Message from the Board Chair

was challenging on many levels, it was a year of tremendous growth and transition for Village School. Like other schools, we navigated uncharted waters and were faced with quick pivots as county protocols evolved in real time. In addition to showing great resilience and adaptability to the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic, our community also welcomed and rallied around a new leadership team. Stepping in to lead a school after a long-standing head is no easy task, even during a “normal” transition. John’s transition was anything but normal—onboarding virtually, building relationships through a computer screen, and making tough decisions based on ever-changing regulations that made it impossible to please all constituents. It was a challenging environment, but John carried us through with transparency, collaboration, steadfast leadership, and grace.

Despite the many challenges we faced this year, our community remains strong. Our new leadership team has successfully protected the operational and cultural well-being of this school and has set us up for a strong start to the 2021-22 school year. Our faculty and staff have stepped up, leaned in, and built new capabilities to better support our students. Our parents have shown great adaptability, warmth, and a desire to find new ways to build connections across our community. And most importantly, our students have continuously reminded us how to persevere with a smile.

While I expect our return to school will look more normal this year, I am confident that we will continue to grow and flourish together through continuous improvement opportunities. Our core values remain intact, and we will begin to roll out a new strategic plan that will guide us through this next tranche of growth. We look forward to sharing the strategic plan with you in the coming months.

Thank you to John Evans and Caroline Byfield for your extraordinary leadership. Your partnership, dedication to our faculty and our students, continuous problem-solving, and openness to feedback served us well during an extremely difficult time. We have great confidence in your ability to lead us into this next chapter.

We hope you all found muchneeded joy and light over the summer and are excited to welcome everyone back to school.