Greetings, GreenMount Community,
By
now, you have learned that this will be my last year as the head of school here
at GreenMount. I plan to retire, and I hope
to get it right this time.
You may know the
story of how I tried to retire eight years ago and failed miserably. The one year that I spent away from a school
was agonizing. However, that year turned
out to be one in which I learned many lessons.
My brother-in-law enlisted my help in writing a program for compensation
of faculty in independent schools, about 400 of which he works with around the
country. It was during that year that we
traveled around the country, visiting many private schools and trying to sell
my program, that I got a firsthand look at the world of private education. We did sell the program to two schools, but
they were both located near Los Angeles, California. One was in Pasadena and the other in Belair. Both were pretty fancy-smanchy.
The hard part
about working with these schools was that they were 3,000 miles away, and
getting to face-to-face meetings was grueling.
In one case, we had a meeting at 1:00 p.m. in Belair, for which we left
BWI at 7:00 a.m. We had our meeting,
went back to LAX and landed in Baltimore at midnight. I could feel the blood clotting in my legs on
the return trip!
Then came the
day late that summer when I got a call to come and interview at a little school
that I thought was called the Green Mountain School. Was I going to move to Vermont? Long story short, I got the job, and each day
since has been a dream come true. Former
colleagues became instantly envious of my good fortune as I described life as
the head of the GreenMount School. And
still, seven years later, I consider myself extremely fortunate to have landed
in this beautiful place.
But now it is
time to move on. Grandchildren, golf,
and old friends who have been after us to join them in the retirement world
will somehow have to take the place of the joy I experience every day at
GMS. The good news is that there are
many days left to enjoy, and I plan to make them the best of my seven
years. I also find comfort in knowing,
without a doubt, that my replacement will be an exceptional school leader. GreenMount has become well known as a desirable
destination (just look at our amazing staff) and I am sure that there are a
number of folks out there who will jump at the chance to be part of this
community.
Finally,
I must make a confession: at today’s Monday Morning Meeting, I lied to your children. I told them that there will surely be a
replacement for me who will love them as much as I do. To me, that’s not possible.
Cheers,
Steve
