NDV's administration supports educating students spiritually, academically, socially and physically. A comparison with other schools reveals that NDV has committed an unusually high level of resources to special subject staff and teachers. In addition to the classroom teachers, NDV's staff includes the following support positions:
- Technology teacher
- Clergy
- Reading specialist
- Math and Science resource teacher
- School counselor
- French Language teachers
- Art teacher
- Music teacher
- Physical education teacher
- Librarian
- Class room aides
To maintain this level of staffing, administration and faculty, NDV continuously seeks opportunities to benefit from financial investment in the intellectual infrastructure of our school.
NDV staff continually evaluates and builds on curriculum guidelines to incorporate both input from our extended community and the results of regular student assessment. Staff members regularly participate in workshops relevant to their teaching area. In addition, faculty attend a myriad of other workshops including ones which deal with classroom management, child development and learning differences. They also pursue additional education, and share new ideas to stay abreast of emerging trends and techniques.
Likewise, NDV staff regularly meet in clusters and as a faculty to discuss school and student progress. Regular in-class and standardized assessment exercises provide tangible evidence of areas of success and opportunities for improvements.
Due to NDV's commitment to the employment of full time aides, the staff/student ratio in grades K through 2 has been greatly reduced due to the presence of full time aides. To ensure that each child receives individualized instruction, we utilize our resource staff to reduce class size. On any given day, NDV students will attend several small group sessions. The staff/student ratio in grades K through 2 is 12:1 and 16:1 in grades 3 and 4. While class size in the upper grades averages between 30 and 35, we have support staff to significantly reduce class size. The program is designed to allow for small group sessions.
Ten full-time teachers hold teaching credentials and five hold advanced degrees, including PhD's and Masters degrees. The average teaching experience for full time and part time teaching staff is 13.5 years with an average of 8 years at NDV. Teachers attend in-services and workshops on a regular basis to keep current on educational research and methods.
To support its rigorous academic program, NDV's facilities include 12 classrooms, a fully equipped science lab, a library with a collection of 10,000 plus books, a music room, a computer technology lab with 18 iMac workstations, an auditorium/theater facility, a gymnasium and a cafeteria.