FEATURE
Meet Dennis Bisgaard, Interim Head of School We are pleased to welcome Dennis Bisgaard as our Interim Head of School for the 2022-2023 school year. Dennis has recently moved into the Head of School’s house on Park Tudor’s campus with his family. Prior to joining Park Tudor, Dennis was Interim Head of School at the Friends School of Baltimore, and has more than 30 years of experience in education.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family. My US family consists of my wife Monica, our children Nic (NYU graduate who works as music editor for a music streaming start up company in New York City), Saudea (a new freshman at the School of Art Institute of Chicago), Ruth Paige (Monica’s mom), and our small dog Blu, a Cavapoo. I have ten siblings and family spread across the globe. What excites you about coming to Park Tudor? Park Tudor has an enviable reputation, and I absolutely love the pre-K-12 educational space and the full journey from the wonders of our youngest learners to the idealism, sophistication, and versatility of seniors about to embark on their college careers and beyond. I look forward to exploring and getting to know the beautiful campus and the entire community. The energy, sense of community, and striving for excellence were palpable when I visited campus. You’ve been an Interim Head of School at several independent schools. What is it about the interim role that appeals to you? This will be my third interim head of school position. It is a remarkable privilege to become a member of a community for a full year, observing, absorbing, and integrating fully while wrapping your mind, arms, and heart around a school. You in
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PARK TUDOR PHOENIX SUMMER 2022
essence become an internal consultant without any emotional baggage and your goal is to be as helpful as you possibly can be to all constituencies, asking questions, asking for rationale, suggesting potential improvements and solutions, tapping into my 30+ years of experience at a number of independent schools in the US. What are the unique opportunities and challenges for an Interim Head vs. a permanent Head of School? As an interim Head of School, you will have to be a quick study and interact with and meet as many people as possible. You do not have the opportunity to ease in but will have to do your very best to “hit the ground running” so you can become helpful as soon as possible. You want to tap into the talent, expertise, and versatility already present on campus, you want to listen closely and deeply, and reflect back what you observe, hear, interpret. You want to get a good sense of the student experience from beginning to end, you want to understand and bring to the surface what adults, families, and students love about Park Tudor, and you want to do your best to unpack the various narratives and interpretations that may exists within the community to help tease out and identify the most authentic identity, core values, and value added within the school, and how that aligns with the interpretation and experience of neighbors, and outsiders less familiar with the school.
