Holderness School
The van Otterloo, Henderson, and Brewer
FACULTY CHAIR YEAR PROGRAM N
ot many high school teachers are able to take a yearlong sabbatical to pursue their professional and intellectual interests. Yet that’s exactly the kind of opportunity Holderness School gives to one lucky teacher every year, thanks to The van Otterloo, Henderson, and Brewer Faculty Chair Year Program. Now in its 25th year, the Chair Year was the brainchild of former Head of School Pete Woodward, who wanted a program to support the school’s tireless faculty. In the early 1990’s, Woodward asked then-Dean of Faculty Phil Peck to lead a committee of faculty and trustees to reimagine the school’s sabbatical program, which was halted in the 1980’s as a cost saving measure. In 1995, two school trustees and members of that committee, Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo P ’94, generously endowed the Chair Year.
Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo P ’94
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The new Chair Year program was designed to benefit both faculty and the school itself—an improvement over the school’s former, less-structured sabbatical program. To qualify for the new program, faculty were required to submit an application describing how they would use their year away from school to pursue intellectual or professional interests. “We didn’t believe in a year off but wanted the teachers to do something that they could bring back to their classrooms,” says Rose-Marie van Otterloo. “It was an instant success, and many teachers finished their graduate studies and were newly invigorated to take up teaching again after one year.” In the quarter-century since the Chair Year program was established, numerous Holderness faculty have used the program to pursue advanced degrees or travel the country to learn from other schools and fellow educators. During the inaugural Chair Year in 1995, then-Music Director David Lockwood left campus to earn his Master’s degree in a program run jointly by the Berklee School of Music and the Boston Conservatory. This year’s Chair Year recipient, Director of College Counseling Bruce Barton, plans to visit some of the most competitive colleges and universities that Holderness students apply to, and will explore international student admission and gap year opportunities. Bruce, currently enjoying the second Chair Year of his career, says the program is an invaluable opportunity to learn and recharge. “The Chair Year program is life sustaining for longterm faculty the way water is to a thirsty plant,” Bruce says. “This is round two for me, and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting time to ref lect and advance myself
