LOWER SCHOOL HEAD

Hands-On Administrator Assumes Lower School Leadership

By Kathleen Thomas

Todd Stansbery calls boys at home to wish them a happy birthday and follows up with cards. He usually sits with students during lunch to talk and get to know them. This selfdescribed “hands-on guy” seeks for students to know and trust him and have confidence that he cares.

Now in his 32nd year teaching in independent schools, the former head of Tuxedo Park School in New York is grateful for new challenges in working with all boys. The energetic, enthusiastic educator is working through the transition from associate head to head when Assistant Head of School Sarah Mansfield, who filled in last year during a nationwide search, hands over the reins later this year.

As a former science teacher, Stansbery seeks to enhance sciences so that students develop a love for nature. He would like to coordinate with other divisions for greater student engagement.

His o ce shelves include a collection of bones found hiking, including the lower jaw of a sea turtle and a black bear skull he cut with his pocket knife from the furry corpse still intact in a frigid stream. He cites some career highlights as outside adventures with students, such as hikes on the Appalachian Trail, Chincoteague Island and Calvert Cli s in the Northern Neck, where Africa and North America once connected. He’s even chaperoned trips to Disney World where students explored lessons in science, such as the physics of roller coasters.

Stansbery notes his fondness for books, which dominate his o ce bookshelves, ranging from teaching philosophies to sociology and history, such as “Collapse.” “Books are important to me,” he said. “They bring relevance, why things are important in the world.”

He’s enjoying making connections here, sometimes unexpected, such as learning that one of his former students is now an StC parent. With two grown children of his own, Stansbery enjoys living in the Museum District, biking and trying out new restaurants with his wife Nancy.

As he reaches out to boys, Stansbery seeks to demonstrate consistency with the faculty, wanting to be thoughtful with all reactions and to “lead with a kind heart.” Being a strict disciplinarian is not his mantra. “Boys give me respect because they know me, and I know what their interests and emotional needs are,” he said. “I’m finding out how to harness the energy of the boys, but celebrate the energy of the boys.” Education College of Wooster, B.A. in sociology and geology; Johns Hopkins University, M.S. in environmental science and policy

Experience Head of Tuxedo Park School, Tuxedo Park, New York; head of The Swain School, Allentown, Pennsylvania; founding head of Lower School, St. Andrew’s School in Boca Raton, Florida; science teacher and associate head of Lower School, St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School, Alexandria, Virginia

On why he left a job as head of Tuxedo Park School “I wanted to connect more with kids. It’s my expectation, not a hope, to know and love every boy.”

On teaching “It’s always important to connect things. Relevance is the most important aspect of a good teacher’s delivery.”

On his approach “I’ve always wanted parents to know I’m in partnership with them. I can certainly tell them what I see at school, and they can tell us what they see at home so we can work together to help boys grow into healthy-minded people.”