Community Champion: Chad Barnett

COMMUNITY CHAMPION:

CHAD BARNETT

By Jim Rogal

CHAD BARNETT HAS PAID HIS DUES.

The current Squirrel Hill resident serves as Head of School at St. Edmund’s Academy, but he had already climbed a steep educational ladder before he got here for the start of the 2014 school year.

Barnett had spent the previous 17 years at Linsly School in Wheeling, W. Va., first as an English teacher and basketball coach, then dorm parent, then director of summer programs, then director of admissions, then Head of School. Additionally, he has completed the coursework for a PhD in Education at Pitt and served as an adjunct professor in the university’s School of Education. Ladder climbed, dues paid, no doubt.

So why leave Linsly, a prestigious prep school that goes from 5th grade through 12th, for a neighborhood school that goes only from preschool through 8th grade? “I wanted to be at the foundation

of how kids learn,” Barnett explained. “I wanted to contribute to the joy of young people learning.”

And Barnett believes strongly that a key part of a young person’s education is connecting to the community outside of school walls and halls. “This is a neighborhood school, and we are stewards. It’s a privilege to be in this neighborhood. Life is about being a neighbor, being a friend. In this community, that feeling abounds.”

In fact, that feeling connects directly to the school’s core values, which were articulated when St. Edmund’s was founded in 1947. Among them are “Respect for the needs and feelings of others,” and “The worthiness of service to others.” Said Barnett, “It’s been a great gift that I was given a chance to implement those values.”

Easier said than done, especially when you’re dealing with young kids. So, what does that implementation look like? “It comes in a variety of forms,” Barnett says. “We have community partnerships, and we’reproactive in those relationships.”

Every grade, K through 8, has an opportunity to partner with an organization in the area. Here are just three examples: The 3rd grade partners with the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition to learn about the neighborhood and its history. The 4th grade works with The Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh to develop friendships with other children and to understand and appreciate differences among people. The 5thand 6th grades work with Pitt medical students to understand the importance of safety with over-thecounter pharmaceuticals.

How do these partnerships actually happen?“We bus our kids, we walk them through the neighborhood, we import our partners to the school,we plan excursions from the daily routine,” Barnett said. “It’s all about enhancing and broadening their interest in the neighborhood, about connecting students with purposes outside the school.” It’s a classic example of win-win. “The students serve the community, and they are deepened and broadened in so doing.”

The proof that it works is in the enrollment pudding. St. Edmund’s has had a student body of more than 290 seven times in its history, but five of those times have occurred in the last six years. When the school opens again in the fall, Barnett expects to have more than 300 students. “There are waiting lists for most of our classes,” Barnett said. “We can only accept 50 percent of our applicants.”

The rigor of an education at St. Edmund’s hasn’t changed since the early 2000s, but the student body hovered in the low 200s at the time, and there was talk of having to merge with another school to survive. No such talk today.

Barnett credits much of the school’s recent success to the parents and families of his students. “We have a wonderfully thoughtful parent body,” Barnett said. “It’s incredibly diverse. Our parents are introspective, curious, and thoughtful.”

Clearly, his “parent body” approves of an education that includes community connections and being of service to others. “Heart has to be a critical part of their education,” Barnett believes. “Home is where the heart is, and we are at the heart of this neighborhood,” Barnett said. “The importance of service to the community is that it teaches our kids to be both open-hearted and open-minded.”

Beyond the multiple partnerships that Barnett forges regularly between St. Edmund’s and community organizations, he devotes his own service efforts to—no surprise—the progress and ongoing development of independent schools. In addition to his commitment to the Pittsburgh Consortium of Independent Schools, he serves as Board President of the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools. Whatever time is left is spent with his wife and two young boys, a two-year-old and a newborn.

Chad Barnett talks the talk, of course, but more importantly, he makes sure that he and his students walk the walk as well.

This article is an updated version of the print edition.