La Lumiere is Pleased to Announce Our Head of School

Dear La Lumiere Community,

You have probably read by now that I have accepted the school’s offer to become the long-term Head of School, dropping the Interim from my title. I am excited to embrace the opportunities and challenges that come with the position and look forward to a long commitment to help the school grow and evolve into the best version of itself.

When my family and I arrived in early July and moved into Kennedy House, we did not know quite what we would find here. I had visited briefly, but my family had never seen the area or the campus. That’s how adventures begin sometimes, with a leap of faith. I went to work the next day, but it was July 3 and most people were on vacation. I was fortunate to be able to connect with teachers, staff, and some students at a reasonable pace over the initial weeks, more of a wading in than a cannonball into the deep end. Sooner than I expected, La Lumiere began to feel like home, and that sense has grown more rewarding over the ensuing months. I find myself energized by all aspects of the work and the community here and I am truly excited to commit to the school for the long term.

Since that time, I have been blessed with the opportunity to pull together a talented administrative team with an exciting mix of La Lu veterans and newcomers, work with a dedicated faculty and staff, engage with a fascinating school body from nearby towns and all over the world, meet with parents and alumni at multiple events, experience cherished traditions for the first time, and work with a committed Board of Trustees to understand the past and present of the school and plan for its future.

My family and I are truly gratified by the warm ways we have been greeted and by the care people have shown to try to help us find our bearings. Every school I have worked in has had distinctive identities and areas of excellence. Among them, La Lumiere stands out for the deeply felt love for the school shared by people across generations, from its founding to today. It’s something that is hard for me to put into words when I speak to old colleagues about my experience here, but La Lumiere lives in the hearts of its people in a way that is cherished more palpably than any other school I have been part of. That love for the school and the comfort our students feel being here is a strength we will nurture and use to work toward an ever-brighter future.

Part of my job involves examining all aspects of the daily life of school and collaborating with others to provide the richest school experience possible to all of our students. Our students have a broad array of interests and strengths. We seek to provide experiences that help them explore those fully and to develop new ones. We want to deepen their fascination with the world and to help them develop their sense of purpose. As they leave us and find their way into our complicated world, we want them to walk with confidence, knowing they possess the inner resources and the moral compass they need to build lives of fulfillment and meaning.

In my Interim role, I have spent a great deal of time asking “How do we meet these goals? And how well do we meet these goals?” I am now committed to lead La Lumiere School for multiple years, and that enables me to engage with La Lu people to fully engage with important longer-term questions, phrased not just as How do we, but as How might we.

How might La Lumiere evolve over multiple years to thrive as an institution, to provide a transformative education now and over generations? To dream big and bring these dreams to fruition requires resources of time, energy, care, along with financial ones. As Head of School, I embrace the challenge of nurturing the qualities and building the trust and commitment to the school that we need to succeed. Over the coming months and years, we will offer many opportunities for you to share your perspectives on matters related to La Lumiere, and please know that you can communicate those directly with me at any time. Our mission and our powerful ethos of community will endure, and whatever changes emerge in school life, La Lumiere will continue to be grounded in our focus on character, scholarship and faith.

I look forward to working with the La Lu community in the realms of both present and future. La Lumiere is a great school now, and it can become even greater. I am confident that we have the ability and the will to build on the strengths of the school and create the conditions it needs to thrive for the next 60 years. I look forward to working with the whole school community to achieve our goals together in a great collaboration. I am proud to be a Laker, and wish all of you a warm and wonderful holiday season.

With warm regards,

Andy Webster

Head of School