Brewster Academy Announcement June 1, 2021

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM

THE CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES June 1, 2021 Dear Brewster Community, Brewster is known for its radically student-centered approach to education. The Brewster Model has been the living roadmap for an approach to learning with the exponential power to transform education, communities, and the lives of students in our care. This foundation puts us in a position of strength that allows me to share exciting news about the next era of growth for Brewster.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am proud to share three new leadership appointments in service to Brewster’s expansive vision for the future.

First, I would like to note the remarkable work of Craig Gemmell and his outstanding leadership team for all that has been accomplished over the past year, and over Craig’s tenure as Head of School at Brewster since 2015. Recognizing that schools must rethink business as usual in the face of increasing affordability issues for families and decreasing demographics, Craig led a bold vision to expand Brewster’s reach beyond Wolfeboro. This winter, the Board endorsed that vision to begin opening new international campus locations, starting with its first planned school in Madrid, Spain in 2023. This initiative will further enhance Brewster’s visibility, serve greater numbers of students, and begin to impact the way education is delivered on a global scale.

I am pleased to announce that beginning in July 2021, Craig will assume an evolved role as President of Brewster and BA International, LLC, the umbrella organization under which Brewster will manage its global campus network.

Craig will also ensure that innovations and opportunities for improving upon best practices translate within and among Brewster’s network of schools. He will steadily work to grow the network to new locations, with a vision for several new campuses by 2030.

As we undertake this exciting new endeavor, we have ensured that the energy and focus devoted to serving our students at Brewster Academy remains at the highest level. To that end, the Brewster Academy Board of Trustees is delighted to announce that Kristy Kerin has been appointed as Brewster Academy’s 13th Head of School starting in July 2021. During this challenging year, Kristy has led our highly successful COVID response team and initiatives and has overseen Brewster’s vanguard strategic planning process since its inception. I have no doubt that Kristy will ensure that Brewster Academy continues to flourish and fulfill its core mission as it transitions from a single school to the flagship school of a global campus network without missing a beat.

An expansive search for our founding Head of School of Brewster Madrid yielded highly qualified and eager applicants from around the globe. The Board of BA International, LLC is thrilled to announce that Ariane Baer-Harper has been appointed as the Head of School for Brewster Madrid. Ariane will start at Brewster Academy in July 2021, and will spend a year in Wolfeboro in order to fully absorb the Brewster culture and prepare operational plans for the opening of Brewster Madrid.

With these leadership changes, the Academy is positioned to thrive in its third century as an institution—in ways its founders could never have imagined. Inside, please read more about the state of our school and learn more about this leadership team’s accomplishments and new roles.

Thank you, Roy Ballentine Chair, Brewster Academy Board of Trustees

1

FROM CRAIG GEMMELL

BREWSTER STATE OF THE SCHOOL UPDATE Dear Brewster Community,

Noteworthy Achievements

As Brewster advances into our third century as an institution, I am writing to share a State of School Update with you, our devoted faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends.

• Last spring, faculty rapidly moved their curriculum online and incorporated new tools to teach students living in 13 different time zones around the globe.

• We reopened campus this fall with faculty teaching in hybrid mode—simultaneously teaching to in-person students and who remained online—a challenging practice!

I have several significant announcements to share, including the launch of a new campus location in Madrid, Spain, opening in September 2023, and new leadership appointments in support of Brewster’s burgeoning global campus network. But first, I’d like to share a detailed review of life on campus during this extraordinary year of both challenge and growth at Brewster.

• Academy personnel carried out countless new safety measures and instituted a variety of new practices to keep the community safe, including adapting offices, installing new tents, creating open-air classroom and meeting spaces, updating air filtration systems, and conducting regular screening and testing.

A Boldness to Strive: Realizing Our Vision One Step at a Time

• Our students found a variety of safe, socially distanced ways to serve our community: They provided academic tutoring for local kids, mentored middle school students in the third year of the New Hampshire Student Leadership Program, sent greetings to local retirement communities, and planned virtual events to showcase the cultural backgrounds of our students.

We opened our doors in September 2020 amidst a landscape filled with uncertainty. With all the challenges 2020 brought, simply opening and operating in the midst of COVID could be considered a victory. But we’ve been inspired both by the work of those who preceded us in leading this school, by current successes, and the bold objectives we laid out in our vision: an approach to learning with the exponential power to transform education, communities, and the lives of students in our care. Thus, we have dug deep as an institution to ensure that even in the face of much uncertainty, we continue to make strategic decisions to propel Brewster’s growth as we celebrate our bicentennial milestone and look ahead to our next 100 years.

• Our community leaned into work related to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion and affirmed a mission statement committed to ensuring an inclusive environment in which every community member is able to live authentically and feel a sense of safety and belonging.

