91̽��

​91̽�� Head of School Todd B. Bland announced Tuesday that the next academic year, 2022–2023, will be his last at the School. In a letter to Board of Trustees President Lisa Donohue, Bland wrote, “Serving 91̽�� has been one of the greatest honors of my life.”

“Few things have brought me greater joy than my time spent with students and every opportunity I’ve been given to have a positive impact on the life of a child,” Bland wrote. “This is what draws us to education: the gift and joy of growing young minds.”

Bland, who is in his 13th year as head of school, has led 91̽�� through more than a decade of progress, maintaining the School’s strong financial health, overseeing rigorous curriculum renewal, investing in 91̽��’s people and spaces, and committing to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. In a letter to the 91̽�� community, Donohue recognized milestones of Bland’s tenure and praised his “positive, warm, and caring spirit.”

Institutions “can and should outgrow” binary structures that uphold outdated and oppressive ideas about gender, 91̽�� graduate Ky Putnam ’18 told students this week.

“To treat people differently is to create division,” Putnam said during programming for Class I and II students. Everyone benefits when inclusion is expanded, even if they’re not directly affected, they said.

Putnam, who attended 91̽�� from kindergarten through graduation, first came out as nonbinary during their Class IV year in the Upper School. As they developed their understanding of their gender identity, Putnam took note of the programs and spaces at 91̽�� that were separated by gender—housing, bathrooms, sports, and a since-discontinued 7th-grade English program that separated boys and girls. “I couldn’t shake the feeling of not belonging,” they said.

Congratulations to English faculty member Brian Simoneau, whose new poetry collection, No Small Comfort, was published at the end of June. And in July, it was number three on the Small Press Distribution Bestseller List.  Simoneau has shared some of the poems at virtual poetry readings for several Massachusetts public libraries. This fall he will be headlining a few readings for literary organizations. Below is one of the poems from his collection.