Skip to main content

Unsung Heroes

There is nothing like a blizzard to remind you of the unsung heroes at your school. While I am sure many of our parents did pause to think that moving all that snow on campus was going to be a challenge, there is always so much behind the scenes that people don’t know. For example, we found our meager staff of five cut down to three during the blizzard on account of illness this week. The trio of Richie Knowles, Paul Calo, and David Hamilton were nothing short of a force on this campus Tuesday and Wednesday. I have to imagine that while they were plowing all day long on Tuesday, they felt like a modern day version of Sisyphus and his stone. Every time they made a run with the plow, the snow would be blown back in. It was impossible to keep up, and yet they had to keep going so the campus could be accessible to emergency services if needed.



When the storm cleared on Wednesday, the real work began. It takes a storm like this to appreciate fully every nook and cranny on the campus that has to be cared for in the winter. While everyone else in the community enjoyed two days off to watch the blizzard do its rather marvelous thing, these three were out in the teeth of it, leaning in physically and mentally. When the sun came out o Wednesday morning and we then enjoyed a day of snow shoeing or sledding, these three were once again scraping and throwing sand. And they were back here at 5:00 AM on Thursday morning to deal with anything that blew in or froze overnight.


If you get a chance this week, give a thank you to Richie, Paul, and David. My home office enjoys a window perched below the Fogg parking lot, so I was able to see the plows whizzing through the blizzard for two days straight. While I worked on my computer in my warm headmasterly office, the trucks just kept moving through the darkness. My wife made them a great pot of chili during the blizzard to say thanks, but it was small consolation. Not surprisingly, they didn’t stay long. Most importantly, there wasn’t a second of grumbling. The conversation was all about strategies to make sure the kids could have a safe return and that school could be up and running quickly. It takes many unsung heroes to run a place like Berwick Academy – it’s my pleasure to bring these three out into the spotlight this week.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Piercing the Bubble

This week we were so fortunate to have former NH Senator Kelly Ayotte address grades 7 – 11 in our theater about Civil Discourse in a time of Political Polarization. Senator Ayotte spoke to the need to take the high road in tough conversations and put an incredible primacy on building relationships with people who hold different opinions. She was able to speak to some of her own successes in working across the aisle to develop legislation to address the opioid crisis in New Hampshire as one powerful example of how this can be possible. Additionally, Senator Ayotte offered a strong reminder to our students of the need for more women in positions of leadership within our government, citing that she had only been the 53rd woman to serve in the US senate during her tenure. With a down-to-earth style and but an appropriately impassioned call to action, she challenged our students to become the leaders that they could be. Her call to action and example of service were powerful reminder...
Post a Comment
Read more

Designing the Revolution

As Berwick parents know, we made a decision to use our professional day for 2015 to attend the National Association of Independent Schools conference, which happened to be in Boston this year. Given that this event usually comes to Boston once per decade, it was a unique opportunity to expose our entire faculty to the national conversation at independent schools. When we scheduled it a year ago, the decision to close school on February 27 and bus our teachers to Boston seemed like a no-brainer. After four snow days this winter, I must admit that it seemed a bit more audacious as the actual day approached. Most of all, I want to thank our families for allowing this to happen. The experience turned out to be remarkable on a number of levels. I was honored to be a part of the “Think Tank” planning group in Boston, which landed on a theme of Designing the Revolution for Independent Schools. This theme spoke to a combination of innovation, design thinking, and new leadership required f...
1 comment
Read more

Behind the scenes

I often like to use the word authenticity when talking about Berwick Academy. I have said that I feel more able to be myself at Berwick than any place I have worked to date; it truly is a gift to feel that way. For parents, we usually focus on the teachers and coaches who make our kids’ lives so dynamic, and we forget the people behind the scenes who make the Berwick experience possible: maintenance, custodial, food, transportation, and support staff, etc. Berwick could not deliver the program it delivers without such high quality yet largely unheralded work. The same could be said of the Head of School. I am quick to point out that being a father is far more humbling than being a Head of School. There is no way on earth that I could have possibly moved this school forward without the unquestioned support of my wife, Amy. I often marvel that, in addition to dealing with a husband who can be tired and grumpy at the end of long days, she somehow has managed to catalyze the amazing...
1 comment
Read more