Dear Parents and Friends of Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School,

I want to let all of you know about a very important change of leadership at Saint Stephen’s School for the 2010-2011 school year.  Dr. Richard Stark, our Headmaster for the past five years, has advised the Board of Trustees that he does not plan to renew his contract with the school.  Richard plans to move on in his career to positions in the cultural resource management/archaeology field as well as higher education and secondary teaching positions for anthropology, archaeology, and social studies.  He plans for the month of June to return to the management of Sports Country www.sportscountrycamp.com, the family youth camp established by his father in 1971 where he and Tesa worked before coming to Saint Stephen’s.  This exciting career change is something Richard has been planning for some time, and the Board of Trustees and I are very grateful to him for announcing his decision this far in advance to allow for a very smooth transition for our new Headmaster.

I am very pleased to announce that the Board of Trustees has unanimously elected Sam Sockwell to be the Headmaster of Saint Stephen’s School upon Richard’s departure.  Sam has performed outstanding service first as Controller and then as Assistant Headmaster over the last two years.  Most of you know Sam well and appreciate his leadership and communications skills.  He comes from a family of educators who value learning:  his mother, brother, two daughters, and two sons-in-law are all teachers.  Following undergraduate studies in liberal arts (Philosophy and Religion), he has since obtained two masters degrees:  one in Business and one in Education (secondary English).  He taught for two years and coached at all levels for over twenty years while raising a family and working in management for a telephone company.  He has also been a consultant and real estate developer, a college athlete, Senior Warden of his church, and Treasurer of his church and of two church schools. 

As you can see, he brings a wealth of experience and a love of children and learning to his new position.

Please join me in wishing Richard well in his new career plans and in welcoming and supporting Sam as our new Headmaster for the next school year.

Yours in the love of Christ,

Bob Reed

Chairman

SSES Board of Trustees