CHRONICLE THE HARVARD-WESTLAKE
Los Angeles • Volume 26 • Issue 1 • Aug. 30, 2016 • hwchronicle.com
Search for US head narrows By SAMMI HANDLER
PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF DARLENE BIBLE
Lucy Davis ’11 wins silver medal in Rio
JUMPING FOR SILVER: Lucy Davis ’11 competes for the United States Show Jumping Team in the Olympic Games in Rio with 12-year-old, Gelding Barron, a Belgian Warmblood horse. She competed in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games for show jumping. Davis began riding when she was five years old and was on the Varsity equestrian team for Harvard-Westlake.
Resnick replaces Barzdukas as Interim Head of Upper School
By JEAN SANDERS
cepted a position as head of school at the Poly Prep Day School in BrookAlthough Liz Resnick will only fill lyn, New York. “I think anyone who does this job the position of head of Upper School for one year, she has already made brings a little something different to one permanent policy change: elimi- it,” Resnick said. “Mr. Barzdukas nating styrofoam cups from the fac- was amazing in his way and hopefully, I will do a good job beulty room. ing a very different person in However, Resnick said the job.” that will likely be the only President Rick Commons official policy change she asked Resnick to fill in as Inmakes, as in the coming terim Head of Upper School year she will be focusing in mid-March. He said her more on the day-to-day five years as Director of Upaspects of the role. per School at Crossroads “I don’t think it’s my School was a factor in her sejob to create a lot of new ’ lection for the position. things that I won’t be Liz Resnick “I love working with her,” responsible for seeing Commons said. “She’s funny, through to fruition,” Resnick said. “That being said, I think warm, smart, wise and loves stuthere are conversations that we’re in dents and teachers and school, so the middle of that should continue she’s ideal.” Resnick was previously the Dieven though I’m not the permanent rector of Studies, and said her expeupper school head.” Resnick replaced former Head of rience in that position allowed her to Upper School Audrius Barzdukas, become familiar with every member who announced in April that he ac- of the faculty. As Director of Studies, NATHANSON S
she sat in on many classes and gave department heads feedback on their curriculums to improve them. “I have seen every returning faculty teacher teach,” Resnick said. “There’s a level of trust that I hope I have with my colleagues because they’ve already worked with me on some level.” Resnick received her undergraduate degree in comparative government from Harvard University, her master’s degree from Dartmouth University, and a Masters in Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, according to an email sent by Commons last spring. As a member of the search committee for the new head of the upper school, Resnick said she will help school administrators determine the best candidate for the job. “As a committee, the first thing we did was try to identify what we care about and the traits we believe the upper school head should embody,” Resnick said.
A team of administrators, deans and faculty narrowed the search for a new head of the Upper School to eight candidates and expects to make an appointment at least before Thanksgiving. Two of the eight semifinalists are current faculty members and the other six come from California, Texas, Ohio and New Hampshire. The names of the faculty members who are up for consideration are confidential as it is an ongoing hiring process. Those who are not internal candidates will visit classes to get a better sense of the school and community as the interview process continues through early October. “I’m really proud to say in the context of our diversity and inclusion initiatives that of those eight semifinalists, four of them are people of color,” President Rick Commons, who is a member of the search committee, said. “I’m proud of that and pleased with it. All four of them are extraordinarily qualified. It was very important to have a diverse pool.” Since the spring, Commons, Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts, Interim Head of Upper School Liz Resnick, Head of Middle School Jon Wimbish, Head of Athletics Terry Barnum, Upper School Dean Beth Slattery and English Department Head Larry Weber reviewed 70 applications for the new posi. “They were all really impressive applications,” Commons said. “In our advertisement we stipulated the kind of experience we were looking for so we didn’t get applications from people who were really under qualified. We had 70 really good applications.” The school also released an advertisement on the school’s • Continued on A3
Consultant group to assess student, faculty diversity INSIDE By JESSE NADEL
In accordance with the vision statement to have the school’s “commitment to inclusion enable every member of our community to feel an equal sense of belonging,” the administration is engaging an outside facilitator, HR Matrix, to give recommendations on how the school can improve diversity and inclusion. The facilitators will be on campus during the fall to have conversations with students, faculty, staff, administrators and parents, President Rick Commons said. Interim Head of Upper
School and Diversity, Equi- Matrix recommendations bety and Inclusion Committee fore the the new year. “One only needs to talk member Liz Resnick said that to a few students the facilitators will into hear that some vestigate diversity of students feel that race, socio-economic they don’t belong as status, sexual orientamuch as other stution, gender and other dents, whether it characteristics. be because of racial “We felt like we background or sodidn’t want to take for cioeconomic backgranted that we underground or a sense stood everyone’s expe’ of a different learnriences of the school Rick Commons ing style or a sense so we thought it would of a different perbe a good idea to have an outside facilitator hold up sonal style,” Commons said. “We know we have work to do a mirror for us,” Resnick said. Commons said the school but knowing where that work is hoping to receive the HR is more acutely needed is what NATHANSON S
the climate assessment will be intended to do.” The decision to bring in the outside consultants came from the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, which has been investigating ways to improve inclusion at the school. “I’m excited about the facilitators’ work but I’m also nervous about that work because we didn’t engage them to tell us that we have it all figured out, we engaged them to see what we’re not doing well, so I’m nervous to see what that is, but I’m committed to fixing these problems,” Commons said.
GOTTA CATCH ’EM ALL: Although some students say Pokemon Go has made their summer more exciting, some say it has made it more dangerous due to safety concerns.