Reflections on 40 years of Leadership

By Erin Morawetz, Alumni Relations Coordinator, HTS

More than four decades ago, when the Holy Trinity Church community seven individuals, our future Founders, at the forefront — banded together to launch an independent school that would provide a different experience for its students, they were told they were creating a “miracle school”.

It’s a funny thing, though, how miracles do happen.

More than four decades ago, when the Holy Trinity Church community —seven individuals, our future Founders, at the forefront banded together to launch an independent school that would provide a different experience for its students, they were told they were creating a “miracle school”.

It’s a funny thing, though, how miracles do happen.

Over the last 40 years, HTS has evolved into a learning ecosystem where more is possible where academic excellence, supported by the traditions and resources of a bricks-and-mortar, state-of-the-art campus, has been the inspiration for HTS to leap confidently into the future.

HTS’s educators stewarded a new way of teaching and learning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Their commitment to professional growth, from augmenting learning through technology integration to adopting new models of instruction, assessment and evaluation, has been recognized across the global educational community. This professional reputation is the reason why we now have a Centre for Transforma - tive Learning and Leadership, a place where we honour the excellence of our HTS staff as they teach and inspire other educators and professionals in their learning journey.

At the same time, in September of 2023, HTS will launch a virtual high school that will disrupt the model of online education by providing a rigorous learning experience with a careful blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning. Through the HTS Global Online Campus, the same personalized academic program that flourishes on our campus will be available to students around the world who want an independent school education but need a more flexible environment.

By creating a learning network that consists of our campus, our professional hub and our online learning spaces, we are setting out to redefine education much like our Founders did over 40 years ago. It’s a far cry from the Holy Trinity Church basement, the first physical iteration of HTS, and yet, in many ways, its essence is largely the same: progress, in the face of challenges, for the betterment of students of any age, in any place.

So, how did we get here?

The “we” is key; indeed, it has truly been the people along the way the leaders, the educators, the supporters that have not only inspired the evolution of HTS, from its physical spaces to its transformative programs, but have also pushed to make it happen.

Within every era of HTS, there have been leaders who have moved the needle; who have stood ahead of the curve and seen the road in front of us. They each had the bravery to say, yes, that’s where we need to go. From the launch of HTS itself to where we are now in a post-pandemic era of connection and re-imagination, we are indebted to the many people who have dedicated themselves, their ideas, passion and drive, to this: our miracle school.

From the very beginning, HTS set out to do something different. The community leaders at Holy Trinity Church who became our seven founders knew they wanted a different education for their children and those of their neighbours. It all started with finding a leader who could guide this vision for learning from the top. we are because of other people,” he persuaded forward-focused teachers to make their mark at HTS by telling them: “You have an opportunity here. This is your classroom: you run it.” educators forged their own path in a sea of sameness; when they were encouraged to think outside the box when it came to their virtual teaching approach.

They found this in Jack Rose, HTS’s founding Head of School.

Because, at its core, HTS has always been about placing the student at the centre of our “why”.

“From day one, HTS was about our students,” says Helen Pereira-Raso, HTS’s Head of School since 2017. “When we had to suddenly close our physical doors in March of 2020, we had a choice do we look at this as something happening to us, or happening for us?”

From the beginning, Jack put an emphasis on defining the school through its educators. With a guiding belief that “we are what

Today, this approach still holds true; and perhaps it never did more so than during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when HTS

“Our educators took the opportunity and ran with it. It wasn’t easy far from it but they made sure our students knew they had agency and voice,” Helen says. “During a pe - riod of time when it was easy to become disillusioned, they modelled to our students the importance of finding the “why” behind their learning and stewarded our students to own their education.”

Today, HTS educators are encouraged to try new things, and in turn, to encourage their students to see what happens when they sit in states of ambiguity. But getting to this place where creativity, discovery and empowered learning are at the forefront of who HTS is did not happen overnight. Rather, each leader lay the groundwork for the next each Head of School defining and redefining a vision for a better way of teaching and learning, supported and emboldened by Boards of Governors that have continuously pushed the envelope of what, and who, we could be.

As Jack Rose so wisely said we are what we are because of other people.

George Rutherford was one of the individuals who answered Jack’s call for develop - ing a new way of teaching. Joining HTS in 1984, George bore witness to the opening of HTS’s Bayview Campus the next year and its subsequent renovations over the next eight. Later, as Head of School from 1992-2010, he ushered in yet another era of transformation and growth, seeing through an exponential expansion of the school that reflected its growing population’s need for modern learning spaces.

