>> PERFORMANCES
Scott Streble
>> LETTER FROM THE HEAD
In 2020-21, all of SPA’s performances, including theatrical productions and concerts, were recorded and streamed online for the community to enjoy. Our student actors and musicians (and their teachers) learned an entirely new set of skills, including rehearsing and recording at home, singing and reciting lines while masked, and editing performance video together into a full production. It was a challenging but fruitful year for SPA performing arts.
2021-2022 BOARD OF TRUSTEES OFFICERS Timothy A. Welsh, President William M. Beadie ’58, Secretary Litton E. S. Field, Jr. ’75, Treasurer MEMBERS
Middle School Fall Play: Alice in Wonderland Bartlett (Bake) J. Baker ’71 Mark W. Addicks Hyung Choi Jennifer Coates ’96
BLUEPRINT FOR THE NEXT DECADE This issue of SPA Magazine, which includes the Annual Report 2020-21, is our first since the onset of the pandemic, and it offers an impressive overview of how the SPA community flourished throughout these challenging months. Since the onset of COVID in the spring of 2020, there have been moments of anxiety and frustration for our families, our students, and our teachers. But there have also been moments of joy, resilience, and connection, particularly this fall as we resumed in-person classes for five days each week. Even with our COVID precautions, SPA has felt refreshingly like school in September 2019. Our successful opening this fall reflects the leadership of the three division Principals who are profiled in our cover story. Lower School Principal Beth Nelson, Middle School Principal Virginia Andres, and Upper School Principal Theresa Collins are master educators, visionary thinkers, and compassionate leaders. As a team, Beth, Virginia, and Theresa are a powerful and dynamic representation of the breadth and depth of SPA’S K-12 leadership team. Beth Nelson stepped into the Principal’s role this summer with a deep appreciation for the culture of the Lower School, an understanding informed by her 23 years as a faculty member that included 14 years as the Lower School’s Assistant Principal. Beth creates a sense of stability in the busy and buoyant world of the Goodrich Campus. Her calm, steady demeanor was and is essential in the time of COVID, and her extensive knowledge of our curriculum (including recent innovations in K-5 math, literacy, and social-emotional learning and wellness) is one of our most valuable assets. The tenure of Virginia Andres, now in her third year as Middle School Principal, is split evenly into “before” and “after” the onset of COVID. Her first months with us were a wonderfully exploratory and productive time; we came to know her in the fall of 2019 as a perceptive leader and a careful listener, with a savvy sense of how Middle
John W. Cosgriff ’93 Schools work. When the pandemic landed in March 2020 in the middle of Virginia’s second semester, those qualities proved invaluable. Under her leadership, the Middle School has never lost sight of its guiding principles. Virginia knows that her students are in the process of defining themselves as individuals, and she understands how to guide them (and their parents) as they follow the sometimes bumpy and unpredictable path through adolescence. Upper School Principal Theresa Collins, who joined SPA in July, is the newest member of the team. The virtual nature of our Principal search in early 2021 was unfamiliar terrain for us, but even Zoom could not dim Theresa’s appeal. Her talent, her empathy, and her humor shone through in those conversations. Now, even in these early months of her tenure, she has been extraordinarily deft in using the storehouse of knowledge she gained in her 15-year career as an independent school educator and administrator at the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago to frame her evolving perceptions of SPA’s Upper School community. I am proud and grateful to be working with these three leaders during my final year as Head of School at SPA, and I am thrilled that Beth, Virginia, and Theresa are part of the team that will welcome and support the school’s next leader. As this issue of SPA Magazine goes to press, we have just announced the appointment of Dr. Luis Ottley to be that leader [see page 4 for more details— Ed.], and I am glad that Dr. Ottley will be the beneficiary of our Principals’ talents as individuals and their strength as a team. I know our entire community joins me in celebrating the remarkable trio of leaders.
Elizabeth Driscoll Hlavka Anne Larsen Hooley David W. Kansas ’85 Varun B. Kharbanda ’92 David A. Kristal Amanda Kay Liu Scot W. Malloy Philip McKoy
Middle School Musical: Fame Jr.
Barbara L. Naramore Tim O’Brien ’77 Thomas H. Patterson ’57 Christopher (Chip) J. Pearson J.P. Peltier Anthony (Tony) Sanneh ’90
Upper School Musical: Song, Dance and Taking a Chance: A Master Class in Musical Theater
Upper School Fall Play: Under Milk Wood Bryn S. Roberts, Head of School www.s p a.e d u
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