Dear Princeton Friends School Community,

I often tell people that I wish every child could experience a Friends education. I’m convinced the world would be a better place: full of more humanity, empathy, curiosity, and collaboration. From all that I’ve learned and experienced over the last several months, it’s safe to say that I wish every child could spend their elementary and middle years getting a Princeton Friends School education. Everything that is apparent in the founding of the school, the campus, the culture, the values, and the approach to learning speak to me and to my vision for what is right and good for young people.

The mission of Princeton Friends holds so much: about curiosity, voice, learning, creativity, and stewardship. And it closes with the notion that PFS “both prepares students for the world that is and models possibilities for the society that these young people will one day help to create.” That dual purpose captures what excites me about arriving at Princeton Friends to be the next head of school: to serve those goals for such a human-centered and heart-centered school community. I want to help ensure that the days that students spend on Quaker Road are full of purpose and joy as they are learning to be themselves in the best possible ways and learning to be in the world in the best possible ways. I want to do all that I can so that the present and the future are bright, full of hope, and full of possibility for our students, our school, and our community.

Patience, joy, anticipation, and excitement have been my swirl of daily emotions while waiting to officially say to you all how very excited I am at the prospect of beginning my work as head of Princeton Friends School. I was caught immediately by the experience of zooming with your search committee–with the obvious pride, stewardship, and heart that each person conveyed about PFS. To hear and feel that across constituents–board, faculty, parents, administrators, meeting members–was resoundingly special for me and also set my expectations high for what it might feel like to visit PFS and immerse more deeply in the textures of this clearly special school community.

My visit lived up to every bit of my own hopes. When I got in my car the next day to drive south to Virginia, I tapped into a clear and true feeling in my heart: that I would be delighted to head back to Quaker Road to continue conversations and to deepen the relationships that I felt forming with future colleagues, with students I had the delight to interact with, and with parents, meeting members, and board members who clearly have so much care and love invested in the well-being of Princeton Friends School.
 

I look forward to partnering with all of you in helping Princeton Friends thrive and evolve, ensuring the strongest possible future for all of the students and families fortunate enough to experience a daily school environment so rich with wonder, play, curiosity, kindness, creativity, learning, and responsibility in the world. With enthusiasm for all that’s ahead, Peter