Head of School
Perkiomen School
Pennsburg, Pennsylvania
This is an excerpt from the NAIS Member Voices podcast.
Tell us about your role. How did you get here?
My father was headmaster of Moravian Academy (PA) for about 25 years. I grew up watching a school go through challenges and someone build a really healthy environment that thrives today. My father was kind, generous, and thoughtful, and he included me in a lot of his work. I always aspired to be a head, to run my own school, and be part of a school community.What’s the best advice you’ve received?
Remember the importance of everyone on campus. Growing up at Moravian, I got to know the business manager and the assistant head of school and spent time in their homes with my father, and I got to know their children. Leroy was part of our family—all day long he’d cut the grass at the large campus. My father first started in the middle school building, and every time I would go late in the day, I saw Ralph and Emil cleaning—they were as close as family members. I saw firsthand the importance of valuing everyone regardless of role; it was critical to building a healthy environment and a safe place and an opportunity for a culture of growth.What’s your communication style?
My style revolves around being involved and being connected. It’s increasingly challenging today as a head of school when I spend a lot of time away from campus, and when development is such a critical part of the role. But while I’m on campus, I go right to the center of what’s happening in the school, and that’s really helped me.During my last headship, I learned a great lesson from the head’s council, a group of students with whom I had an ongoing dialogue. I asked, “What are the ways in which I can be a more effective leader especially when I have limited time? How should I use my energy when I’m on campus?” And one of the students said, “If you try to run around and see everybody, that’s not going to be as effective. That feels more like being a politician. I think you ought to invest more in less things and do it more deeply.” I thought, wow, I’m typically racing around, trying to be sure that I’m as visible as possible during those times. So I made some shifts because of that. I’ve tried to put myself into situations in which I can invest more of my time and energy with a group of students who I get to know really well, and then in turn, I get to know their friends. It was really healthy for me to gain some perspective.
How do you lead through change?
I learned a great lesson when I was the middle school head at The Episcopal Academy (PA). I was trying to rally faculty members, a number of whom had been at the institution for a long time. I sent three or four people to the same conference. The impact ended up being exponential compared to letting people go to whichever conference they wanted to or what I thought might have served them well. And before you know it, we had a large rally cry from teachers who had a common experience, and that allowed us to grow significantly as an institution-—through camaraderie as well as from each of the things the individuals owned through that experience.What keeps you up at night?
The biggest challenge right now is to help people understand what a significant life-changing experience it would be to have an independent school experience at Perkiomen. It’s sharing our story in a way that allows people who can afford an independent school experience to know that and embrace that.What’s your proudest moment?
Investing in our people at Perkiomen and in their lives as teachers—and also as individuals and community members. I’m most excited that they see the merit in the same way that I do and that my administrative team does as well. This is a life choice to work at a boarding school and to invest your life in education. I’m proud when someone is investing in something that’s not just about them; it’s about making the world a better place.How do you hope to grow in your role?
My goal for our institution is for us to differentiate ourselves from other schools and to lead at a time when education is in dire need of growth and change. It’s very hard to change when you’re in an institution that historically has been really successful.It’s really tough to make a shift when people already know you in a certain way. But that way is not always setting kids up for the greatest success as we look ahead. This school is depending on me to help lead us in a way that’s going to be better in the long run.
My goal is to continue to serve this school well and to retire from this job someday having created an institution that is different and that can be replicated in other institutions, that can work to serve public institutions, and can create a better culture that allows kids to thrive in a particular kind of educational environment that is sorely lacking in schools across the United States.
What’s the first thing you do every day?
In my office there’s a picture of my father shaking hands in the morning with all the students as they come into the school building. Every morning I stand in the front of the school and shake hands with students—it sends a powerful message about the importance of connection. I want to be able to shake their hand, give them a good look in the eye, and have them build and strengthen an ongoing relationship with me. We’re all built differently. We all have different personalities. But for our school, we want to create a safe and supportive environment, one that’s going to challenge them. The best way to do that is through the personal connections.What have you read or listened to that has really stuck with you?
Individuals like Daniel Pink—he’s someone whose voice allows educators to look at things a little bit differently. Those are the types of voices that are important to me. It’s important for us to stretch ourselves with experts out in the real world and to be able to read some books that shake up our thinking.Ted Dintersmith is one of the great voices in trying to shake up education and has a tremendous background and experience. He is unafraid to go to the heart of the issue and invest himself in schools around the nation to really try and shake up the way we look at things.
Is there some
thing about you that people find surprising?
I was very fortunate to have had a successful athletic career and for a long time was viewed as an athlete. It took a while for me to be viewed as an administrator and somebody whose driving force was about the school rather than my past in sports.
I am trying to grow an athletic program here that revolves around kids playing a sport, getting a lot of playing time, getting the exposure of being on a team, and achieving health and wellness in the long run. That was an integral part of who I was, and I draw on that every day. Few things are as important as physical activity and playing a sport.
Listen to the full interview with Mark A. Devey on the NAIS Member Voices podcast. Download it now at iTunes, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher, or Google Play. Rate, review, and subscribe to hear a new episode each month.
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