Valley View School
North Brookfield, MA

With all that is going on in the world today, it is sometimes difficult to decipher what denotes "breaking news".

With this in mind I am thrilled to report that Valley View School has recently acquired, by a quirk of luck, a brand new and very creative head chef. This is especially significant, as food takes on a very special and important part of an adolescent's life.

Jean-Louis Marty took over as the head of our kitchen position upon the moving on of our former head. Having served for many years as Executive Chef at a number of Hilton Hotels, worked in a very prestigious French Restaurant and Country Club, lived in France for a number of years, and having studied at the Culinary Instituted de Peu-France, Jean-Louis was thrilled to accept a less-pressured, yet in our estimation, a more important position at Valley View School. Apart from his excellent cooking and administrative experience, he relates very well to our youngsters and they in turn, have given his culinary skills rave reviews. He is excited to work with and teach interested students culinary skills. In the near future, Jean-Louis plans to add some French dishes to the weekly menu, beginning with beef bourguignon and casalait.

Should all of this be considered "breaking news"? Absolutely, because hoping that Jean-Louis will find a permanent home in Valley View, we look forward to a new dimension of quality food that we hope students and future visitors will enjoy.

On a final note, despite the state of the world these days, we are able to report a fairly good economic year and half, and we are seeing a definite recovery in the re-emergence of new referrals. The reality is that although we are about 30 percent down in numbers, we do have a very productive and responsive group of youngsters who are working well and making progress. All of this makes us optimistic that we are going to continue to be here for a long time.