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Honoring our faculty and staff

Last night we celebrated as an employee community. Each January, we come together as faculty and staff to share a meal with our trustees and honor great teaching and other work at Berwick. We honored ten year and twenty-five year employees and heard from our Teacher of the Year from 2016. Given that this happens to be my tenth year as well, it was a particularly powerful night to reflect upon all that is special about Berwick Academy.

I was struck once again by the exceptional people who make Berwick what it is today. Thirty-seven year maintenance staff member Paul Calo spoke to the pride he takes in making sure jobs are truly “finished” on his watch. While he admitted that not everyone here would know if he offered this level of care, it mattered to him as this was now “his world.” Polly Davie spoke about the key ingredients of fabulous teaching: 1) Loving your subject and 2) Loving children. The simplicity was powerful. Seeing pictures of Berwick Academy twenty and thirty years ago as we followed these careers once again reminded me just how far this place has come.

Marc Small concluded the evening by speaking openly about his teaching journey and his passion for the tenants of Curriculum 2020. Hearing that it was actually the culture and environment of Berwick that finally allowed him to stretch and grow into the teacher he wanted to become once again filled me with great pride about the professional community we have created here. But in every case, these employees mentioned our students as the reason they found meaning in their work. The students kept them young, always said thank you, and forced them to grow. They have been the greatest gift of all.


Berwick Academy is a magical place. It feels like yesterday when I saw this campus for the first time in 2007, but it is a great feeling to now truly know it as home.

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