Dr. Brent Mutsch to lead SAS to the next level before that he worked for 21 years in public schools in the United States. In addition to serving as superintendent in Dhahran, he also concurrently served as president of the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools. NESA is a non-profit organization of over 75 international schools committed to offering students the best possible education through embracing the “best practices” of both American and international education. The Mutschs’ home is in Dillon, Colorado. His wife Maggie will be teaching third grade at SAS. Both are looking forward to the move to Singapore for the professional and personal opportunities that are here. I met with Dr. Mutsch in April, and he told me a bit about his plans for SAS. He sees the school’s growth as the biggest issue in the coming year, and that resolving it will mean first focusing on its mission — Why SAS exists and who it serves. “The mission sets the context for the articulation of the vision, a statement representing the preferred future of the school.” He’s enthusiastic about taking on the new challenge. He also wants to focus on making SAS “the best school that SAS can be. I believe that I add value to SAS in working to lead an excellent school to the next level of performance.” He made an interesting observation on SAS’s “Vital Few” by metaphorically placing Academic Rigor on one side of a scale and Extraordinary Care for the Welfare of Each Child on the other side to achieve the balanced goal of Professional Excellence, adding that “a school should never being complacent about what it has achieved.” As for the people, he sees the school as humming with transactional relationships — student to teacher, teacher to parent, parent to principal, principal to child, etc., and he wants to be involved in the “life of the school as a respected professional, as a friend who cares, and as a leader who can be trusted.” I think it will be a pleasure to work with and get to know Brent Mutsch, and I think the SAS community is lucky to have him.
By Junia Baker, Editor
The SAS Board of Governors has appointed Dr. Brent Mutsch as the school’s new superintendent. He is currently Superintendent of Saudi Aramco Schools in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and will begin to serve at SAS in August 2007. The Board of Governors Search Committee, under the leadership of Vice Chairman Garth Sheldon, did a thorough and inclusive search for someone with the skills, knowledge and wisdom to lead SAS. Governor Sally Greene said, “We had a ‘we are good, but we can still be better’ attitude and wanted to see what candidates could contribute to that.” Mutsch is their choice. He is a “highly respected educator with years of experience in administration and teaching in the United States and overseas,” said School Board Chair Shelley DeFord. Dr. Mutsch has been in Dhahran since 1994, and
35
P28-41
35
5/28/07, 6:35 PM