Each year at this time, we celebrate our colleagues who have reached significant milestones in their years of service at Belmont Day. Please join me in thanking and congratulating Chris, Sarah, Anderson, and Annie for all they have shared and accomplished over their years at BDS!
Chris Parsons – 10 years
For ten years, one of our most consequential community gatherings, the Sharing Assembly, has begun with a greeting from Chris Parsons. A talented director, actor, and teacher, it has been Chris’ understanding of tone-setting and community that has helped to shape how we see and receive one another when we are gathered together in the Barn or the Palandjian Arts Center. As a director, Chris’ performances always center the student experience, and his recent innovation of playwriting has ensured that every voice in our community has its chance to be showcased. Chris’ vision has been instrumental to our students’ success, and we are deeply grateful for his excellent work over ten years.
Sarah Barrow – 15 years
Equipped with an incredible work ethic, acute attention to detail, and an inspired understanding of why we all do what we do as members of a school community, Sarah Barrow has arrived at school each day ready to put her community first. With her steady and committed leadership, the school has successfully navigated a rapidly changing and challenging financial landscape. Her work considered in the context of that landscape becomes that much more remarkable: stewarding our school through a major capital campaign, playing an essential role in the financial management of the Barn construction project, establishing a ten-year model for our operating budget that has become the Rosetta Stone for our decision-making processes, managing every departmental budgeting process, leading finance committee meetings, and always keeping the Belmont Day experience for the students front and center in her work. Ever humble, Sarah works to the highest of standards and, in so doing, has positioned the school for future success, even as she sets the bar higher for each of us every day. We congratulate Sarah on her fifteen years of service to Belmont Day.
Anderson Santos – 20 years
An important point of clarification as we begin to honor Anderson: if you ask him, he will tell you he has been here for twenty-four years. The four-year difference is a story of a career weaved together first as a camp counselor, soccer coach, basketball coach, health and wellness instructor, and twenty years ago, as a full-time employee of Belmont Day. That history is important because, for Anderson, the story begins with the experience of our students, a sentiment that has guided his work here for these many years. As our director of operations, Anderson continues to put students first as he manages their bus transportation and ensures that the campus is safe and beautiful each and every day. In every way, Anderson has contributed to the literal and figurative structure of our school, and we are all grateful for his contributions and influence in our summer camp, on our buildings and grounds, on our playing fields, in our classrooms, as a Belmont Day parent, and as a caring colleague and friend. Thank you, Anderson, for twenty years of dedicated service to Belmont Day.
Anne Armstrong – 25 years
Many comment on the Coolidge Art Studio, which houses Annie’s pottery wheels and visual art classes in the Barn. They talk about the view, the bay windows, the high ceilings, the wheels themselves, and the kiln. I quickly remind them that for all of the phenomenal resources there, the true magic of the space lives in Anne herself. A teacher who has, for twenty-five years, placed the students at the heart of her work, Anne’s space is a reflection of the excellence of her practice: student smocks hang outside her classroom as a reminder to them of the important rituals of an artist’s mindset and to everyone that students are why we gather here each day. The moment you step within the studio, the wonder of organized chaos—meticulously placed art everywhere. Clean and clear one moment, jumping with vibrant voices and color the next.
For twenty-five years, Anne’s classroom has been a reflection of the dedicated teacher, coach, leader, and professional that she is every day. Whether as the arts coordinator, a cross-country coach, a Capstone coordinator, a middle school visionary, a caring and thoughtful colleague, or a tireless and deeply dedicated teacher.
The great painter Henri Matisse once noted that “creativity takes courage.” Anne Armstrong has both in abundance. Congratulations, Anne, on twenty-five years of service to Belmont Day.
