On Wednesday night the 2021-22 Board of Trustees held their last meeting of the school year. We were thrilled to be able to close out the year with our only in-person evening meeting. It was a beautiful night on the deck of the Middle School.
During our meeting we completed the annual review of our Head of School, as well as our own self-evaluations as a Board. We reviewed surveys from families, staff and admin, and board members. We further identified areas for improvement, our successes and strengths as a board and school, and our highest priorities for the coming year.
We were thrilled to welcome five new board members to the 2022-23 HMS Board of Trustees: Louisa Conrad, Geneva Morse, Juliette Carr, Shelley Lockyear, and Nancy Dickson. They will join us, the returning board members: Marta Bernbaum, Caitin Senni, Ellie Pennell, Dora Urujeni, Todd Fahey, Asher Pucciarello, and Andrea Lemon.
We shared our deep appreciation for five departing board members: Vanessa Long, Elizabeth Fisher, Larisa Volkavichyute, Joslyn McIntyre, and Lysa Mosca.
We acknowledge and appreciate the Board service of Lysa Mosca and Larisa Volkavichyute, who helped steer the school through these trying COVID times and helped keep us focused on EJI goals and the consideration of alternative structures and processes to help our board grow and flourish in order to better serve our community.
We are also grateful for Elizabeth Fisher’s contributions over the last two years. Elizabeth’s enthusiasm, polite inquiry, and critical mind brought grace and depth to our work overseeing the school.
We are grateful for all the gifts that Joslyn McIntyre has brought to a full, three year term: her humor, her steady and inspired leadership and as Development Committee Chair, her editorial hand that honed all the writing the board produced, her monthly Technology Tips to help Board members navigate the Google platform we use, her reliable and dedicated presence which included reading EVERY document in preparation for Board meetings AND her perfect attendance, never missing a Board meeting during her time on the board!
We honor Vanessa Long and are indebted to her for her principled understanding of Hilltop as an alum (class of 1993), parent, and as a senior Trustee. Her level-headedness, grounded intellect, sincerity, warmth, and wisdom have been invaluable across the many roles she had filled during her two full terms on the Board. We have trouble imagining how we will get it all done without her. In her six years as a Board member, Vanessa has served as:
- Secretary for many years, including spectacular note taking for every Board meeting and providing the “Notes from the Board” for the weekly newsletter
- Leading up the Mission Statement revision process in preparation for the American Montessori Society (AMS) accreditation
- Leading the Committee on Trustees, revising and implementing the survey and summary process for the Board Assessments and HoS Assessments.
- Expertly filling in as “Honorary Outgoing Chair” when two people on Leadership Team unexpectedly relocated out of the country
- Serving on the AMS Accreditation Committee
- Serving as co-chair on Hilltop’s 50th Anniversary Archives/History/Honorary Committee
- Playing a critical role in the development of the 2017-2021 Strategic Plan, along with kicking off the next Strategic Plan for our school.
Vanessa will continue to be part of our community as a parent and key contributor to the Strategic Plan process and the 50th Anniversary celebrations. If you run into her please do not hesitate to thank her as deeply as her fellow trustees thank her, for all her years of hard work, and her significant role in helping to create the Hilltop Montessori School we currently enjoy.
The Board will gather for a yearly retreat this June. Our new trustees will have an opportunity to get to know continuing board members, review the role, function, and process of the Board, and begin our strategic planning process. We hope to engage all members of the Hilltop community as we begin to build our next Strategic Plan (more to come).