In two parent-oriented presentations this January, school administrators invited families into a discourse about Upper School’s strategic direction, student wellbeing, college-related pressure, and the importance of remaining true to Nueva’s core values.
In his annual State of Nueva presentation, Head of School Lee Fertig captured both quantitative and qualitative data about various facets of the school. While presenting a slide with the school’s incredible matriculation trends in recent years, he also shared his reservations with parents surrounding the school’s increasingly elite college acceptances.
“It’s a metric, sadly in some ways, that the world wants to know,” he said. “Although we do really well, we downplay it. We refuse to allow that to overshadow the joy of learning each and every day here. We’re not going to give up that fight.”
In one of Fertig’s concluding slides, he revisited the importance of an intentional pedagogy. “Enthusiasm for Nueva’s unique educational philosophy to remain at the core,” one bullet point read. “Minor but persistent concern that the school may drift towards a more ‘traditional’ prep school environment.”
This “concern” was reflected by a later presentation on an external survey conducted by Challenge Success, which studies students’ habits and engagement at school. The study revealed that 57% of Upper School students are either “not at all, a little, or somewhat confident” coping with stress. That being said, an encouraging metric was that 76% of students “have an adult to go to with a personal problem.”
Meanwhile, “College” emerged as a source of stress for 51% of students, while 34% reported being stressed by extracurricular activities. The students feeling stressed by extracurriculars usually shared one common trait: their primary reason for participating in the activity was “for college admissions.”
Then, as in past years’ State of Nuevas, Fertig invited four community members—a parent, student, alum, and teacher—onstage to reflect on the updates. After responding positively to several aspects of Fertig’s presentation, Rowan Brown ’26 shared that, as an admissions ambassador, he’s received an increasing quantity of college-related questions from prospective students and families.
“I worry more and more that people are coming here for the next place they’re going to go—rather than coming here for here,” Brown admitted.
This year’s discussion about core values resonated especially with parent Manoj Mangalpady. “When we look for a good school for our kids, we don’t look just at what happens inside of the classroom,” Mangalpady shared. “We also look at what kind of community is [being] built for the children. What’s the impact of that community throughout the years?”
Similarly, parent Elaine Poon appreciated the honest reflection from Fertig and Brown. “I love that they didn’t shy away from areas to improve on,” Poon said. “It feels like we’re on board, and we can tackle problems as a team. There’s a trust that we all need to double down and work together.”
