Associate Head of School Meg Goldner Rabinowitz will depart GDS at the end of the school year and will begin her new role at the Maret School as the associate head of school for program on July 1.
On April 2, at 3:00 p.m., Maret Head of School Dennis Bisgaard publicly announced Rabinowitz would be joining Maret’s administration next year. At 4:01 p.m. that same day, Rabinowitz and Head of School Russell Shaw sent an email to GDS faculty announcing her departure. GDS did not inform parents about Rabinowitz’s departure until April 6, in a “This Week at GDS” email obtained by the Bit.
Rabinowitz was not available to comment on her departure but forwarded to the Bit the April 2 letter to GDS faculty announcing her departure. She directed the Bit to Bisgaard for details on her hire at Maret.
In the April 6 “This Week at GDS” email to parents, Rabinowitz’s departure was noted under a list of “To Know Items.” The email was the first public communication from GDS about Rabinowitz’s departure. Other than the departure announcement, the email listed a variety of school events for the week of April 7. Rabinowitz’s and Shaw’s letters to faculty, mentioned above, were also linked in the April 6 email to parents.
Shaw said the school followed standard protocol when communicating Rabinowitz’s departure. “A transition like a divisional principal—these are protocols we have used for years—we would send out a letter,” Shaw said. “If it’s an assistant head or associate head, we put that in our newsletter.” The school announced former Assistant Head of School for Curriculum and Instruction Laura Yee’s 2022 departure in a “This Week with GDS” email to parents.
In the April 2 letter to faculty, Rabinowitz said she worked with Bisgaard during the COVID-19 pandemic at The Northwest School in Seattle, Washington. “We were in the trenches of COVID together and held our shared school community through the challenges of the pandemic,” Rabinowitz wrote. “Maret is a smaller school than GDS, and this is calling to me—to be in closer proximity to students, to teach, and to engage more directly with a community that is half the size of Georgetown Day School.”
Rabinowitz became GDS’ associate head of school in July 2022 after serving as assistant head of school at The Northwest School for four years, from 2018 to 2022. Prior to Rabinowitz, Kevin Barr held the position at the end of his four-decade career at the school. Shaw left the position vacant in the 2021-2022 school year before Rabinowitz started in the 2022-2023 school year.
Rabinowitz informed Shaw of her intention to leave GDS in early 2025, Shaw said in an interview with the Bit. “Whenever somebody leaves, I thank them for their work at the school, and then I think about what we need to do here to make sure we are prepared to move forward well,” Shaw said.
Also in the April 2 letter to faculty, Shaw, who recently announced his own departure at the end of the 2025-2026 school year, said he will leave the associate head of school position vacant to allow the next head of school to choose whether to fill the position. Shaw also explained who will take over Rabinowitz’s roles. Assistant Head for Equity and Inclusion Marlo Thomas and the divisional offices and human resources will oversee hiring. Assistant Head for Teaching and Learning Debby Previna will oversee professional development, and Shaw will supervise the division principals.”
“I expect that a new head of school will come in, assess the leadership structure and see what that person wants,” Shaw told the Bit. According to Shaw, his predecessor, Peter Branch, did not have an associate head of school. “Not every head of school wants that. For me, it was helpful; it has been helpful,” he added.
“I understand that some may feel that because of the proximity of my announcement, and then a couple months after Meg [Rabinowitz’s] announcement, people can think, ‘What’s happening?’” Shaw said. He added that though Rabinowitz announced her departure to faculty only weeks after he announced his own departure, the two events were not related. “There’s no connection, and these are transitions that happen in the life of a school.”
“I’ve seen her as a very strong administrator, as a system thinker, as a good problem solver and as somebody who has has deep experience,” Bisgaard said in an interview with the Bit. “That’s something that I felt was very positive and something that the Maret School could use.”
On March 25, eight days before Bisgaard’s announcement, an anonymous post on the DC Urban Moms and Dads forum (DCUM) in a reply on a thread titled “need to decide GDS or Maret for 9th” said Bisgaard (only referred to as Maret head of school in the posts) had just hired “his friend from GDS” as associate head of school. The poster claimed to be a faculty member at Maret and said Bisgaard hired Rabinowitz “without telling the faculty, opening a search or interviewing.” Other anonymous accounts later described the person claiming to be a Maret faculty member as a “troll” and someone who “creates 3 or 4 personalities in every Maret thread.”
Bisgaard told the Bit that Rabinowitz’s hiring process deviated from the standard procedures at Maret. “Oftentimes in the hiring season there’s kind of a window in which you try to hire folks and sometimes, you know, when a window closes, you have to kind of speed up the process somewhat,” he said. Bisgaard said he learned about Rabinowitz’s availability for the role in January. He said candidates for administrative roles usually visit and meet with the school community over several days, but Rabinowitz wasn’t able to do so. She instead met with Bisgaard, other Maret administrators and a board member.
Bisgaard told the Bit that Maret will benefit from Rabinowitz’s experience with school accreditation at GDS. “Given Meg’s experience, that’s gonna be very helpful because we are also going through an accreditation process next year,” he said.
In an interview with the Bit, Shaw also praised Rabinowitz for leading the accreditation process at GDS. The Association of Independent Maryland and DC Schools accredits member schools every ten years. GDS passed accreditation last year, and the association stipulated assemblies be moved from the Forum to the high school gym.
“Meg [Rabinowitz] is warm, and funny, and thoughtful,” Shaw told the Bit. He also said he is grateful for Rabinowitz’s work on hiring, professional development and supporting Shaw’s own work as head of school.
“Within communities of people, there are relationships. And when somebody leaves, there’s a shift in those relationships,” Shaw said, referring to the upcoming changes in the highest levels of leadership at the school. “In terms of the mission of the school, that doesn’t change. The values of the school don’t change and our program doesn’t change.
Arielle Stopak and Avery Fragale contributed reporting.
This article was updated on April 6 and 20.