Hard work, Heritage and Home making

Hi, it’s Charles Nolan here again, after the Easter break and heading into the final straight before Graduation. There’s been a lot happening behind the scenes, primarily in making your American International School into a better home for students, parents, community – our families both current and into the future.
You may have noticed the newly painted walls and wall boards up in the Jefferson (middle) building. The Easter bunnies (Mary, brother-in-law Dean, and Charles), spent the Break spraying, sawing, fixing and painting – with more to come this weekend. The somewhat inclement weather, Church services, hardware shop holiday closure and a recalcitrant spray gun added a variable function to the process (read Charles railing at the universe as he tries to get three days work into two). However, there is nothing that a trip to the hardware shop cannot fix – all together guys, "It’s tool time!" One new high volume Wagner (brands are important, ladies) airless spray gun, and we are back in business - with only a minor hiccup, whereby Charles sprays his shoes and arms, when a hose isn’t tightly secured! The Jefferson building will look even better once we get the boards up the stairs and onto the first floor – wait for next week.
And we have heard more of the history of the premises from the family of the man who built the Jefferson building.
William Henry Gibbons built "Minden Hall" in the late 1800s, and it is after him that Gibbons Street is named. We have an early picture of the building with wide verandahs on 3 sides covering both storeys, and ornate metalwork decorating the poles and verandah roofline. The mansion was part of a larger property including a commercial orchard having apples, pears and oranges, next to a chicken farm. As the area became more urbanised, Gibbons sold the property to the Church of England in 1920 as an orphanage, and the newer addition on the right of the building was built in the 1930s. We will continue to dig up the history of the school grounds, not only as our link to the past, but also our path to the future as custodians for future generations.
Graduation is coming up shortly, and I would like to invite all the school community to join us to celebrate our graduates, and another successful school year. Whilst the school is relatively small, it is an opportunity for us all to attend the celebration and wish our graduates "bon voyage" as they enter into the next stage of their lives. It’s not so much of an ending of school but more a beginning of the rest of their lives – one in which all our school family can share. So, think about it, and make the end of May a date in which you and your family can celebrate the school and its most recent success stories – our graduates of 2007.
Renewal is also on our mind as we renew our lease for another year on the Carlingford property, and have been given an option to purchase the property from the current owners. It’s a major undertaking to finance and purchase a property of this size and location – 5.8 acres in total, with the current school covering around 2 ½ acres that we use daily. So the upcoming year will be one of high finance, further commitment and investment by our family as we seek to continue at this location for the short term. Longer term we have been in talks with the Sydney Olympic Park Authority to construct a purpose-built school at Homebush Bay, between the Swimming Complex and Telstra Stadium, beside the Athletics track. This is a very exciting option, with incredible facilities available throughout the area, a more central location, better public transport, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of a truly international complex.
Our journey to Sydney Olympic Park will be through another few years at our current home in Carlingford, which we do love – but what an exciting destination! Lots of hard work, high finance and property development in between, but then what else would we do with our time. Looking forward to keeping you further updated as the journey unfolds, because it’s your American International School, where "International Education is for Everyone, and if not a right, is surely an aspiration".