November 20, 2007

Dear Summit Friends,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees of Summit School, it is my great pleasure to announce that on November 19, the Board appointed Dr. Michael J. Ebeling as the new Head of School, effective July 1, 2008. The Board’s unanimous decision to select Michael followed the enthusiastic and unanimous recommendation of the Search Committee, which cited a nearly perfect match of the criteria established by the Search Committee and the Board with Michael’s educational philosophy, experience, and leadership skills.

A native of St. Louis, Michael currently serves as the Head of Lower School at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, one of the country’s pre-eminent K-12 independent day schools. He also served as the Head of Middle School at Lake Ridge Academy outside of Cleveland, and was an instructor at Lake Forest Country Day School outside of Chicago. He received his B.A. degree in English and Education from Lake Forest College. At the University of Virginia, he received an M.A. in English and a Ph.D. in English Education. In addition to his strong academic grounding, Michael has demonstrated throughout his career an innovative and effective leadership style and a true love of children and the learning process. His work in faculty and curriculum development has been particularly impressive. An extraordinarily bright, visionary leader, Michael is the right person to lead Summit at this exciting time in the school’s history. He understands Summit, shares its values, and will be an energetic and engaging leader of our school.

We are also pleased to welcome Michael’s wife Liz and their daughters Carolyn and Mollie as members of the Summit family. Liz is a reading specialist and a native of Chicago, and we look forward to welcoming Carolyn to our 9th grade and Mollie to our 6th grade next fall.

Michael’s appointment concludes an extensive national search conducted in partnership with independent school consultants Brigham Hill Consultancy. I would like to thank Brigham Hill’s principal, Linc Eldredge, and his associate, Jessica Cockrell, for their expert guidance throughout this process.  I would also like to thank our nine-member Search Committee for its dedication, hard work, and perceptiveness in seeing this process through to a successful conclusion. Finally, I would like to thank the faculty, administrators, parents, students, and alumni who provided valuable input to the Search Committee over this time. We appreciate your commitment to Summit.

All of these constituencies assisted us in successfully completing what is the most important charge to the Board, the selection of our school’s next Head of School. Please join me in welcoming Michael, Liz, Carolyn, and Mollie to Summit and to Winston-Salem.

Sincerely,

Thomas O. Moore III
President, Board of Trustees
Chair, Search Committee