LOWER SCHOOL LEGEND

A conversation with Peg Bailey

» Lower School Director 1998–2022

For 24 years, Peg Bailey was the face of Breck Lower School. She joined the Breck community first as a parent to Megan (Bailey) O’Grady ’01 before joining the school in a professional capacity as Lower School Director.

One of Bailey’s many gifts was her ability to truly know and care for Lower School students and their families. Those relationships with students, coupled with Breck’s strong sense of community and its incredibly dedicated, high-quality faculty, kept Bailey committed to Breck for over two decades.

An unflappable leader, Bailey guided the Lower School through challenging times — such as a steep dip in enrollment after the 2008 financial crisis and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic — with grace and resolve. Simply put, without Bailey, Breck’s Lower School would not be the place it is today.

You accomplished so much during your time as Breck’s Lower School Director. Of what are you most proud?

Together with the Lower School faculty, I am proud of the ways in which we really personalized the students’ experience: knowing every child, their interests, their passions, their strengths, things they were working on. For sure that would be number one. I think included in that is also the way we made parents feel valued, included, and known.

I am also proud of our commitment to developing a curriculum that both maintains tradition and is innovative. You have to look at what’s working and why it’s working. You look at how, over time, the curriculum has impacted students and consider what students will say is meaningful when they’re 10 years out of Lower School. In terms of innovation, you have to always keep your eye on what is not only just cutting edge, but also what is going to help prepare students for the next century beyond Breck.

Once upon a time, I think the idea of leaving Breck with a strong set of skills and concepts was really important. But now I think, because the future is unpredictable, the questions become: How do you instill and pique someone’s curiosity? How do you instill confidence? How do you help children develop the skills to be collaborative? What about communication skills and critical thinking? I think those are the kinds of things that Breck is thinking about and should continue to think about. No matter what profession or career path you decide to go in, those things will be valuable.

What is it about Breck that kept you anchored here for so many years?

The sense of community is number one. There’s also the students. Lower School students — and Middle School and Upper School students — are just amazing kids. Breck is filled with amazing kids. There’s also the strong commitment by a strong faculty who really do right by kids. That’s what you want teachers to be thinking about.

Another thing that kept me here is all of the continuous learning opportunities. I used to tell teachers I was interviewing, “At Breck, you have to see yourself as a learner — because you should be a leading learner in your classroom.” Everybody is learning at Breck. I think that kind of mindset was invigorating. Because I was uniquely in the position to first see Breck from the outside as a parent and then to see Breck from the inside as an educator, those dual perspectives really strengthened my commitment to the school. There’s just no place like Breck. Breck has just got something. There’s a golden nugget.

Now that you’ve moved on from Breck, for what do you hope to be remembered?

I had a passion for the students at Breck. I worked hard to know every child.

I believe everybody has their own gift. I think one of my gifts is being able to make connections with kids, just knowing them. I had a passion for the students at Breck. I worked hard to know every child. And I think if you asked students and parents about my legacy, they would say I strived to do just that. I personalized their experience through really caring for them. When you have a 4- to 10-year-old as a parent, that’s what you’re hoping for. You want someone who really cares for your child. Someone who wants them to be well educated but also who just loves them as much as you do. B