MARYMOUNT MESSENGER

Welcome to the Marymount Messenger, Marymount of Santa Barbara’s weekly email newsletter.

Please click on the links for past issues of our newsletter.

Messenger 8/27/10

Messenger 9/3/10

Head of School Announces 2011 Departure

Dear Marymount Community,

We hope this letter finds you well and looking forward to summer vacation.  We have just completed another highly successful year at Marymount.  The positive momentum of the school is palpable with applications up over 30%, a waiting list for kindergarten admission, continuing progress on the implementation of our Strategic Plan and a very successful CAIS accreditation visit recently completed.  As the leaders of the Board of Trustees, we could not be more proud of Marymount, our faculty and staff, and our Head of School, Debbi David.  In this context it is with disappointment that we are writing to inform you that Debbi has notified the Board that she will not be able to extend her contract with Marymount when it ends on June 30, 2011.

Debbi’s decision is purely a personal one, based on a quality of life choice with her husband, Ron.  Debbi and Ron have been living in Ventura for the past several years with Debbi commuting daily to Santa Barbara and Ron commuting to his work at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.  Their combined daily commute of 7 hours has led them to decide to relocate closer to Ron’s work in Los Angeles.

This decision surfaced when the Executive Committee recently met with Debbi to offer her an improved and extended contract.  The Board is extremely proud of Debbi’s work and it was important to the Board to secure her further commitment to Marymount.  Our goal was to have a new contract in place before the end of the 2009/10 school year and announce that to the Marymount community before summer vacation.  It was during these discussions with Debbi that she first informed us of her and Ron’s decision.

We have attempted to convince Debbi to stay on as our Head of School.  We have been open and creative in that effort but, as we all know, Debbi does not make important decisions lightly and she and Ron are committed to their relocation plans.  Of course, our love and respect of Debbi and Ron trump our disappointment and we have told Debbi that we will support her in any way we can as she moves on from her highly successful tenure as Marymount’s Head of School.

Naturally, a change in leadership can give rise to concerns but, rest assured, this is a normal part of the life of a school.  The Board will be working diligently over the next several months to bring in new leadership to carry forward the great foundation put in place by Debbi and our faculty.  We will be partnering with Debbi in this process for Debbi cares greatly about Marymount and wants to ensure that she leaves our school in the hands of a truly qualified new Head.  In this regard, here is some important information:

Debbi will continue to serve as our Head of School through her current contract term which ends June 30, 2011.  It will be “business as usual” at Marymount through the next school year.
The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees will immediately begin the process of interviewing search firms to select one to work with the school on a nationwide search for a new Head.  We hope to have this firm selected by August 1st.
The Board of Trustees has appointed Hilary Doubleday, a current Board member and parent at Marymount, as Chair of Marymount’s Head of School Search Committee.  With the guidance of our selected search firm, we anticipate the membership of this committee to include current Board members, parents, faculty and staff.
As we progress through the search process, we will be keeping our community informed and engaged and, as we did in our prior search, we expect to have finalists visit Marymount and meet with our community to introduce themselves, answer questions and get to know us as we get to know them.
It is our goal to hire a great new Head of School for Marymount by early 2011.  Please note that this is the normal time frame for hiring a new Head of School and is consistent with the Head searches Marymount has conducted in the past.
While the Head’s role is important to an academic institution like Marymount, it must be remembered that Marymount is not dependent on a single individual for its success.  It is the commitment of our students, families, faculty, staff and Board of Trustees that make Marymount the great school that it is today and that ensures it will be in the future.  As much as we are disappointed to lose Debbi as our Head of School, we are energized and excited about the opportunity to bring in new leadership to continue the rich history of success built over the past 72 years at Marymount.

Sincerely,

Thomas D. Pickett                                              Kristin K. Linehan
President                                                            President
2009/10 Board of Trustees                                2010/11 Board of Trustees

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Dearest Marymount Families,

I’ve been reflecting on the great, protracted communal feast I’ve enjoyed these past four years at Marymount.  It has been a remarkable time of shared understandings and values, and of restorative respite in a community whose warmth is unparalleled.  But like all communions, the journey to the table is incomplete unless it inspires our return, reluctant though it may be, to a doubting and unsettled world.  We are repeatedly sent from the cloistered comfort of communion to go in peace…to love and serve the Lord, the world, and one another.  Few partings are more heart-rending than those that call us to leave a spiritual haven where we have found rest.  Nothing challenges our faith or tests our trust more than bidding farewell to the familiar, to face an unknown future.

