The Gavel 9/11/15
Source/Author: Tom Andrews, Board of Trustees Chair
September 10, 2015
By the time you read this, the Board of Trustees will have met three times! We had our first meeting of the academic year on Friday, August 28th, followed by an all day retreat on Saturday the 29th.
This is no “rubber-stamp” Board! Even though Buildings and Grounds Committee – led by Administrator Beth Vivio, Architects Harvard Jolly, and Builder Creative Contractors - spent countless hours during the summer on plans for the Lower School, the Board sent them back to the drawing board and met again, Wednesday, September 9th to consider a total revamp!
Our mission: find the right balance of fiduciary responsibility and building for our faculty of 21st Century educators.
The Committees are swinging into action, and I will mention them here because the best way to get involved with the Board is to join committees as an interested community member. Finance is once again led by Dennis Leary, Advancement chaired by Jeannine Hascall, Strategic Planning by Charley Harris and Policy/Bylaws by Cristin Keane. Community Partnership will have co-chairs this year; Marc Jacobson and Greg Hahn. Trustee Committee chair is Charles Reynolds. Forbes Alexander will once again lead Audit Committee and, as mentioned above, Beth Vivio chairs Buildings and Grounds.
Major initiatives this year include the Lower School campus renovation plans, researching sustainable tuition models, building Endowment, Strategic Planning recalibration follow-up (including a repeat of the community survey 18 months ago), a continuation of our Diversity initiatives and community outreach, Board professional development and succession planning for the Board officers and Headmaster position.
If any of this sounds interesting to you and you would like to be more involved in the school at the Board level, feel free to reach out to any Board member or me. We’d love to have you participate!
Tom Andrews, MD
Chair
