New Headmaster Michael Wirtz is already off to a great start settling into the Hilltop and making the transition into his new position as headmaster. Out and about during preseason and since the start of the school year, Mr. Wirtz has been greeting students and “taking the time to meet with every faculty and staff member” in the community.

Mr. Wirtz noted that making the adjustment from a boarding school to a primarily day school was not such a drastic change, especially since Hackley is “not a school where at three o’clock everybody’s gone. People stay here, they’re connected to each other, and there’s a sense that this is a home away from home even if you are sleeping in your own bed at the end of the day,” he said.

In his previous position at St. Mark’s School in Southborough, MA, Mr. Wirtz gained valuable experience in “professional development programming for faculty, schedule changes, programmatic changes, curricular changes, and working with parents and alumni,” and is prepared to draw on those skills during his time at Hackley.

For his first year, he plans to listen and learn about the school with a priority of “attending events and getting into classrooms as the year unfolds.” Since three construction projects on campus are already underway, Mr. Wirtz plans to take the time to get to know the members of the community rather than coming in with radical changes.

Currently, Mr. Wirtz believes that “there’s nothing that is broken or needs fixing – the school is in great shape. It’s about taking something great and thinking about how we can make it better and if there’s a new direction that we might shift towards. The changes will be evolutionary, not revolutionary.” Mr. Wirtz has already established a new tradition since his arrival; he  held a

“Senior Breakfast” for the morning of First Friday, where he could talk to students during their transition  into a very important year. This small but significant addition is sure to be cherished for many years to come.

With the ongoing construction, Mr. Wirtz says that the administration is “taking steps to minimize the impact as much as possible,” and he emphasizes that we will need to be living actively with it throughout the school year. While there will certainly be parking headaches at times, the “long-term benefit of the construction is that we will have a magnificent center that will be at the forefront of wellness education and athletic centers for independent schools,” he said.

To grow accustomed to the community further, at some point in the fall or winter, Mr. Wirtz wants to shadow a Middle and Upper School student, allowing him to “look through the eyes of a student, go to every class with them, and see what their day is like at Hackley,” he said.