When my husband and I moved to the area four years ago, we accepted jobs that would ultimately change our lives.  Mine here at Marymount has ignited a lasting passion for independent school education and brought me boundless joy.  My husband’s work at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles has given him great satisfaction and a national reputation for excellence in pastoral education…along with an exhausting five-hour a day commute.  In the past few months it has become clear to both of us that between sleep deprivation and the strain of his lengthy commute, it would be impossible for us to sustain our commitments over time.  So, although we had planned to remain in the area for a decade or more, it was with great regret that I informed the Board of Trustees that I could not sign the proposed contract renewal they had offered me.  Generous and sincere though that offer was, Ron and I will move to Los Angeles next year where he will remain at his current post.  And I’ll resign my position as Head of School at Marymount effective June 30, 2011.

I cannot begin to capture in words the pain this decision has caused me though I know in my heart it is right.  Marymount is not merely a school to me, nor is it simply a job. It’s become my life.  I have found here a faculty team so eager to serve your children well that it takes my breath away.  When I speak with administrators from other schools, I can honestly describe our Board of Trustees as endlessly supportive and truly professional in their approach to governance.  Trust me when I tell you, I’ve made several other heads of school more than a little jealous of the leadership the Marymount Board demonstrates at every turn.  And I want you to know that our Board did everything in their power to convince me to stay.  I could have asked for nothing more…from them, or from you as parents, from the children I love, or from the faculty.  This place has been the perfect home for me.

On a brighter note, you’ll see the date of my departure is actually quite far in the future, giving us another full, rich, wonderful year together. We’ll move through another cycle of seasons, weaving our tapestry of work, and play, and laughter; and we’ll have twelve more months to ensure the continuation of the educational progress to which we point with such pride here at Marymount, twelve months more to embrace your children and watch over their growth and learning.  And I will leave them in good hands.  Wherever I look, I see the fruits of the faculty’s work these past four years.  They have embraced and mastered differentiated instruction; bolstered our reading and math programs; authored a groundbreaking religion program in Kaleidoscope; and increased student interest and participation in athletics.  Our standardized test scores have soared and we dramatically increased the percentage of our graduates accepted into the most competitive schools. The school is vibrant, robust, and healthy.

The Board has already begun to structure a national search for my successor.  There is little doubt in anyone’s mind that Marymount will attract a deep pool of exceptional candidates.  I plan to assist in any way I can to ensure an elegant and seamless transition to our next Head of School.  It was a colleague on the faculty here who told me once, “Marymount is truly blessed and consecrated; and she will last forever.”  I believe that with all my heart.  Thank you for allowing me the honor of playing this one small part, however brief, in Marymount’s long and glorious history.  And you can be assured she will not just “last;”our Marymount will thrive…forever.

Sincerely,

Deborah David
Head of School

Marymount Reunion and Birthday Mass 2010

Marymount’s Reunion and Birthday Mass 2010
will be on Friday, September 17, 2010
on the Marymount of Santa Barbara Campus.

Reunion 2010 will begin at 11:30 a.m. with registration and campus tours. A special luncheon reception for alumni in the Tea House will begin at noon with the Birthday Mass being celebrated at 1:30 p.m. The awarding of the Distinguished Alum Award will be presented during the Mass. Please contact Andrea McFarling at 805-569-1811, ext. 234 or amcfarling@marymountsb.org to nominate a distinguished alum and to RSVP.

All alumni are welcome to attend.

Honoring the following classes:
Class of 1960 – 50-year reunion
Class of 1965 – 45-year reunion
Class of 1970 – 40-year reunion
Class of 1975 – 35 year reunion
Class of 1980 – 30-year reunion
Class of 1985 – 25-year reunion
Class of 1990 – 20-year reunion
Class of 1995 – 15-year reunion
Class of 2000 – 10-year reunion
Class of 2005 – 5-year reunion

WELCOME TO MARYMOUNT OF SANTA BARBARA

Welcome to the world of Marymount of Santa Barbara! We are so happy that you’re visiting our website so we can share this special place with you. Nestled on a lush mountainside in an area aptly referred to as “the American Riviera,” Marymount welcomes students from Junior Kindergarten through Grade 8. Its extensive campus overlooks red-tiled roofs in the valley below and the sapphire waters of the Pacific to the west. Marymount of Santa Barbara prides itself on maintaining a close-knit family atmosphere, embracing familiar faces and newcomers alike in the supportive bonds of community and friendship. Marymount draws its strength from traditions dating back to the school’s founding in 1938; but our energy and mission are fully modern and borne of our consistent commitment to knowledge, values, and community.