I am 16 years old and sitting in a meeting of students and teachers – mostly students and a few teachers. The teachers are all young, except for the head of the school who, at 40, is ancient. He smokes a pipe, deeply inhaling the thick tobacco smoke as he considers the issue.

We students are also the trustees of the school. The board of directors is comprised of all 71 students in the school. In the topsy-turvey world of this progressive “free” school, we are considering whether or not to take disciplinary action against a teacher who has been accused of harassment.

It is one of those extraordinary moments in life, the memory of which retains its freshness and clarity over 35 years later. Teenage students determining the fate of a young teacher on the basis of a report from another student.

When we rule against the teacher, the adults in the school, including the ancient 40-year-old pipe-smoking head, respect and abide by our decision.

The enormity of our action is not apparent until the now-terminated teacher strides defiantly through the common room – the scene of our “town-hall” meetings, where we struggle together to shape a young school’s destiny – and turns on his heel to address us from the open doorway to the busy street outside.

“Just remember,” he spits out at us, “it’s not the meek that shall inherit the earth, it’s the dirt!” The door bangs shut behind him, he is gone for good, and in the heavy silence that follows, we understand for the first time the nature of the power we’ve been given.

In the intervening years, I had never heard of another school that took the most unusual step of having students serve on the board of trustees – until I came to MPA. From the beginning, MPA has had an elected student representative on the board.

Every year, a new student representative joins the board, typically the president of the student council. This year, senior Vance Ryan has stepped up to the challenge. And when we chatted in my office this week, I thought of that time over 35 years ago, the sound of the door banging shut still echoing down through the years.

To be sure, much is different in our model from the one I experienced as a teenager. There is one student representative among many adults on the MPA board. More importantly, our board follows established best practices in having responsibility for only one employee – the head of school. No authority to hire or fire anyone else at the school resides with the board.

But the impact of MPA board work is strategic and long term. In some ways, the challenge to our student representatives is even greater.

Vance joins a long line of students who have served the board well. During the 2004-2005 school year, for example, the board undertook the task of re-writing our core document – the school’s mission. It could be argued that no single task carries more significance for it is the mission that drives everything we do – our source document.   

A select team of five was tasked with crafting a new mission for the first time in the school’s history. Our student representative to the board that year – Stuart Gates – was one of the five. His contributions to that process were invaluable.

The year was punctuated by marathon meetings of the five-person team with reams of word charts covering the walls of the workroom. And over the course of the year, student groups were brought together for their perspectives on the mission of their school. One of the key phrases in the 29-word final statement was a direct quote from one of our upper school students – “intellectual ambition”.

Students at MPA are expected to take leadership roles in ways that really matter. There are consequences. Student leaders also played key roles in one of the other critical board functions – the hiring of the head of school. I remember clearly then senior Larkin Barker and junior Karli Gasteazoro actively participating in the search process that led to my hiring.

As I sat with Vance when we met this week, I could sense that he takes his responsibility as a board member seriously and that he is committed to bringing the student perspective to board deliberations. In fact, he already has, showing none of the typical hesitation of new board members about speaking up in meetings. His input has already made a difference.

I am more than a decade older today than that “ancient” pipe-smoking head of school of my youth. I guess that makes me pre-historic, although I certainly don’t feel that way. What keeps those of us in schools feeling young is the daily opportunity to be present with young people.  And to have the opportunity…

“…to teach students to think independently, communicate effectively and act with respect and integrity in a diverse community that models intellectual ambition, global responsibility and the joy of learning.”

Mike Downs

Head of School