May 3, 2015
 

To our Swain community,

On behalf of The Swain School's Head of School Search Committee and The Swain School Board of Trustees, we have the privilege and pleasure to announce that David Hursty has been appointed as The Swain School's Interim Head of School for the 2015-2016 school year. He will officially assume his position on July 1.

Mr. Hursty is a seasoned independent school

David Hursty

educator and administrator. He is currently the Interim Head of School at The Renbrook School in Hartford, CT, a prominent PK-9th grade independent school. Prior to that he served a three-year term as Interim Head of School of Harborlight-Stoneridge Montessori School in Beverly, MA.
Mr. Hursty also served as Headmaster of Bridgton Academy, a boarding school in Bridgton, ME and as Headmaster of Suffield Academy in Suffield, CT.

The Search Committee conducted a very thorough search process and interviewed a number of qualified candidates over the past month. The committee unanimously and enthusiastically agreed to recommend Mr. Hursty to serve as interim HOS following his visit to The Swain School last week. On Friday evening The Swain School Board of Trustees unanimously voted to offer him this critically important position for our next school year and he has since accepted.

We would like to thank the members of the Search Committee - trustees Diane Martin, Linda Noonan, Pat Scagliotti, Heidi Schiffman, and Diana Talsania; Swain community representatives Rebecca Binder, Dave Dougherty, Carlos Jaramillo, and Chris Milligan; and administrative representative Maggie Werner - for their tireless work.

David will bring many benefits to The Swain School but most importantly he will continue to steward our culture and vision. He brings the management skill and expertise needed to effectively lead a vibrant and successful school in our day-to-day operations. He also brings to Swain a profound wealth of strategic understanding in independent school management. His strategic insight will be invaluable to our Swain community as we select our new long term Head of School and ready our school for Mr. Hursty's successor for the 2016-2017 school year.

An accurate way to describe David is not through our words, but through the terms that his current and past colleagues have used to describe him:

• Gracious and respectful
• Good team player
• Warm and friendly
• Wealth of knowledge and experience
• Comfortable and confident
• Hard working
• Thoughtful and open
• Great mentor

But perhaps the most telling expression that describes David Hursty and what he will bring to The Swain School is found in his own words: "Independent school management is not all that complicated, actually. At the end of the day, it's all about the children - and what's best for them."

Everyone will have an opportunity to meet David when he comes to visit our campus again before the end of this school year. Look for an announcement about this coming soon.

Please join us in welcoming David Hursty, The Swain School's next Interim Head of School, to our Swain community.

Sincerely,

Lori Schoeneman and Bill Wreaks
Co-Chairs, Head of School Search Committee
The Swain School