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Weather and challenge

Well, there is no denying that this week sent me into the world of meteorology mania for the first time this year. I suddenly found myself at 4:15 a.m., cross-eyed and staring at weather websites, trying to make sense of what would happen during the morning commute. While this was no blizzard, it was a perfect storm nonetheless – a true Berwick Academy nightmare: snow on campus, rain on the coast, not too much in Massachusetts, and mucho snow in Manchester. Local districts revealed no clear pattern of cancellation, delay, or opening at the regular time.  There was nowhere to hide – no moving with the herd on this particular day for sure. After a long bleary conversation with the decision makers, we went with a truly inspirational and intellectual decision: the riveting two-hour delay.

By 10 a.m., I was at my window reminding the sky that it was supposed to be raining by now. I was questioned by an employee at lunch why we were even here. All day long I watched our maintenance staff running around our walkways with motor toys and salt trying to keep the place clear. By noon we were talking about afternoon activities…. would it be better or worse at 5 p.m.? It was still snowing, so we cancelled. Five minutes after the community email went out all precipitation stopped entirely. Luckily (or not so luckily), it did eventually come back in the form of rain, and we were pretty glad that we had pulled the plug by the time our campus became an ice rink at sunset.

Later that night I had a few parent emails – understandably concerned about the commute home. They are always tough to read, but they are even harder to debate. I wrapped it up with a perfectly polite but truly random person who emailed me to say that an ice chunk had dislodged from one of our Berwick Academy buses and hit their car near the North Hampton tolls. She was hoping we would reimburse her for a broken mirror. Pictures were attached. While the concerns were legitimate, I will admit I was feeling just a touch helpless. Humility is good, I suppose.

Two small takeaways from all of this:

First, thanks for your patience when some of these things don’t go as planned. And remember you can always keep your child home if you are concerned for their safety in any way. We care so much about their safety, but we don’t always get it right (which is not to be taken as me admitting that we actually got this one wrong, by the way). The second is this amazing realization about what is both most difficult and most rewarding about being a Head of School. On the one hand, they never tell you in graduate school that weather prediction will be an important component of one’s long term approval ratings as a Head of School. It is probably smart that they don’t go there – schools are in need of good leaders. On the other hand, I love the extraordinary variety embedded in the work that I do. No day is ever the same, and I have never once felt bored in my eleven years here. The only reason I have ever looked at a clock in my professional career was out of concern that I would not have enough time – never on account of wondering when it would be time to go. It is easy to forget just how important being challenged is to one’s overall happiness. I cherish that challenge.


While it is clear that my weather prediction skills still could use a little sharpening over break, I look forward to giving it another shot next week. Enjoy the snow. :)

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