NorthBay biz bears witness to Sonoma Country Day School’s changing of the guard—a headmaster swap 26 years in the making.
Twenty-six years after its establishment as California’s first independent school north of Marin County (as part of the National Association of Independent Schools), Sonoma Country Day School (SCDS) is saying goodbye—and hello.
In July, Philip Nix, one of the most progressive and influential educators in the North Bay, will close the door on a distinguished career as the founding headmaster at SCDS. Enter Bradley L. Weaver, current head of the upper school at Shore Country Day School in Beverly, Mass., who will take over the reins from Nix. It will be a peaceful transition of power, yet one that signals the end of an era.
Nix was the man who took the dream of three community-oriented women—SCDS founders Beatrice N. Coxhead, Juelle Lamb Fisher and Ellen W. Wear—and made it a reality far beyond their wildest expectations, crafting a challenging curriculum and an inspiring learning environment that’s changed the landscape of education in the North Bay.
In the years since Nix assumed the mantle of headmaster of SCDS, which serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade, five more independent schools have been established in Napa and Sonoma counties (Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, The Healdsburg School in Healdsburg, Merryhill schools in both Santa Rosa and Napa, and Blue Oak in Napa). He built extensive programs in art, music, drama, foreign language, math, science, ethics and athletics at the elementary school level at a time when public schools were eviscerating the same programs at all grade levels. He demanded accountability from teachers, parents and students—and got it. And during his tenure, SCDS built a beautiful, state-of-the-art campus that it shares with the community through summer, after school and cultural programs.
But amazingly, Nix’s greatest contribution to SCDS and the North Bay might not be the program or the campus he built, but instead the manner in which he’s leaving it. It’s a study in change management that would make Harvard Business School professor Rosebeth Moss Kanter, the guru of business management, quite proud. Kanter once said, “The individuals who will succeed and flourish will also be the masters of change: adept at reorienting their own and others’ activities in untried directions to bring about higher levels of achievement.” She may as well have been talking about Philip Nix.
Giving notice
To begin, the faculty, trustees and students at SCDS have had five years to prepare for life without Philip Nix. “I told the board five years in advance,” Nix affirms. “It’s always best to initiate your own exit rather than have it initiated for you. The timeframe was remote enough that they didn’t panic, but instead made the process much more thoughtful.”
For Nix, it seemed only natural to plot his path far in advance. Career planning has always been a priority, not only for himself but for the faculty and staff he manages. “I’ve always worked with the faculty to assist them with their next career decision,” Nix explains. “I’m always asking them the question, ‘How long do you want your career to last?’ And I want them to know I’m on their side.”
David Cole, who teaches seventh and eighth grade history and is dean of curriculum and academics at SCDS, confirms Nix’s assertion. “I’ve been here 20 years,” Cole says. “The reason I’ve stuck around is I’ve had an ever-expanding horizon challenge. I always feel there’s something new I can contribute.”
The long lead time was cause for introspection at SCDS. “It allowed them to rewrite the mission statement and rethink who they are,” Nix says. “The process reviewed the school for the future, not the past.”
“We’re different now,” explains Juelle Lamb Fisher, co-owner of Fisher Vineyards and one of SCDS’ founders, who headed the search committee to find a replacement for Nix. “There are many things in the picture now that weren’t there before. It’s one thing when you start a venture. You think there’s nothing to lose because you have nothing to lose. As time goes on, you begin to take fewer creative risks because now people’s lives depend on you.”
According to Fisher, Nix was “very clear” how long he wanted to stay at SCDS, “and the board was lined up to start the process. It gave us time to articulate what type of person we were looking for.”
It also was a time of reckoning for both the faculty and the trustees. “All of a sudden, we understood that ‘Daddy’s not going to be here anymore,’ so we all had to get stronger,” says Fisher, in reference to Nix’s commanding, yet somewhat parental, presence. “We had to learn to do things without him. Philip always attended board meetings, but we began to hold them when he wasn’t there full-time. Philip always wants to help people walk on their own—and, in a sense, that’s what we had to learn to do. It was rewarding for everyone to know that we don’t need a crutch all the time. The freedom we got was remarkable.”
