Welcome to Restore the Brook
There have been some changes in board composition. Mark Hollis's name has been gone for some time. Note the absence of Norman Koop and Daniel Yates. Douglas Kirk and Michael Koh remain. (May 23, 2014)
The Board of Trustees met over Homecoming weekend. Here is a schematic of how Stephen P. Dill
(who has no connection to SBS) came to join the SBS Board:
A message to alumni from the new Head of School, September 19, 2013:
The current (July 18, 2013) list of trustees on SBS Wire is noteworthy for the names that are absent. What happened to Mark Hollis?
This list and the accompanying article were recently published on Facebook as being items not currently funded. With a wide range in prices, and over 6000 potential alumni to fund them - most of whom having the means to fund even the smallest of gifts - what does this say to the Board about the Alumni's unwillingness to participate in giving?
Announcement of new board of trustees chair; new and departing trustees, also linked here.
Interview with Joshua Crane February 1, 2013 on Youtube, with a duplicate upload (different URL) linked here.
Notes taken at the February 2, 2013 on-campus session with SBS Board members and alumni.
Questions for the SBS Board of Trustees have been compiled, and submitted to them in advance of their meetings on February 1 and 2, 2013, and the on-campus session for alumni on February 2 at 1:15 pm.
SBS Alumni are invited to an on-campus session with the Board of Trustees, February 2, 2013: 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm.
Link to SBS Petition 2013 posted January 15, 2013.
Email from the Entire Faculty to the SBS Community dated January 9, 2013, also linked here.
SBS Wire Announcement dated January 3, 2013 of the Appointment of Joshua Crane as next Head of School, also linked here.
Full text of Donn M. Gaebelein letter dated December 30, 2012 to the SBS Constituency, linked here, and published with permission:
December 30, 2012
To Whom It May Concern in the Stony Brook Constituency,
I understand from reliable sources that Mr. Joshua Crane has been offered the position of Headmaster of The Stony Brook School. I am glad that everyone agrees that Mr. Crane is well educated, personable, welcoming, relational, and compassionate—in short, that his personal credentials are impeccable. Stony Brook deserves this.
At the outset of the search process, the Board affirmed its intention to seek the counsel of former SBS Headmasters. It was not until after the finalists had been selected, when the Vice Chairman of the Search Committee called me in the late Fall asking for input. I urged that the next Head of Stony Brook must have working experience in a competitive secondary academic program and experience in a boarding school environment. I understand that Mr. Crane’s working experience in education is limited to Kindergarten through Sixth Grade and that he has headed a church related elementary school for a number of years.
Leading a school of Stony Brook’s first rank academic stature mandates, at the least, some years of teaching experience in a comparable institution and some years of administrative experience in such an environment to develop an understanding of teenage students. Mr. Crane has neither, so apparently, the Stony Brook Board is willing to risk the School’s hard-won academic stature and mission to be academically excellent in a committed evangelical Christian community to some years of “on the job training.”
In the history of America’s leading independent college preparatory schools, there are sobering examples of solid academic programs, which have, under unqualified leadership, slipped, “Balkanized”—in “plain speak”—lost their edge. No matter how qualified the faculty, there must be a qualified leader “driving the train,” always pushing for program coherence and improvement.
Then, and of equal import, Stony Brook is primarily a boarding school. Stony Brook needs a Head with boarding school experience, hopefully one who has pulled dormitory duty on a regular schedule. Except as a student himself away from home, Mr. Crane has no professional boarding school experience.
Stony Brook does not deserve a Head who lacks those two basic qualifications.
Should there be an overriding agenda presently unknown to the broad Stony Brook constituency that compels Mr. Crane’s appointment despite his lack of credentials, the Board needs to share it with the very many of us who have a deep love for the School and have supported it yearly.
Respectfully,
Donn M. Gaebelein’45
Rock Stream, New York
*Note: Karl Soderstrom and D Bruce Lockerbie have reviewed this letter and agree with its contents.
This Open Letter to the SBS Board of Trustees dated December 30, 2012 has just been released.
Since the Fall of 2011, the internet conversation about the current climate at SBS has been limited to Facebook users. The time to widen the web conversation is long overdue. Over three years since the Board of Trustees sought to amend the School's Platform of Principles, and over one year since the announcement of the Headmaster's resignation, many SBS Community members remain unaware of the situation that continues to unfold at our School.
With the recent announcement on Facebook that the Independent Alumni Association for The Stony Brook School has been formed, it is critical that the conversation include the SBS Community members who do not participate in social media.