Sandy Spring Friends School

 

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Welcome, Dr. Rodney Glasgow - Head Of School

Watch Head of Plymouth Meeting Friends School (and former Head of SSFS's Lower School) Brenda Crawley interview our new Head of School Rodney Glasgow!

Dear Friends,

On October 8, 2019, the SSFS Board of Trustees met to consider a recommendation from the Search Committee for appointing the next Head of School beginning July 1, 2020. I am honored to announce that our Board has appointed Dr. Rodney Glasgow as our next Head of School. Rodney will succeed Tom Gibian, who will retire after the 2019-2020 school year.

Rodney will be coming to SSFS with nearly 20 years of experience in progressive education as a senior administrator and seasoned educator—most recently, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School where he serves as division head (see Rodney's full CV here). 

A graduate of the Gilman School and Harvard University, Rodney is himself a natural teacher and lifelong learner—striving to better understand and transform learning spaces by facilitating meaningful interactions and reflections among faculty and students that expand not only their knowledge but their capacity to understand.

As an educator, schools are his heart, and he connects that heart-work with his knowledge of cognitive science as a trainer with St. Andrew's Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning. With advanced degrees in private school leadership from Columbia University’s Klingenstein Center and in organizational learning from George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development, Rodney is a collaborative leader and strategic planner who will be drawing upon the talents of people around him to implement a shared vision for our school.

Many of you have had the chance to meet with Rodney not only from his campus visit but also through his impressive work on the SSFS Diversity Audit that was completed back in May before the search began. As a well-known diversity expert and founder of the National Diversity Practitioners Institute, Rodney believes in the power of equity and conflict resolution. Rodney knows the independent school landscape well through a long-term relationship with the National Association of Independent Schools as well as having served as a trusted resource on diversity, change management, and strategic planning to many independent schools nationwide. We are truly excited about his arrival. It is indeed a high tribute to our school (and to the profound success of Tom Gibian over the past decade) that someone as capable and qualified as Rodney would apply for the position. We look forward to a long and successful tenure with Rodney at the helm.

Rodney, who first encountered our school in 2012 when he worked with some of our student leaders, has said of his appointment, "I am called to Sandy Spring Friends School. The school embodies simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship - values which have always been central to my own life and work. Each moment I have spent on campus only deepened my sense of resonance with this uniquely special place. Our commitment to learning through inquiry and reflection will allow us, together, to consider the beautiful and complex questions of our lives and times. As Head of School, I look forward to holding our school and its students, faculty and staff, administration, and families in the brightest of the Light as we let our lives speak."

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I want to thank our Search Committee for conducting an extensive 9-month search that attracted exceptional, talented candidates from around the country. Thanks also to the entire community, and especially to the many members of our Search Advisory Group for their critical and very helpful role in this process. Finally, I want to acknowledge with utmost gratitude the good work of Hamid Faruqee, our Assistant Board Clerk and Clerk of the Search Committee. Hamid defined the role of Search Committee Clerk, and we thank him profusely.

We will be announcing events over the coming year to welcome Rodney to SSFS and to thank Tom for his eminently successful tenure as our Head of School.

Please join the Board of Trustees in warmly welcoming Rodney to Sandy Spring Friends School.

In Peace,

Kip Imlay ‘ 71
Clerk, Sandy Spring Friends School Board of Trustees

Head of School Process

In April 2019, Head of School Tom Gibian announced that he will retire following the 2019-2020 school year. As we celebrate Sandy Spring Friends School’s accomplishments under Tom’s leadership, the Board of Trustees has begun the year-long process to find the next Head of School —one who would build on Tom's tradition of excellence and successfully lead our special school in fulfilling its mission.  A Search Committee has been formed to take on the responsibility of finding and recommending such a person to the Board for consideration and approval.

The Search Committee retained the services of  Storbeck Search & Associates to help in this process. The Search Committee also created a Search Advisory Group (SAG) The SAG—made up of faculty, staff, students, parents, and alumni—who had an opportunity to present its thoughts on SSFS leadership needs and prospective candidates directly to the Search Committee.

On October 8, 2019, the SSFS Board of Trustees met to consider a recommendation from the Search Committee for appointing the next Head of School beginning July 1, 2020. Kip Imlay, Clerk of the SSFS Board of Trustees,  announced mid-October that the Board has appointed Dr. Rodney Glasgow as our next Head of School.