• Our Admissions and Communications teams did an extraordinary job creating virtual visit

2

FROM CRAIG GEMMELL

BREWSTER STATE OF THE SCHOOL CONTINUED

opportunities for families, resulting in a strong enrollment year, including 23 students from the prestigious Royal Thai Scholar Program.

• We received a significant donation to fund a named, endowed staff position at Brewster: The James C. Curvey Endowed Programs Director.

We are thrilled that longtime staff member Lynne Palmer has accepted this position for 2021-22.

• We launched the public phase of our campaign, “Our Watershed Moment, The Campaign for Brewster” as a critical means of supporting ongoing institutional excellence. To-date, generous supporters have contributed more than $27 million to the campaign, along with several significant planned gifts that are not included in this total.

• Next fall, we will be offering Field Term, a 12week, place-based immersion program led by faculty member Ben Rendall ’07. A residential fall trimester at a local nature site, Field Term will include a STEM-based, interdisciplinary curriculum focused on human relationships and responsible stewardship of Earth’s natural resources.

• We broke ground on Phase One of the Reimagine Rogers project, a radical overhaul of a 1950s gymnasium into a stunning new student center and home for the arts and innovation on campus that will open in the Fall of 2021.

Fundraising is currently underway to complete Phase Two that will include an expansion for additional academic and co-curricular space, and a spectacular new terrace overlooking Wolfeboro Bay.

This was the work of a team composed of all who are actively involved with Brewster: employees, students, parents, grandparents, friends, and trustees. Our students embraced a yearlong mantra—make lemonade! Without question, the positive energy of students inspires all of us to seek ways for positive change.

• We are currently renovating a recently purchased building for use as the new home for our Facilities and Housekeeping teams.

The existing Facilities building will be removed this summer in order to add green space, reduce the number of vehicles on campus and ultimately add a second new residence hall.

This represents a substantial step forward in our campus master planning initiative to create a sustainable campus that protects our beautiful, natural location.

Brewster Madrid: Transforming Education on a Global Scale While all of this momentous activity was happening on campus, a smaller team was working on plans to expand the reach of the Brewster Model on a global scale. We are thrilled to announce that in September 2023, Brewster will open its first satellite campus in Madrid, Spain.

3

FROM CRAIG GEMMELL

BREWSTER STATE OF THE SCHOOL CONTINUED

Once fully scaled, Brewster Madrid will serve more than a thousand students each year in grades K-12.

The project will be funded entirely by outside investors, diverting no resources from Brewster Academy. Revenue from this new school will funnel back to Brewster Academy, allowing us to fund capital improvement projects, increase support for financial aid, and invest more in our faculty and programs.

a network of Brewster Model schools. They can move among campuses and have the option to study in different environments and new cultures while enjoying a seamless Brewster experience.

Faculty will be able to teach and learn on different campuses. Each school will have unique features connected to the local regions in which they are embedded, offering a variety of specialty programs.

Brewster leadership will collect and share knowledge and innovative practices across the network and into the broader world of education.

Madrid was selected as the site of our first global campus project after a careful review of numerous possible locations around the world. Madrid has a successful track record of private education, and there is a significant unmet demand for international schools. It is a safe, beautiful, historic city that will be a draw in attracting the highestquality faculty and staff, and it has very positive demographic and fiscal growth trends. Spanish students have been attending Brewster for decades, and with our two study abroad campuses in Santiago de Compostela and Cadiz, Spain, we have good familiarity with the country and the culture.

In the end, Madrid was a clear choice for our first international campus.

Brewster’s global campus initiatives are poised to strengthen everything that we love about the Brewster experience, while enhancing the range of opportunities for students and faculty.

Evolving Leadership In service to this expansive vision, we’ve carefully evaluated the school leadership needs moving forward and made several commitments: First, the energy and focus devoted to serving our students at Brewster Academy’s main campus in Wolfeboro will not waver for a moment. Brewster Academy is and always will be our flagship campus, the hub of innovation and genesis of best practices that we will bring to our global campus network schools.

Second, we will ensure that we have devoted, inspired leaders to manage our growing network of schools, leaders who are committed to the mission and vision of Brewster. Third, we will put the necessary structures in place to ensure that the

Activating Innovation and Opportunity We get most excited about this endeavor when we imagine the opportunities that it will open for faculty and students alike. Students enrolled at Brewster Academy or Brewster Madrid will have opportunities to move from a single school to

4

FROM CRAIG GEMMELL

BREWSTER STATE OF THE SCHOOL CONTINUED

growing network is resourced to thrive.

School for Brewster Madrid: Ariane Baer-Harper. I am honored and incredibly excited to be working closely with both Kristy and Ariane as we take this huge step in Brewster’s growth. Please read more about Kristy and Ariane on the following page.

