PROVIDENCE – Moses Brown School will have a new leader come next academic year.
Matt Glendinning, who has led the private Quaker school for 13 years as its head of school, will depart on June 20. Glendinning, who began his tenure as Moses Brown’s head of school in 2009, told Providence Business News on Wednesday that he will become the new head of school at New Haven, Conn.-based Hopkins School starting July 1.
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Glendinning said between finishing up significant on-campus projects, including the school’s most ambitious fundraising campaign in its nearly 240-year history, he felt now was a “reasonable time to look around for a fresh challenge.” The Hopkins School, he said, subsequently popped on his radar last fall and “made the leap.”
But, the decision to leave Moses Brown is bittersweet, Glendinning said.
“Just this morning at 10 a.m., I published my final newsletter to the community where I reflect on things I loved about Moses Brown and what I’m going to miss,” he said. “Just writing that piece is kind of sad just thinking about it. I loved this place every minute of it and I think the community has done some great things together in the last decade.”
Moses Brown’s campus environment was greatly transformed under Glendinning’s tenure, according to the school. Among the physical changes to the campus were a new 36,000-square-foot Woodman Family Community & Performance Center that, Moses Brown said, rebuilt the heart of the campus. All of the campus’ athletic fields were upgraded and built a 12-court squash facility. Additionally, Moses Brown has just finished renovating and expanding the school’s Lower School for grades nursery through 4, Moses Brown said.
Moses Brown also completed a seven-year campaign last year to raise $65 million for the school, the largest such effort in the school’s history. Glendinning said it was in service of a comprehensive plan for the school and its future, focusing on some academic programs and investing in the people on campus. The school, he said, raised $15 million for an endowment for new scholarships to make Moses Brown more affordable.
He also said Moses Brown’s on-campus demographic has changed significantly as well. Glendinning said the number of Moses Brown students supported by scholarships and financial aid grew from 15% in 2009 to 41% currently. Additionally, Moses Brown’s student body makes up 30% of people of color, doubling the amount from 13 years ago, Glendinning said.
“We were very intentional about wanting the blend of students to be more reflective of the area surrounding us,” he said. “We set some very specific goals, and we started working on them slowly but surely.”
For programming, Moses Brown said, Glendinning helped oversee the development of the school’s Travel, Research & Immersion Program, which fosters global awareness through numerous overnight trips in all three grade divisions. Hundreds of students from all divisions on expeditions to places like the Dominican Republic, Italy, Spain, Germany, Kenya, China, Nepal and the Galapagos Islands, Moses Brown said.
Moses Brown also built a new 5,000-square-foot engineering and design studio called the “Y-Lab” that, the school said, supports “hands on, minds on” learning, including a dedicated Vex Robotics lab, a video and sound recording studio, and an array of digital fabrication tools.
Glendinning said he will not be part of the search for Moses Brown’s next head of school. Moses Brown, he said, has hired a search firm. Candidates are “applying as we speak,” Glendinning said, and the school hopes to have a new head of school by October.
(Update: Corrects percentage of students of color at Moses Brown in 9th paragraph)
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
