Tower Hill knew that Ms. Baker would be our head of school in January; she has known since she was five.
“I have wanted to lead a school for decades, since I was little,” she said. “I knew the head of my school well,” said Baker, who went to Episcopal Academy in Montgomery County, PA. “At that time I just thought ‘What a fun job.’”
According to her, the job lives up to all her expectations. “It doesn’t feel like working to be the head of school,” she said, the content clear in her tone. “I can’t imagine enjoying anything more.”
Head of School is a very different role for Baker. While she previously served as Head of Upper School at Tower Hill, she has been an English teacher for most of her career.
“It is a step away from teaching,” she said, but a step she’s willing to take, at least for now. As for the future, Baker outlined her goal to return to the classroom, “I care so much about teaching that I would rather not do it for a period of time so that I could do it well later.”
Baker previously taught English at Episcopal Academy, her alma mater, where she worked alongside several future Tower Hill teachers, including Ms. Coleman. Coleman described working with Baker as “inspiring and immensely comforting.” “I’m so happy that she’s the head of school,” she went on to say, “that’s exactly what she should be doing.”
But colleagues aren’t the only people from Episcopal that Baker has been able to reconnect with. Mr. Viscusi, a new addition to the math department, was a student of Baker’s during his high school years. “It took a bit of recalibrating for me,” Baker admits. “I thought, when I first saw him sitting at a table with Mr. Waesco, ‘Isn’t that nice that Mr. Waesco’s having lunch with a student?’” But the confusion quickly gave way to joy. “It is a teacher’s dream to have a student they taught become a colleague,” she said, “It’s phenomenal.”
Given all the meaning that Episcopal Academy has to Baker, it would be easy to miss it. But Baker doesn’t feel that way. “More than missing [Episcopal], I feel gratitude to Episcopal,” she said, “I really feel like I came up as an educator there.”
Now, Baker is throwing herself entirely into Tower Hill. “I’m at the front most days, when I don't have an irreconcilable conflict, because the freshness of the morning and the day ahead, the innocence of kids coming into school to grow that day is just wonder.”
Mrs. Baker welcomes students into school on the first day.
Baker encourages other teachers to connect more with the community as well. “If there’s ever a time when an administrative task, getting something done on a list, is put up against connecting with another human being in this community; giving help to a student, going to a student’s performance, helping a colleague with something; always have the task be late. Don’t choose the task, choose the person.”
Her actions speak to this prioritization of
connection as well. Walking into school every morning, her office is always open–most people never even noticed there was a door there.
She brings everything back
to her relationship with her own head of school.“This man considered himself the lead teacher; he was there for kids. That’s what I want to be.” And she’s taking every step she can to be there for the community. “I don’t want to lose touch,” she confided. “It’s why I have an advisory; it’s why I keep my door open.”
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