To that end, I hope you’ll share my excitement with the appointment of Kristy Kerin as the new Head of School of Brewster Academy. Her devotion to this school and intense work on our vision for its future are just two of the reasons she will be an excellent leader for our students, faculty, and staff—and an active partner with our families and alumni. Kristy has already had oversight responsibilities for three out of Brewster’s four strategic realms and we believe this broadened top leadership will serve our students ever better.

It is an incredible moment in the 200-plus year history of this institution—and as we lean in together and watch this bold vision become reality, I sincerely hope you share in the excitement and pride of knowing all that Brewster is bringing to the world.

My own role is evolving into serving as the President of Brewster and BA International, LLC, where I will focus on our satellite campuses and expanding the reach of the Brewster Model around the world. I will continue to remain actively involved at Brewster, working in support of our vision.

Warm regards,

Craig Gemmell

Finally, Brewster has found a stellar educational leader to take the reins as the Founding Head of

5

BREWSTER’S 13TH HEAD OF SCHOOL

KRISTY KERIN

On July 1, Kristy Kerin, Brewster’s Associate Head of School, will take the reins as the Academy’s Head of School. She will be the 13th person in the school’s two-century history to hold this position, and the first woman to do so.

and engage a wide variety of stakeholders in generating innovative new ideas to serve students ever better. Since 2016, this vanguard approach to strategy has allowed the Academy to effectively translate its vision into actionable enhancements to its programs. This has ensured that as Brewster has continued to refine its practices and evolve in service to student growth, we have maintained an unwavering focus on Brewster’s mission.

This past year, Kristy facilitated the Academy’s COVID Task Force, working with the senior leadership team in the face of great uncertainty to rapidly adapt and develop protocols in order to reopen campus safely for the 202021 school year. And Kristy has served in an executive leadership role for the global campus project, working closely with Craig and other school leaders including Assistant Head of School for Global Programs, Ricardo Carreño, to take the Madrid project from concept to reality.

Kristy has served in a variety of roles since arriving on campus in 2011, when she was hired as the Director of Advancement. She has assumed leadership over a range of strategic areas in the past decade, including Advancement, Outreach, and Global Programs. She designed and launched two capital campaigns, including “Our Watershed Moment: The Campaign for Brewster,” the Academy’s largest and most successful campaign to date. Well known to many parents and alumni, Kristy has helped implement an integrated approach to outreach that maximizes the reach of Brewster’s Admissions, Advancement, and Communications efforts, and co-led the Academy’s recent rebranding initiative.

A graduate of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, Kristy worked in the College’s Advancement Office for eight years prior to joining Brewster. An internationally ranked high jumper, Kristy competed in the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials and was inducted into the NCAA Division III Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016. She lives on campus with her spouse David, their three children, Matthew, Daniel, and Joanna.

Kristy has led Brewster’s strategy process, an approach designed to push leadership deeper into the organization

6

BA INTERNATIONAL, LLC and BREWSTER MADRID

CRAIG GEMMELL AND ARIANE BAER-HARPER Since 2015 as Brewster’s Head of School, Craig Gemmell has brought focus to Brewster’s mission and vision—and seized the opportunity to spotlight the transformative work that we do with students. It is clear that there is a palpable and growing buzz about all that is happening at this special school on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, thanks in large part to Craig’s leadership. During his tenure, Brewster launched its most significant campaign, raising record-setting levels of philanthropic support for the Fund for Brewster, student scholarships, endowment funding, and capital projects like the beautiful new Toad Hall and the soon-to-open Rogers Building. In his new role as President of Brewster and BA International, LLC, Craig will focus on implementing Brewster’s bold vision and equally bold plans to augment Brewster Academy’s business model. He will collaborate with Kristy and the Brewster Board of Trustees to shape the vision for the future of Brewster Academy, and he will develop and implement strategies to share learnings and best practices across all schools licensed to employ the Brewster Model. Craig will continue to reside on campus at Brewster, fully immersing himself in the life of the Academy and continuing to help advance Brewster’s campaign initiatives and admissions activities.

Ariane Baer-Harper, Founding Head of Brewster Madrid, is an experienced, dynamic, inclusive, and transparent leader with proven experience in launching and developing international school networks. Currently, Ariane is working as the Country Director and Head of School at Enko Education Senegal in Dakar, Senegal. She previously served as the Director for the Center for Global Engagement at Allendale Columbia School in Rochester, New York, a program that she founded. She worked for several years as a World Language teacher and Department Chair in the Rochester Public School system and for the State University of New York (SUNY) at Geneseo, and early in her career she served as the IB coordinator and Assistant Head of School at Lycée International Bilingue in Senegal. Ariane is fluent in Spanish, French, and English. She has a master’s degree in education from SUNY Geneseo, and has a bachelor’s degree in Modern Languages from Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Ariane will be joined at Brewster by her spouse, Tim, and their daughter, Gabby, who will enroll as a 10th grade student at Brewster. She will then transition to Madrid in Summer of 2022, in anticipation of opening the new campus in September 2023.

7