"And I Really Love the Children..."

    We’re looking for a Lower School head, Jo Sullivan, one of her students and a long-time reading instructor at Collegiate, mentioned one day.  Why don’t you apply for the job?
    Curious, Jill did her due diligence and was intrigued by what she found.  She went through the interview process, visited classrooms, and met students, faculty, and staff.
    The challenge of replacing the venerable Dr. Dellanna O’Brien, who was retiring, excited her.  When the offer came, she readily accepted.
    In the ensuing years, much would transpire south of the creek.
    The Lower School would grow from a few ‘50’s vintage buildings to a state-of-the-art complex.
    Technology would proliferate, and curricular offerings would undergo continuous evaluation and improvement.
    Class after class of kindergartners would begin their Collegiate experience, move through the grades, and head off into the world.
    Experienced faculty would move on, and energetic, creative newcomers would come on board.
    On June 30, Jill will retire, but she won’t sit idle.
    Instead, she’ll volunteer in an inner city elementary classroom and spend more time with family.    And she’s excited about several interesting part-time opportunities in education.
    “It’s been a wonderful experience,” she said of her tenure at Collegiate.  “I’ve learned much more than I’ve taught from the wonderful people I’ve worked with.
    “And I’ve had two great assistants, Nancy Lipscomb and Laura Fields, that I couldn’t have lived without.”
    Jill’s office contains years of memorabilia, most of it centered around the theme of children and childhood.
    There’re family pictures, many of which include her four young grandchildren.
    There’re books.  Many, many books.
    One day recently, Jill talked of her time at Collegiate.
    Some of her thoughts and reflections.

    Colleagues
    What I’m most proud of is the faculty.  We have fabulous teachers in the Lower School, and after 27 years, there’re only four that I didn’t hire.
    I think I can interview somebody and get a sense of who they are as a teacher and as a person fairly quickly.  
    I like people who appear very bright because I feel like they can come in, bring new ideas, and understand the complexities of a curriculum and where the overlaps can be, in a good way.  I’m obviously looking for somebody who cares about children and understands children developmentally.
    I’m really looking for somebody who’s a team player.  It’s such a culture at Collegiate that you’re a member of a family in a good way.  We all look out for each other.  Being a member of team is very, very important.

     Collaboration 
    It used to be you kind of went in, shut your door, and did your thing…and did it well.  What we’ve evolved to, and I love it, is the collaborative approach…project-based learning, thinking beyond a textbook or worksheet.
    Our teachers are fantastic in what they think about, what they teach, and what they share with their colleagues.  That’s the most exciting part.

    Transcendent moments
    There were three Septembers in a row in the early 2000’s that we started with some hard event: 9/11, the (Beltway) sniper, and Hurricane Isabel. Teachers did a great job pulling together during those times.
    After 9/11, we made the big American flag out on the football field.  That was a very memorable, touching kind of day.  Everybody went out in the red, white, and blue and made the flag.  That was a very poignant moment for us as a school.
    Certainly, one of my favorite days is Convocation. I just love watching those kindergartners with the seniors. I remember when those seniors were in kindergarten.  Some of them don’t look very different.  They just got taller.  
    It’s fun to watch them when they come back over here and have lunch with the kindergartners and seeing them sitting in the garden reading books.  A big old guy with two little girls sitting there, reading a book.  

    Traditions
    Every first day of school, someone asks me, are you hiding the Hunter Pumpkins again?
    They’re paper pumpkins that have my name on them because in October there’re lots of pumpkins around.  If you find them, you come to my office and get one of my books that you check out.  You enter a contest to win a gift certificate on Halloween. And you get a piece of pumpkin candy.
    Mainly, it gives me a chance to talk to children two or three at a time.  We get to talk about what they like about reading.  

    Legacy
    I hope that (the faculty) will say that I was always fair and honest in all our dealings.  I always try to put the child first. Sometimes, when there’re hard decisions to make, if I say, what’s best for a child? it makes it easier to see the answer.
    I hope they know that I’ve really cared about them as teachers and about growing in the profession and I’ve been helpful to them.
    And I really love the children.
            -- Weldon Bradshaw