delays they are still engaged and trying to get alumni to show up in celebration. It is now 200 years plus few more but it is still a cause for celebration. I sincerely hope that you will consider attending. I encourage you to reflect on your participation. PDSAA is a wonderful group. They have wonderful officers on the board and they are very excited to be planning this event. Again I encourage you to attend. Hopefully we will see more information about that and about upcoming activities and events the alumni are planning.

Lastly, for this month, I’d like to respond to some questions I have been getting. People are wondering about my role as Head of School and what that looks like going forward. Starting in January 2023, Melissa Draganac-Hawk will be taking over more of the responsibilities for the school. January 1st through June Melissa will have the front seat and I will still be here but in a support role to Melissa. Everything will be shifted to Melissa a piece at a time so that I can support her over the next six months. If you ask me questions or bring things to my attention I will be including Melissa as well to make sure she is aware of as part of the transition plans. The board knows about this transition plan and is very supportive. There is a lot of support from the community, too. For those of you who did not know this plan yet, I wanted to make you aware. As things transition to Melissa we will continue working closely together. I know PSD will be in good hands when I leave at the end of this school year. Those are the updates for this month. Of course I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends. I hope that 2023 brings the best for all of us.

End with a blue background. Top PSD logo of yellow hands open with white roof and columns, yellow roof and door. White Lettering “Pennsylvania School for the Deaf”

Four faded yellow circles of social media outlet logos on the bottom of Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and Youtube logos. White  lettering “Follow us @psd1820”