Happy birthday, CES! We turn 25 in 2009, and it’s a year of celebration and looking forward for the CES network. Horace will continue to feature the writing and first-hand experiences of Essential school educators. Yes, this means you! See page 25 for a list of upcoming issue themes, and be in touch soon with your ideas for contributions. Summer Institute, July 13-17, brings us back to CES’s birthplace in Providence, Rhode Island for a powerful week of networking, coaching, and learning for small school design teams and the CES Small School Network. And Fall Forum, November 5-7, will take place in New Orleans, gathering the diverse CES network around the theme of “Changing Schools, Changing Lives” to learn, connect, and support our collective efforts to create and sustain equitable and personalized schools. Visit www.essentialschools.org for information on registering for Summer Institute, submitting proposals for Fall Forum and much more. Find out about May’s National Exhibition Month, explore the new CES Benchmarks, and get a sneak peak at our new book, Small Schools, Big Ideas, to be released in fall 2009 by Jossey-Bass. It’s going to be a great year of celebrating your work and achievements as educators and citizens dedicated to the belief that together, we can create the right conditions for all children to learn and transform their lives.

Jill Davidson
Editor, Horace
jdavidson@essentialschools.org