School Transitions :
Reflections from a Departing Head
By Bernie Noe Departing Head , Lakeside School • Seattle , WA
This year I completed my 23rd and final year as Head of School in Seattle , Washington ; and , as I type these words I am 18 days into a new phase of life ! So far , after 18 days , I am still stable and I think even happy ! I thought about leaving Lakeside several years before announcing my intention to Lakeside ’ s Board as I just knew it was time for me to move on to new adventures . I have worked at five schools in my 45-year career in independent schools and , in each case , about three years before I transitioned to a new school , I began to suspect it was time to do so . The signs were always the same : a growing weariness with doing the same tasks each year , impatience at hearing the same viewpoints expressed , even if they were being expressed by different people , and even a physical restlessness . By the end I could literally feel in my bones it was time to go . In each case I tried to strike a perfect balance between waiting long enough to make sure what I was feeling was going to stick and not waiting so long that I started cutting corners in my work . It has always been important to me to leave well , still fully committed and charging ahead .
Leaving Lakeside , of course , was different as I was transitioning to terra incognita rather than moving on to another school . I have always cautioned graduating seniors to not necessarily take the first respectable job that comes along after college unless they believe it will be fun or might help them discern what it is they are meant to do with their lives . I warn them that they might
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CSEE Connections Fall 2022 Page 11