The Head of School – February 19, 2025

Flint Hill Community, 

Last week, we gathered our entire Flint Hill School community together for Flint Hill Day — our annual celebration of the relationships, impacts, and legacies central to our Huskies’ experiences: connections between students and faculty and staff.  

Each year, we take this time together to celebrate employee milestones at the school — specifically those hitting the 20-year mark of service to our students and community. This year, we celebrated the following Husky team members for two decades of impact at Flint Hill: Debbie Ayers (Assistant Director of the Upper School & Academic Dean), Mia Burton (Director of Institutional Equity & Inclusion), Bridget Kleintank (3rd Grade Teacher), Rico Reed (Admission & Alumni Officer and Varsity Boys’ Basketball Head Coach), Emily Sanderson (US History Teacher), and Maia Schmidt (MS and US English Department Chair and US English Teacher).  

Special this year: we took a moment to reflect on the impact of Fred Atwood’s 35 years at Flint Hill through this special tribute video. Additionally, I was thrilled to announce the establishment of the Fred Atwood Endowed Fund for Science, as well as the naming of one of our Upper School science labs as the Fred Atwood Science Classroom. To learn more about the ways we’re celebrating Mr. Atwood, as well as how you can join in the support, please click here.

Finally, I had the pleasure to announce this year’s Driving Spirit Award winners — the highest accolade available to Flint Hill faculty and staff, as nominated by our community members each year. This year’s recipients are:

• Katie Evans, Director of Leadership Giving
• Jen McKain, LS, MS, and US Technology and Instruction Department Chair and MS English Teacher
• Maia Schmidt, MS and US English Department Chair and US English Teacher
• Danny Strouth, Grounds Foreperson

For me, the highlight of revealing each recipient’s name was the joyous applause and cheering from the students and colleagues in the audience. The genuine love and appreciation for these folks, including the positive impact they have had on our students, were tremendous.  

Once again, thank you to all who submitted nominations for the Driving Spirit Award this year, as well as your ongoing appreciation of the best faculty and staff that I’ve ever had the privilege of supporting.