Dear Wellington Community,
As a history teacher, I have spent much of my career in conversation with students about the habit of situating ourselves within the longer arc of history. I see it as among the most humanizing acts available to us: to look backward so that we might look forward with clarity and purpose. This idea connects directly to the concept of collective learning, the defining ability of humans to share and build upon knowledge across generations. It is what gives humans a history in the first place.
That understanding has grown more complicated of late. Researchers are actively debating whether modern technology represents the first genuine challenge to what has been, for roughly 250,000 years, a uniquely human ability. This moment reminds us, rather urgently, why institutions like Wellington exist. If collective learning is no longer exclusively our province, then the depth and quality of the human learning and connection we cultivate here, grounded in community, in mentorship, in paying attention, and in the hard-won negotiation of ideas among people who know and care for one another, matters more than ever.
Looking Back and Forward
We are finishing the last week of the 2025–26 school year, one defined by remarkable breadth and ambition. Our work was rooted in a core conviction: that a Wellington education must evolve alongside the world our students are entering. That belief drove meaningful change across the school. We launched a new Upper School schedule and expanded course offerings in both Middle and Upper School to deepen intellectual rigor and forward-thinking learning. We opened a new kindergarten wing. We introduced our first all-school Learning Showcases, where students reflected not only on what they learned, but on how they came to understand it and why it matters. And we recorded sixty Middle School Dives, deepening student agency and engagement.
Community and connection defined this year as fully as academics did. We welcomed our inaugural Director of Community Engagement and found new ways to gather and learn together: Sunday Suppers, twenty French exchange students, four student groups traveling abroad, opportunities such as Model UN and leadership conferences, canoe-building (and paddling!), alumni returning to mentor students and each other, and a surprise visit from Jon Batiste. And a moment I will carry with me for the rest of my life, we came together as a community to dedicate the Coach Artie Taylor Court, honoring a beloved coach and ensuring his legacy remains woven into our daily life. It does.
Through it all, we stayed true to a conviction at the center of everything: Wellington is excellent because of its teachers. This year, we deepened our investment in them, expanding professional development opportunities and launching an endowment, seeded with $5 million, dedicated to supporting our educators for generations to come. I will admit to some bias, but I believe we have the finest faculty in the world. And this community understands that sustaining that excellence is a shared responsibility, and it is on all of us to make sure they are supported.
The arts flourished across every division: art shows, three major productions, six Lower School plays, eleven concerts, a community mural, an original student composition, and much more. Our students competed at the highest levels, earning league titles and state championships in swimming and track, top honors in national robotics championships and state classical studies competitions, and recognition through National Merit and Advanced Placement distinctions, ACT-SO awards, and Youth in Government leadership accolades.
Looking ahead, the momentum of this year carried directly into planning for the future: faculty, trustees, and students collaborated to design a 70,000-square-foot renovation that will reimagine the Upper School and enhance creative arts and community gathering spaces.
These are just some of the moments that made this a full and meaningful year. Taken together, it was a year that was ambitious and deeply human, a community building knowledge across disciplines, experiences, and connections. In a time when learning itself is changing, what endures at Wellington is the strength of our collective intellectual curiosity and the quality of the human connections that sustain it. What runs through all of it is what has always run through Wellington: a community that shows up, works hard, and takes genuine pride in one another.
Coming Up: Moving Ups and Graduation
Next week, we will celebrate the milestone achievements of our 4th and 8th graders as they move up to their next Wellington chapters. The culminating event of the year will follow as we honor the Class of 2026 at Wellington's Commencement. It will be a privilege to celebrate these outstanding seniors, who embody the Wellington Way in everything they do. Click here to learn more about the Class of 2026.
Looking Back, Looking Ahead: Our Campus
Three Saturdays ago, founding families, trustees, faculty, alumni, and friends spanning five decades gathered to honor the 1918 building before its pending demolition. David Blanchard, Wellington's second Head of School (1986–1997), flew in from Maine to join us and spoke of the bold conviction of our founders and early faculty, people who imagined and then created a school that did not yet exist. Beloved 30-year Middle School veteran teacher Mary Potter reminded us that today's Wellington exists because of the accumulated devotion of its faculty. She also revealed that secret "Y2K" capsules are buried beneath the building, and I can confirm we have prioritized their discovery during the demolition process.
Those of you who have driven by the Fishinger Road side of campus recently have seen the new Coming Soon sign. In a wonderful moment during the groundbreaking ceremony, two founders and our current Board Chair recreated the original photograph of the sign that once announced Wellington's arrival.
Left: Founders Ken Ackerman, Jeff Wilkins, and Jack Ruscilli in 1982. Right: Chair of the Board of Trustees Jim Croft and founders Jack Ruscilli and Jeff Wilkins in 2026.
In just a few weeks, we will actually break ground on the largest construction project in decades. Over the summer and into next school year, we will offer hard hat tours for all who are interested. Please reach out to Melanie Eggleton to join an upcoming tour.
As we embark on this landmark project, I am pleased to welcome Rachel Yantis as Wellington's new Chief Advancement Officer. With professional acumen and meaningful alignment with our values, Rachel will strengthen our community by deepening relationships and advancing the school toward its fullest potential. I look forward to introducing her more fully in the weeks ahead. Learn more about Rachel here.
Looking Back and Ahead: The Head of School Point of View
Over the last two years, I have read as much as I can find of the letters and speeches of the five Heads of School who preceded me. I am consistently struck by how pervasive the animating vision for Wellington has been. In his address during Wellington's 25th anniversary, Head of School Rick O'Hara articulated it with characteristic conviction:
"Let it be said in our 25th year, and throughout the next 25 years, and the next 25 beyond that, that no school had a more refined focus on its mission than Wellington, that no school offered more hope for the creation of a brighter future and a better world, and that no school engaged its students more fully, challenged them any better to fulfill their unique potential, supported them more effectively, or loved them any more genuinely."
— Rick O'Hara, Head of School, Wellington's 25th Anniversary, 2006
And now, those "next 25 years" are mostly spent. And based on everything I have witnessed, I believe we are rising to meet them. Wellington began in 1982 with 138 students and an audacious proposition: that school could and should be better. As we close out the 43rd year, our school is standing at one of the most significant junctures in its history. Guided by the Bold Leap Strategic Plan, this moment calls us toward an even higher vision for education. The next chapter for Wellington is being written by all of us, together.
Thank you for all you do for Wellington. Thank you to those who built what we have inherited, and to those committed to building what we will become.
This weekend, as we observe Memorial Day, we pause to honor those who gave everything in service to something larger than themselves, an inspiring standard of devotion to community and to one another.
Have a wonderful and safe weekend and, as always... Go, Jags!
Eliza McLaren
Head of School