Farewell

As I approach my retirement from Qué Tal, I want to share some reflections about my tenure in our program. My goal has always been to leave any organization I work for, significantly better than it was when I joint.

I’m very proud of multiple goals we achieved in the past 8 years:

1. Graduating ~300 students from our MS program into Spanish 3 and 4, with the majority achieving AP level in High School, with a stronger partnership with the Wayzata District.
2. Participating at the National Spanish Examination with our students performing at the highest percentiles across the Nation.
3. Reducing class sizes to increase student exposure, from 20 to 16 in elementary and 16 to 12 in middle school.
4. Building a solid team of teachers with increased classroom management abilities and language proficiency development; compensated above market rates (including adding a 401K since 2017).
5. Leading the program through the start time changes (both Wayzata and Edina) while creating the “el Club” program to support parents schedules.
6. Successfully leading the program to remote classes during Covid, while being able to retain our “el Club” staff.
7. Promoting the program within the teachers’ associations: AATSP (even as Chapter president) and the MCTLC.
8. Driving a very strong financial performance taking our very limited reserves all the way to one full year of expenses, to support any future challenges.

I need to say though, that my biggest satisfaction came from the more than 150 students I had the opportunity to share my language with, during my classes. Getting notes from them after they leave the program is the best reward one can get.

¡Mil gracias por la oportunidad!

Best wishes!

Francisco C Peschard