“After three years serving on the Board of Trustees, I have been delighted with the relationships, some already established, that have deepened now, and with the work we have already been able to do together,” says Peter Barrett, reflecting on his new tenure as Interim Head of School.  After more than 45 years of teaching and leadership in independent schools, this year, like every year, Mr. Barrett’s commitment is to the school community and especially to “every child’s infinite value; to helping each child, as appropriate, make what is internal more external, and in that way, have a positive impact on the world.”  

Mr. Barrett grew up loving learning, especially anything involving reading and writing.  Working on his high school newspaper as part of a journalism class led him to major in English at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.  Even before college graduation, he began working for the Hartford Courant, the country’s oldest newspaper in continuous publication, where he was a reporter and a suburban bureau chief. 

Soon, Mr. Barrett’s original love of schools won out.  He attended Northwestern University, earning an M.A.T. in elementary education, and later completed doctoral-level coursework in curriculum theory and development at the University of Maryland College Park.  He served as Head of St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School for 28 years, where his devotion to excellence included “making school more capacious, broadening the invitation to different kinds of learners and families,” so that more children could enjoy the excitement for learning that he found and still finds. 

Upon his retirement from St. Patrick’s, Mr. Barrett became a senior consultant at Carney, Sandoe, & Associates, supporting independent schools during periods of transition through head of school and key administrator searches, and he joined the Board of Green Hedges.  Concluding his reflection on the current year in the life of our school, he says, “We should be fully engaged in the present, not holding our collective breaths.  Each year is important as our children construct lives and meaning for themselves.”