The St. Michael’s Board of Trustees is pleased to announce that John H. Zurn will be the next Head of St. Michael’s Country Day School in Newport, RI beginning July 1, 2014. Current Head of School, Whitney Slade, will be leaving St. Michael’s after a remarkable sixteen-year tenure to lead Rumson Country Day School in Rumson, New Jersey. Mr. Slade has been the longest serving Head of School in St. Michael’s seventy-five year history and has been an “inspirational and transformative leader,” says Bethany Di Napoli, Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Mr. Zurn comes to St. Michael’s with twenty-three years of Head of School experience in Pre-K through 8th grade schools. Mr. Zurn currently leads the Pegasus School in Huntington Beach, California and previously led St. John’s Episcopal School in Olney, Maryland for twenty years. Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Zurn led a team of faculty, administrators and Trustees on the National Schools Research Project. Over a 6- month period, team members visited twenty-three of the most outstanding independent schools in the country in an effort to answer one question: “What makes a school great?” Through that work his team identified six characteristics that all great schools have in common. Mr. Zurn is excited to bring that knowledge and his vast experience to St. Michael’s where he will continue to inspire St. Michael’s on its journey towards excellence.
“It would be hard to visit St. Michael's without feeling the warmth and vitality of the community. Like Newport itself, there is great pride in its history and its traditions of excellence. At the same time, there is an expectation of great things to come. The students I met conveyed a confidence in the future that reflects the passions and ideals of their teachers. As one child conveyed to me, ‘my teachers make me work hard but I love it here’. I cannot think of a greater spirit to inspire this next generation of leadership,” says Zurn.
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A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Mr. Zurn attended Williams College where he earned a B.A. in English and the University of Pennsylvania where he earned an M.S. in Educational Leadership. In 2006 Mr. Zurn completed the Klingenstein Heads Fellowship at Columbia University Teachers College.
To learn more about St. Michael's Country Day School visit www.smcds.org!
