The head of the school search committee presented its first finalist candidate to the high school on Tuesday, Sept. 30. The candidate, a head of a private school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, met with students and faculty and led a high school assembly.
During the assembly, the candidate told students about his experience in education. He answered questions about how he would lead the school using community feedback and how he would maintain GDS’ mission despite administrative turnover. He also shared his thoughts on GDS’ AI policy and the high school phone ban.
The Bit is not publishing the candidate’s name nor the name of his current school because he said that widespread knowledge of his visit to GDS could jeopardize his work at his current school. The candidate’s current school community, beyond a few individuals, is not aware that he is applying for the GDS head of school position. The candidate plans to remain at his current school if he does not get the GDS position.
The candidate declined to comment for this story unless he could review the article in its entirety prior to publication. The Bit does not allow anyone beyond the Bit’s staff to view articles prior to publication. In some schools, administrators demand to read articles prior to publication. That practice, known as prior review, is often a first step in newspaper censorship. The Student Press Law Center and the Journalism Education Association both oppose the practice.
The candidate has been a high school administrator since 2002 and has been a head of school in Pittsburgh since 2018. The candidate’s current school’s student body is a little over half the size of GDS’ student body. Prior to being an administrator, he taught English, French, theater and theology for 13 years. He was a high school principal in Indiana, Illinois and Florida prior to working in Pittsburgh.
The candidate has a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Supervision from Loyola University Chicago, an M.S. in Educational Administration from Purdue University Northwest, a Master of Theological Studies from Toronto University and a B.S. in Secondary Education and Teaching and French from Indiana University Bloomington.
“I’m at a great place at my current school,” the candidate said in the assembly. “It’s a good time for a transition for them and a good time for a transition for me.”
During the assembly, the candidate emphasized collaboration with faculty and students to understand what changes he needs to make in the school. “I need to make sure that the decisions that I’m making are nuanced according to the community in which I’m leading,” the candidate said.
Ten of the 22 students interviewed by the Bit said they thought this candidate should be the next head of school. Three students said they did not know enough about the remaining three candidates to reach a decision, and nine students said the candidate should not be the next head of school. Some students who did not want the candidate to be the next head of school said he did not understand GDS’ culture.
Nine teachers declined or did not respond to requests to comment for this story.
The candidate said the GDS founding value he really cared about was the founders’ belief that the school should provide an affordable, high-quality education to the children of federal workers. He said his parents struggled to afford to send him to Catholic school as a child. “Socioeconomic diversity, because of how I was brought up, has really driven the work I do,” he said in the assembly.
The candidate also referred to the administration’s strategic vision for the school’s future. Current Head of School Russell Shaw announced the plan during his Jan. 27 State of the School Address. The plan’s four waypoints focus on educational excellence, supporting faculty, the school’s financial model and increasing innovation. “That’s the road map for whatever needs to change at GDS,” the candidate said. He did not specify how he would implement the strategic plan.
“I think he understands the website’s values,” senior Ambar Grewal said. “He said a couple buzzwords here and there, like ‘Impact Lab.’” Formerly the Community Engagement and Experiential Learning office, the Impact Lab manages civic engagement and community service. Grewal did not think the candidate fully understood the school’s culture. “A lot of that isn’t his fault. You really have to be here to understand it,” she said.
“The job of the head of school is not for me to come in and impose my vision of what the school should be, especially since I don’t know it yet,” the candidate said in the assembly.
“He has to experience the school to understand it,” junior Mason Wechsler said. “He can’t just read something on the website.” Wechsler did not have an opinion on whether the candidate should be the next head of school.
The candidate met with parents in the lower/middle school library on Sept. 29. Senior parent Jessica Heywood, who attended the meeting over Zoom, said she was unsure if the candidate understood GDS’ culture. “GDS produces kids who have a tremendous amount of agency and autonomy,” Heywood said. “I think it’s gonna take a really special person to appreciate that.”
Heywood said she thought the candidate would be a strong administrator. “I think he could probably do a lot in terms of organization,” she said. Heywood added that she thought administrative capability is not all a head of school needs to be successful in the position. “Whoever is in this role has to be able to connect with all sorts of constituencies,” Heywood said.
Sophomore Eli Benveniste said he would have preferred more concrete answers from the candidate. “I feel like he dodged half the questions,” Benveniste said. Rather than directly answering questions about how he would apply the phone policy, AI policy and press freedom at GDS, the candidate gave a few examples from his current school.
Senior Teresa Dean, one of the Bit’s managing editors, asked the candidate how he would respond to newspaper editors at GDS if they published something that he thought they should not have. She also asked if he had ever disagreed with what his current school’s newspaper had published. The candidate told a story about a time the editor-in-chief of his school’s student newspaper published an article about how his Pittsburgh school spends its budget.
The editor-in-chief of the Pittsburgh school newspaper asked the candidate to review the article prior to publishing. “I don’t think it’s the responsibility of the school to monitor what you are or aren’t going to print, unless it’s unethical,” the candidate said. “So I think there are some limitations, but overall, your job as student journalists is to be student journalists,” he said. The candidate said student newspapers should not publish confidential information about disciplinary cases or unethical content.
The candidate said he thinks it is important to teach students responsible AI use. “It’s not going away,” he said about AI. “It’s our responsibility to help you learn, if nothing else, how to ask it the right prompts to get the information you want.”
Junior Ashwin Pathiyal said he liked the candidate’s ideas regarding AI. “It’s good to have AI implemented in the school, because it’s unavoidable,” he said.
At the candidate’s current school, two teachers teach a course on machine learning and the social implications of AI. The candidate called AI in schools a “balancing act” between teaching students to create original ideas and helping students adapt to a world with AI. “We can’t keep you in this bubble that doesn’t allow you to learn how to use it to your advantage,” the candidate said.
The candidate said his current school requires students to hand in their phones at the beginning of each class, but he did not specify whether the school allows students to use their phones during their free time. GDS’ phone ban forbids students from using phones between 8:30 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. regardless of whether students are in class. He said students at his school are allowed to carry phones as a safety precaution when walking between school buildings.
On Sept. 29, the candidate met with the Student Staff Council during lunch to discuss his ideas for the school. Freshman SSC representative Jonas Grossman said he liked the candidate because of his collaborative nature. “He mentioned a lot about trying to work with the students and faculty to make decisions with them, not just on his own, and I liked that,” Grossman said.
SSC will have lunch with the remaining three candidates on Monday, Oct. 6, Wednesday, Oct. 8 and Thursday, Oct. 16, respectively, and those candidates will answer questions from the high school during assemblies on Tuesday, Oct. 7, Thursday, Oct. 9 and Friday, Oct. 17.