This was a time of transformation all around: as York Region developed around the school, the region’s infrastructure growth, such as the creation of Highway 407 in 1997, made it easier to bring children from farther afield. HTS grew from 66 students in 1981 to nearly 750 by 2010; at the same time, the use of technology in classrooms was beginning to become more common, and a large part of HTS’s expansion in the early-to-mid 2000s was focused on recognizing the need to allocate resources to this development.

“The expansion was the school community’s highest moment,” reflects John Fursey,

Transformations From The Hts Community

who served 10 years on the Board between 2002 and 2014. “Now we could have a lunch program, fine arts, state-of-art capabilities for science and IT. Our Lower School could have a unique place and identity. We could compete as potentially a top-tier school.”

George Rutherford is credited by many with stewarding a strong volunteer culture and sense of community at HTS, one where parents and alumni were and still are inspired to take on leadership positions and join the team of visionaries moving the needle forward. Indeed, when the headship passed from George to Barry Hughes in 2010, Barry worked in partnership with the community to open the door to new approaches of progressive learning.

“Barry came in with an outside perspective and made us realize we could be what we wanted to be,” recollects Summer Filgiano, whose tenure on the Board of Governors spanned from 2005 to 2013. “We weren’t a traditional school. We didn’t have an old boys/girls network, or old buildings to maintain. You could try things, and no one discouraged you.”

With the support of the school community, Barry and the Board shifted the momentum and focus of the school’s academic vision, which led to HTS becoming an Apple Distinguished School and to a major investment in teacher training and development. Together, this team of leaders, educators and governors explored ideas of flexible student schedules and credentials as “mastery transcripts” to demonstrate proficiency of subject matters — forward-thinking ideas that remain vital and prioritized at HTS today.

It was around this time that HTS transformed from a “little start-up school into a world-class entity,” says Maneesh Mehta, who served on the Board from 2007 to 2016. With Barry and Helen, then Deputy Head, leading the way, the school’s governing body set out to position HTS as a global leader in the academic space. They put into words and into action the pillars upon which HTS still stands: student learning, sustainability, relationships and reputation, amazing spaces and, above all, incredible people.

“We wanted the plan to do three things: take note of the future context of schooling; improve on current practice; and cherish what the school stands for,” Barry recalls.

When Helen became the Head of School in 2017, the groundwork was laid for an unparalleled future. According to Rob Wittmann, who sat on the Board from 2014 to 2021, “Helen took everything Barry was working on and continued to accelerate and innovate not only to keep pace with but to outpace the world.”

Outpace the world HTS did, particularly when the world itself shut down. Our physical spaces shifted and changed form, yes, but educators and leaders alike were relentless in their insistence that student-centred learning be prioritized at all costs.

HTS’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic “established the character of the school as being fearless in education,” Rob says. “We were adamant in investing aggressively in initiatives Helen championed, mitigating the effects of the pandemic with seamless movement between home and class learning.”

“The constant was change. The kids embraced it; they weren’t afraid of it.”

Now, as the HTS campus has resumed fully in-person learning, our leaders and educators are excited for all the possibilities and connections that students on our campus will experience, as well as those students in the new HTS Global Online Campus, where the powerful learnings of the last three years are informing the next generation of virtual learning. Across all mediums, what has remained consistent is HTS’s profound commitment to honour all learners.

“The school prepares kids for life, not just for university,” Rob adds. “It’s educating kids for jobs that don’t exist yet.”

Indeed, Joseph Adamo, current Board Chair, notes that academics are as important at HTS in 2022 as ever, but today, rather than acquiring an education, HTS students are experiencing an education.

“When students can choose the topics they want to learn and have a voice in how they want to learn, they develop their own core confidence,” Joseph says. “They become better able to face the challenges of life.”

“In the past, it was about maintaining a strong educational foundation. Now it’s about, ‘What is the future of education?’”

For Helen, the future of education is being built at HTS each and every day.

“With our students, we are in co-creation to solve the world’s problems,” Helen says. “We are creating exceptional, future-facing learning programs that empower every learner to own their educational journey no matter where that journey is taking place.”

As HTS expands beyond its physical walls and the vision of our original Founders to offer something different – becomes realized yet again in yet another iteration, Helen is the first to admit that it’s a big, sometimes scary, step. But, she says, “We are ready. We are here. This is our story.”

In many ways, taking those first steps, blazing new trails, has always been HTS’s story.

Transformations From The Hts Community