Introduction to Steve McManus

GETTING TO KNOW OUR NEXT HEAD OF SCHOOL

BY AARON H. ‘25

This article originally was written for The Cageliner, our student newspaper, in Spring 2022. Aaron will be The Cageliner’s Copy Editor in 2022-23.

On March 31, the Board of Trustees announced that Steve McManus would become the new Head of School, effective July, 2022. This announcement came after the news that Head of School Damian Jones would be stepping down after the conclusion of the 2021-2022 school year. A search committee composed of Burke trustees, parents, prior faculty, current staff, and alumni began meeting over the summer of 2021.

McManus attended public school in Connecticut, where he enjoyed his childhood. Growing up, McManus took an interest in drawing, which led him to dream of being an author and illustrator of children’s books. Currently, McManus enjoys playing tennis, hiking, camping, and doing yard work and housework. He and his wife Meg have two college-aged children and an elderly dog named Ginny.

After he graduated from Georgetown University, McManus spent two years serving in the Peace Corps in Senegal. It is there that McManus says he discovered his love for teaching.

“It was really my time serving in the Peace Corps in Senegal where I began to believe that [teaching] might be my calling because I had been doing a lot of that.” McManus said. “I was an agroforestry volunteer in Western Africa,” he explained.

After serving in the Peace Corps, McManus taught at both public and private schools in the Washington-Baltimore region. In 2005, McManus became the Head of Middle School at Garrison Forest School, where he worked until 2011. McManus later became the Upper School Principal at the Friends School of Baltimore in the fall of 2011, a job which he has held for over the last decade. Since taking his current position at Friends, McManus has taught a class every semester; he currently teaches a history class.

“Teaching: it just allows me to go deeper. I get to know those kids really well,” McManus said in a recent interview with Education Week, a Bethesda-based newspaper that covers K-12 education. McManus visited the Burke campus and website during his application process, and in doing so, he has found many things that he enjoys about the school.

“There’s just a warmth and a joy about [Burke],” McManus said, also noting the latitude that the school grants its students. “It felt very relaxed. It felt very comfortable. It felt very joyful.”

McManus also appreciates that extracurricular activities are widely accessible at Burke. “I love the fact that everyone can have that experience in an athletic program or a sport and can find a place; the fact that there’s all kinds of opportunities in the arts and performances.” McManus continued, “The great schools have all kinds of ways for kids to express themselves, and I feel like those opportunities are there for students at Burke.”

Finally, McManus expressed excitement about Burke’s location in the city. “I love the fact that Burke has an urban campus… There’s a great energy about an urban campus, that it’s very much a school that’s in the city and not tucked away in a suburb on its own campus.”

To McManus, a good head of school listens and is open to change. “I think a great Head of School is a good listener, someone who’s curious, someone who starts with a position of yes; how can we make something happen, rather than starting from a position of no.”

McManus also said good heads of school should know all the members of the community and have a visible presence, especially in a school as small as Burke. “I think [a good Head of School] knows everyone and really is there to ensure that the community continues to function, that everyone has a shared place at the table… and is present.”

McManus placed an emphasis on creating strong bonds with members of the community, and listed that as a priority for his tenure.

“The great Heads of School that I’ve worked with and sort of see as role models in my career were inspirational leaders, leaders that did a lot of listening and a lot of relationship building, and that’s certainly the kind of Head that I hope that I will be.”

On the subject of priorities for next year, McManus listed listening to the community.

“I think first and foremost [my priority] is to ensure that I understand what makes for a great school, what’s important to every member of that community, from the trustees, the families, the parents, to the students, faculty, and staff.”

McManus also mentioned continuing to battle the COVID-19 pandemic appropriately as one of his priorities for next year.

“Getting through and beyond a pandemic situation… I think Burke has handled it really well, based on what I’ve learned. Getting to a place where we’re kind of living with COVID and maybe thinking creatively. Are there things that are on the other side of that pandemic for us as a school that we might do better?”

Winter 2021 // 9