Work was scattered about his desk, but Charlie Sachs, St. Martin’s-in-the-Field’s new Head of School, appeared calm, cool, collected and content last week. With summer classes ended and summer camp over for the day, he was the only person left on campus and happy to greet a visitor.
Sachs arrived at St. Martin’s on July 1st to take over the position held for seven years by Jamey Hein. An experienced educator who has headed schools across the country and the world, he’ll serve as Interim Head for a period of two years, keeping the school strong and well-grounded while the Board of Directors searches for the next permanent head.
Interestingly, he and his wife Kim arrived while a renovation is taking place in the original school building now used for the elementary school. St. Martin’s ability to safely open in September of 2020 and remain open through this June while public schools were closed due to COVID-19 led to increased enrollment – from 230 to 280 students (and possibly a few more). The renovation of the elementary school, when combined with the 2019-built Learning Center that houses the middle school, should accommodate the additional students.
“We were maxed out as far as space is concerned so we’re converting some of the large open rooms in the elementary school into classrooms sized more appropriately for our smaller teacher/student ratio,” Sachs said.
Moving to Severna Park has been a great experience. The community and school campus remind him of New England where he’s held several positions as an educator.
Himself a graduate of the independent Hawken School outside of Cleveland, Ohio, Sachs followed a similarly independent career path. Following college, he joined the Peace Corps teaching English in North Africa and subsequently taught in East Africa. Arriving back in the United States, he held positions as a coach and teacher at boarding schools in California and New England and moved on to become assistant headmaster of an independent day school in Boston. He next accepted his first seven-year headmaster position at a school in Kansas City.
Upon the completion of his tenure there, he agreed to a one-year contract as interim head of a school in Little Rock, Arkansas. But, as is often the case when hired to “fix” a problem, one year was extended to four years. Afterward, he headed a school in Park City, Utah for a number of years. Eventually, he took an interim position in South Korea “creating a remarkable school in a remarkable country with a commitment to education that was truly awe inspiring.”
Sachs said he found each school interesting in its own way and learned a lot at every one of them. He added that his educational and personal perspectives were broadened through working nationally and internationally. Living in wonderful places like Tunisia or Kenya near Nairobi or Santa Barbara overlooking the ocean or Park City where his four sons could ski to their heart’s content was a definite perk. Yet, he feels his most interesting teacher/head of school position was his most recent at The Stanwich School in Greenwich, Connecticut that began as an interim commitment but lasted much longer.
An independent school created during the late 1990’s when a great deal of money flowed into the area, The Stanwich School was a PK-12 school with a $45,000 yearly tuition. It was located on a beautiful property and had an International Baccalaureate accreditation and an excellent faculty. However, like other private schools, it experienced financial difficulties during the economic downturn that began in 2007 and needed to find a way to survive.
“We ended up combining our program with that of the Greenwich Country Day School which was founded in 1927 and attended by the Bush family,” Sachs said. “They had the money and the reputation so, by putting the young, dynamic Stanwich School together with Greenwich Country Day School, we developed assets neither of us could have replicated individually. It was a fascinating process.”
Though headmaster at two schools for quite a long tenure, this is his fourth time being an interim head. Very often, schools look to bring in an interim when there’s been a problem as a kind of trouble-shooter to fix what’s wrong.
“That’s not the case at St. Martin’s,” said Sachs.
Initially attracted by the eagerness of the board and the thoroughness of their search, he traveled from his home in Savannah, Georgia twice to visit the school. He was very impressed with the school’s documentation, administration, faculty, curriculum and strategic plan.
“It was refreshing to see a school that has done things thoughtfully and correctly,” he said.
He finds interim positions attractive because schools already know what they want to accomplish and what their priorities are. Therefore, the interim head can move efficiently through those priorities to prepare the school, faculty and community for the longer term head.
“In my case, we have an AIMS (Association of Independent Maryland Schools) accreditation process to complete and I’ll be working with our relatively young board on being an effective independent preschool though eighth-grade school – one that is strong educationally and financially,” he said.
Sachs very much enjoyed meeting with parents for the first time at a Coffee and Conversation breakfast on July 29 where he and other staff members shared plans for the upcoming year. It’s been decided that, for the present time, school will open with the same successful protocols they employed last year – with masks for students indoors with plenty of outdoor mask breaks and recreation. He’s really looking forward to students’ arrival on the first day of school.
For information on St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School, visit St. Martins Episcopal Preschool, Elementary, Middle School in Maryland (stmartinsmd.org)
Talent Machine Company’s “Urinetown”, The Musical debuts August 6
The hallway of The Classic Theatre of Maryland at 1804 West Street was strewn with backpacks as most of the teen actors they belonged to were rehearsing in the theater just beyond the wall of photographs.
On a break between scenes, actors Andrew Limansky and Daniel Jones talked about how happy they were to be in the production. Daniel, as the character Hot Blades Harry, likes playing a rebel with a hint of danger about him. Andrew, who plays major character Caldwell B. Cladwell is equally enthusiastic playing a money grubbing robber baron. Both actors, who spent the past school year doing remote learning, are delighted to be able to act and interact with people their own age in a musical comedy.
“It’s so much fun being in this company and I’m learning so much,” Daniel said. “I can’t wait till opening night.”
Andrew, who has appeared in other Talent Machine shows, said loves being a member of this cast and having the opportunity to act, sing and dance again.
It seemed the hallway was quite a busy place.
Make-up artist Bella Bergen was seated on the hall floor applying pancake to actor Reid Murphy who has appeared in several Talent Machine productions.
At the far end of the hall, Whitney Green sat on a chair sewing a costume.
Whitney has appeared in a number of Talent Machine Company shows as an actor and dancer and also was a student choreographer. This year she’s gaining experience on the production team.
“I’m doing costumes, working with the microphones and am also working the spotlights for the first weekend of the show,” she said. “You learn a lot with Talent Machine.”
According to the show’s director Sarah Johansen, “Urinetown”, The Musical premiered on Broadway in 2001 and is considered a very funny show. She said there are 17 teens in the cast ages 14 through 18 who are having a ball.
The show will run August 6th through 8th and August 12th through 15th and will be held at Talent Machine’s new venue, The Classic Theatre of Maryland (formerly known as The Shakespeare Theatre of Annapolis). Evening and matinee showtimes available. Tickets are $20.00 and are available for purchase online at www.talentmachine.com or at the door.
