Dear Beaver Families,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am writing to you with a follow-up to Peter's letter from a few weeks ago. While conversation and planning around succession has been going on for some time, we are now moving ahead with the work of finding Peter’s successor, and I’m pleased to share more details with you today.

But before I get to those details, I first want to reflect on the trajectory of the school throughout Peter's tenure that has led us to this moment, where Beaver is better than ever, and why we are in an incredible position to usher in new leadership to keep this exciting momentum going.

Since Peter's arrival in 1992, enrollment has nearly doubled, selectivity is the most competitive it has ever been, and Beaver is one of the most sought after schools in the area. The entire campus has been renovated – we have added more than 101,500 square feet of new building facilities and another 100,000+ square feet counting the turf field expansion. We also just closed our most ambitious capital campaign to date – $25 million in three years!

Beaver is constantly evolving and growing to support our approach of designing a student-centered educational experience. We host visitors from across the world who are curious to come and see just what we are doing, how we're doing it, and where it all happens. We have the clearest and strongest brand of any school in the greater Boston area and beyond, with our faculty, students, and campus being featured regularly in outlets like The Globe, Boston Inno’s 25 under 25 (see #13), Fast Company, EdSurge, EdTech, NBC, CBS , and even in Vogue! Most recently, Beaver was named one of The Globe’s Best Places to work 2018.

Peter’s vision of expanding the nature of school for students through pillars of the BVR mindset – Launch/Test/Refine; Make Excellent Mistakes; Both/And Thinking; and Unlearn/Relearn –  are part of the fiber of every member of this community.

So, thank you Peter. Thank you for your 27 years ( 28 after your final year in 2019-2020 ) of dedicated service. Thank you for your many significant accomplishments and for your efforts in positioning the school as it is today: A true thought leader and change maker in education, this will be a tremendous opportunity for your successor.

On that note, here is where we are in our process for finding the next Head of Beaver Country Day School.

The Board of Trustees has formed a search committee, made up of seven members, an advisor, and myself as an overseer.

The members are:

  • Lisa Smith-McQueenie, Chair
  • Bob Taylor, Trustee
  • Bill O’Reilly, Past Board President
  • Marga Biller, Trustee
  • Jennifer Skoler, Trustee
  • Geeta Jain, Faculty
  • Wendy Fischman, Parent & Alumni
  • Tomas Bergstrand, Board President, ex-officio
  • Jennifer Potter-Brotman, special advisor to the chair/committee

The size of the committee is based on recommendations we received from recently completed searches. We believe the members will represent the competence, expertise, and experience needed for a successful search.

The first order of work for the search committee has been to hire an executive search firm, who will assist the committee with the work. After meeting with several firms and evaluating each, the committee has decided to work with Spencer Stuart.

Beginning their work immediately, they will spend a lot of time on campus interviewing students, faculty, staff, management, parents, and trustees in order to really understand what will be required of candidates for the position as our new head of school.

The firm will present their findings to the full Board of Trustees at our next board meeting in March, just before spring vacation. We expect Spencer Stuart to start sourcing and reviewing candidates shortly after that. We will be in touch with you throughout the process – you will get updates from Lisa Smith-McQueenie as we reach important milestones in the search.

So, that’s the update today! This is an exciting time for BVR as we continue to move full speed ahead in fulfilling the mission of expanding the very nature of school for students.

Back to work we go!

Tomas Bergstrand
President, Board of Trustees
Beaver Country Day School