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Leadership Blog

Liz Parfit

The Scoop On the 2024-25 Admissions Season

By Liz Parfit, Director of Admissions | May 03, 2024

We are excited and proud to report that Belmont Day had another banner year of interest and engagement from prospective families. This season, we continued to see high applications relative to pre-pandemic numbers, with a remarkable 30% increase in total applications received over those that came in during the 2019-2020 admissions cycle. Our volunteer tour […]

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Brendan Largay

Creating Great Habits and Even Better Mistakes

By Brendan Largay, Head of School | April 26, 2024

Welcome back, everyone! I hope you enjoyed a great vacation week. Typically, I use the April break to catch up on the books and magazine articles I have placed on my proverbial bedside table, and this year was no different. As I chipped away at that pile, two articles have occupied my thinking as we […]

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Capstone Week 2024: Learn, Do, Share

By Brendan Largay, Head of School | April 12, 2024

Every year, the build-up to Capstone Week is palpable. Students carefully finalize their presentations, mentors shuffle schedules to ensure a final touchpoint with their mentees, and communication from the dynamic Capstone partners and guides Dean Spencer and Jen Friborg picks up in coordination and with a true anticipatory buzz. This week, Capstone arrived in all […]

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Seeing Science, Society, and So Much More in the Solar Eclipse

By Anthea Lavergne, Director of Curriculum and the Associate Teacher Program | April 05, 2024

Teachers and students are preparing to observe Monday’s forthcoming total solar eclipse. The excitement behind what’s on the horizon will fuel learning and ignite sparks of joy throughout our community. Our school’s approach to teaching and learning about the eclipse culminates with students in grades first through eighth adorning special lenses to experience, through their […]

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Blank Walls Transformed By Student Art, In a BIG! Way

By Jen James, Assistant to the Head of School; Registrar; Director of Special Projects | March 29, 2024

No doubt about it. This week has been dark, drab, and dreary outside our walls. It seems there are only shades of gray on Mother Nature’s palette as we say goodbye to March. Thankfully, inside our walls, we’re surrounded by a growing gallery of the vibrant colors we seek from spring.  From our school counselor’s […]

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Brendan Largay

At Belmont Day, the FOMO Is Real

By Brendan Largay, Head of School | March 22, 2024

As a head of school, you learn that when you take a bit of time away, there is never a “perfect” week for your travels. Something is always happening at school, something special that you will miss, a moment of learning, sharing, caring, and joy that you wish you had experienced firsthand. The school is […]

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Rachel Starks Chaves

By Dr. Rachel Starks Chaves, Eighth Grade Math Teacher |

March 14, 2024

In my first teaching position, one of my seventh grade math students was a colleague’s son. The colleague regularly connected to assure me that her son was getting by okay in math, saying things like, “I don’t expect him to…
Liz Gray, middle school head

By Liz Gray, Middle School Head |

March 8, 2024

Last week, I attended the NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) conference in St. Louis (my hometown!), where the theme was “thrive.” Speakers, presenters, and attendees like me found renewed joy and inspiration in the work we do in independent…

By Brendan Largay, Head of School |

March 1, 2024

Over the summer, Jen James, my assistant and masterful keeper of my calendar, asked me: “So, are you planning on teaching Shakespeare again this year?” As with most questions Jen poses, she already knew the answer. In this case, it…
Connie Yepez

By Connie Yepez, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging |

February 16, 2024

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou As human beings, we are fallible; we are imperfect. At some point, we will all make mistakes that hurt others or…
Annie Fuerst

By Annie Fuerst, Director of Innovation |

February 9, 2024

Downstairs from my office in the Barn, what looks like a mess is growing out from the door of our IMPACT Lab. Students sit and work between piles of cardboard and yarn. They reach in all directions for haphazardly folded…
John O'Neill

By John O'Neill, Director of Athletics |

February 2, 2024

The Barn gym may be empty as I write this, yet I can see and hear the excitement—”Let’s GO, BDS!” is ringing out, flashes of blue and gold are everywhere, players race back and forth between the lines, and familiar…
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