Berwick Academy Head of School

Welcome back to the Hilltop, where the sun is out and the snow is melting – just not as quickly as we would like! One of the strange twists of fate this year was that winter weather ended up pushing the Lower School production back to this week. During my 11 years here, the LS production has been one of the more special yet challenging moments of the academic year. Most things that are worthwhile are complex, and this event is no exception. As always, I was amazed to see the amount of effort and collaboration needed to pull off this milestone. Beyond any music, acting, and dancing – there is also artwork, costumes, and a substantial amount of evident academic learning as well. Perhaps what struck me this year was the ways in which our students helped create everything – including the show itself. There have been times in the past decade when the LS production has elicited questions like – how big is big enough? How much pull-out time from Math and Literacy does it require? Who is in ...

As people are probably aware, it has been a busy hiring season at Berwick, and it has been a thrill to lock up roughly eight exceptional hires before spring break. Each year, I become energized by the quality of people that we see in this process. I often find that it is during this process we see some of the fruits of our labor with initiatives like Curriculum 2020 and the Innovation Center. It is rewarding when we see candidates who seem energized to become a part of what they perceive to be a forward thinking and collaborative culture. I would be remiss if I did not mention the exceptional work that both Ryan Feeley and Michael Buensuceso have done in helping to build our great candidate pools this year. It always requires a great deal of outreach and hard work to identify the kinds of people who can make Berwick come alive. While we will have a few more positions to fill after spring break, I can already vouch for the fact that we will bring some exceptional new talent to campu...

It probably won’t surprise people to know this has been a busy time of year in the Head of School office. Clearly now is the time when we have the epic convergence of both admissions and hiring activity. There have been recent days where I have had so many meetings that I can easily forget I am at a school with children. That said, we have absolutely started to see some of these amazing spring like days start to explode with the glory of what lies ahead. Just a few days ago, I decided I had better get out of my office and take a walk outside to do a bit of centering. As I was walking down the back stairs of BD, I was poring through my calendar for the day. I wondered how I would get to every meeting and every interview on time. I was weighing the relative strengths of a few candidates I had seen recently. I pushed open the back door of BD and noticed some of our Lower School students scrambling around the mini-turf blasting the soccer ball. But I didn’t have time for that. I was he...