Welcome from the Head of School

Messages to the Community

• April Note from Page Street
• Spring Note from Page Street
• New Year Note from Page Street
• Fall Note from Page Street
• Back-to-School Note from Page Street
• Note to Class of 2026

Articles and Food for Thought

Periodically, I share articles I’m reading with colleagues or the community more broadly. At times, I’ll share these out directly with people. Other times, I refer to these articles or books in Notes from Page Street or during an administrative team meeting. Some have direct implications for the work we do at Urban; others are thought pieces that might inspire conversation but have less direct consequences for how we “do school.” No matter, consider this a virtual bookshelf for some of the ideas that I, and possibly others around Urban, are tuning into so that we can model the life of the mind that this place is known for.

2025-2026 Academic Year:

• Thriving in a World of Pluralistic Contention: A Framework for Schools

This is a thought piece published by several heads of school from various institutions around the country about the ways in which independent schools think about ideas in an increasingly polarized landscape. Collectively, the heads put forth pluralism as a framework for schools to consider. It’s an interesting article, though not without limitations. It could have some implications for how we approach helping students work through challenging local, national, and international issues.  

• The Revolutionary Love Project

The Revolutionary Love Project was brought to us by the 2025-26 UrbanReads team. Dr. Melissa Canlas, Director of Education for the RLP and mentor of Jason Ernest Feldman (Urban's Dean of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging), joined us to talk about the power of revolutionary love in the complex times in which we’re living.

• Governing with the Brain in Mind

This is a piece I shared with Urban’s Administrative Team from the Institute for the Future which speaks to how we are grappling with polarization in society. Succinctly, the institute, in its 10-year forecast, asks a profound question: “How can a thinking, feeling species organize itself wisely — especially in a world that feels increasingly brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible?”

• A school leader’s guide to engaging the next generation of parents

An Australian consultancy’s thoughts on how to best partner with parents in school communities. The group characterizes parents of this generation as values driven, time-poor, digitally literate but cognitively overloaded, invested in partnership, and focused on the future. After a year at Urban, I’m using this as a framework to think about our parent and guardian community — what do you think?

• The Power of Prison–Community Partnerships

This work, coming from the University of San Francisco Law School’s Racial Justice Clinic, highlights some of the work that our students are both learning about and engaged in through multidisciplinary courses like Voices of the Incarcerated at Urban. More than 20 students attended this symposium, organized by Urban parent Lara Bazelon.

• The Ladder of Inference

Organizational psychology Chris Argyris has shared this tool with the world, which has a range of uses. I shared this with our faculty and staff in terms of what and how we make sense of observable facts in front of us and subsequently use those observations to act. 

• Joan Didion's Thanksgiving (New York Times)

A short Times article about the love of cooking for friends and family — a nod toward the community-building we all participate in — that I shared in a 2025-26 Notes from Page Street.

• Authentic Connections: Brief on Middle and Upper School Wellbeing

Urban launched its partnership with Authentic Connections in the Spring of 2026 as a way to measure the wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff. Twice yearly, we’ll administer assessments in our community to look for ways we can support wellbeing through maximizing the positive aspects of school and community life (protective factors) and minimize the aspects that are most commonly associated with lower levels of health (risk factors). This brief gives summary data from more than 130,000 students across the country.

• Making Time for Generative Work

This article, written by Anne Marie Balzano, talks about the ways in which independent school boards can engage in fiduciary, strategic, and generative thinking to best serve the school’s mission. I shared this with our Board of Trustees as a part of our ongoing commitment to best fulfill the mission of the Urban community.