Head of School

Greetings from the Hillside!

While the weather has been concerningly warm, we are almost through the “winter” months and looking forward to Spring Break in a few weeks. The winter sports teams are all winding up successful seasons, and the students are working on their capstone projects to finish their Third Quarter classes. 

In the students’ minds, at least, the biggest event of the past month has been the opening of a Student Center on the first floor of McCoun (the New Building) in the space that has most recently been the art room. With a soft opening on the day of the Super Bowl, the new space has various game tables, TVs, a stocked fridge, and plenty of spaces to get together and unwind. Best of all, from my perspective, is that this was a student-initiated project. Graeme Russell, Dylan Margel, Luc Schaefer, Austin Hoadley, Matthew Frost, Chris Reiniger, Andrew Jensen, and Carson Mitchell came to visit me last spring with detailed plans not only for the design, but also for monitoring and maintaining the proposed space. Because of their creativity and thoughtfulness, we were able to respond and create this appreciated space, which we hope will be utilized and enjoyed by the community for years to come. The finishing touches will be complete by the time the boys are back from Spring Break.

To create the space for the new Student Center, we needed to move the art rooms up to the top of the hill into the pods in Bringhurst. The first two pods, closest to the road, have been gutted and turned into open and bright art studios. We are working on turning the third pod into music practice spaces, a project we plan on completing this summer. At that same time, we will refurbish the auditorium, enhance the “maker space” that already exists there, and do some landscaping to create a true arts center.

As we prepare for our Centennial, there has been a strong focus on School traditions and how they still resonate with our twenty-first-century community. Last week I talked to the boys in chapel about “Self-Reliance,” one of our Trinity of Values. I began by reading an explanation of these Values from Fr. Sill, the founding headmaster of Kent School. In explaining self-reliance, Fr. Sill wrote:

“By self-reliance I have never meant self-sufficiency or the exaltation of self above others. Nor does the term imply self-satisfaction. A weak willed self, a proud self, a selfish self is not capable of true self-reliance. We must try to send out men from our schools who have been shaping up their ideals by practice and who have learned to trust self. We do not like to see them swayed by the attitude of the compromising crowd around them. This spirit can be fostered by training boys while at school to think and act of their own initiative.” 

If you would like to read the entire chapel talk, you can do so by clicking here. 

On February 14, 50 years after his father was released from eight years in Vietnamese POW camps, Sid Stockdale '73 spoke to the School via Zoom to tell his family’s story and explain what he was doing here as a student at the time. The boys were in awe of the Stockdale saga. You can watch Sid’s presentation by clicking the video image below. 

I am hoping that many of you are planning on returning to campus on June 9–11 for this year's Alumni Weekend and the start of our yearlong Centennial celebration. If you have not done so already, please mark your calendars for our big Centennial events and register now for Alumni Weekend 2023.

• Alumni Weekend 2023 on June 9–11, 2023 (Golf Tournament on June 8): Click here for more details.
• Founder’s Day on September 30, 2023
• Alumni Weekend 2024 on June 7-9, 2024 (Golf Tournament on June 6)

There will be formal invitations and more details to follow on how you can help us celebrate. I strongly recommend finding reservations now as there are not too many options within an easy drive of campus. We look forward to seeing you on the Hillside very soon. 

As always, please let me know should you have any questions or concerns.

My very best regards,

Lawrence A. Smith 
Head of School