“Philip is a powerful founding headmaster,” Cole says. “He’s at the center of all constituencies. It’s like a wheel with spokes, and Philip Nix is at the hub. The benefit of a long departure is that all of us—faculty, parents, trustees, even students—have learned to put much less expectation at the center of the hub.”
As a result, says Cole, “the board has grown in authority, vision and accountability; the faculty has become more self-sustaining and self-generating; and parents know to look to the faculty first, instead of the headmaster.”
And the school? “We’ve used these five years to strengthen the other legs of the stool, so to say, and move toward the next stage of institutional development,” Cole says. “The whole organization is more professional, organized and balanced.”
After taking time to assess their needs with an eye toward the future, the actual search for the next headmaster took about two years. First, the search committee took a year to screen and hire an executive search consultant, interviewing “six or seven” from around the country, according to Fisher. They eventually hired Link Eldridge of Brigham Hill Consultancy in Dallas.
The committee armed Eldridge with its specific sought-after qualifications—a dynamic leader who would share its vision as outlined in a new, five-year strategic plan covering program and educational initiatives, finance and development goals, communications and school culture, facilities stewardship and leadership and governance. At first, committee members thought they’d focus on hiring an existing headmaster from a prominent school. Through the urging of Eldridge, though, they opened their minds to look at candidates who weren’t sitting heads of school, but otherwise had everything they sought.
Paging Brad Weaver
One applicant in particular rose to the top: Brad Weaver, a North Carolina native with more than a decade of senior leadership experience with independent and public schools in such diverse places as Houston, Texas; Libreville-Gabon in the continent of Africa and Beverly, Mass.
Weaver, a gregarious man in his early 40s with a wife, Jeanne, and two young children, Benjamin and Isabella, was seeking a career change that would let him “establish roots,” in his own words. He applied for multiple positions, but was particularly impressed with what he saw at SCDS.
“The first thing that happened when Juelle Fisher picked me up [at the airport] to take me to the interview was revealing. She asked me if I knew how to put air in a tire, because her tire was going flat. I immediately thought, ‘If this school and this community is marked by that lack of pretense, this is a great place,’” Weaver says.
And Juelle Fisher was equally impressed. Not only did Weaver put air in her tire, he tried to teach her how to do it herself—a sign of a natural educator.
In his search, Weaver was looking to find a school that was a match for who he is as an educator—someone who believes in “developing children’s and adults’ integrity, working with others to solve problems, promote creativity and instill a strong sense of caring for self, others, the community and the environment,” he explains. At SCDS, he found it in spades.
“The search process was dramatically different at SCDS,” Weaver says. “It became apparent that the school does and practices what it says it believes. There was just a tremendous congruence of what they said it did and what it actually did, which is a reflection of Philip’s leadership.”
“Out of all the schools I looked at, this particular search process was the most thoughtful and left the best impression on me as a candidate. When I came in as a semi-finalist, they had me spend a full day in the community. Most schools just have an hour-long interview. I really knew the school when I left. I had met the students, faculty, search committee, founders and board of trustees. It was a very rich introduction.”
And while Weaver was impressed with what he saw at SCDS, the board and search community loved what they saw in Brad Weaver. “It wasn’t even a contest,” Fisher says. “He was our guy. He got all the votes: 100 percent backing.”
Challenges ahead
While Weaver and SCDS have formed a strong mutual admiration society, that doesn’t mean everything will be smooth sailing. The current economic crisis is expected to have a significant impact on independent schools, making it more difficult for them to retain and recruit students and raise the funds needed to support their programs.
“Brad’s biggest challenge will be dealing with the recession,” predicts Fisher. “The school is soundly grounded and everything is good, but the tweak will be the economy. We need to make sure we can keep our families here and provide financial aid to all who need it, as best we can.”
Plus, Philip Nix is going to be one hard act to follow. While it’s been said that pioneers are frequently unlucky because they tend to get shot in the back, Nix has very few noticeable puncture wounds. He leaves highly regarded, with an enormous fan club.
“I know he’s going to be a hard act to follow,” Weaver admits. “After meeting him, I was honored that they invited me [to replace him]. I’m in awe of the work he’s done and thrilled that they’d think of me as their second head of school.”
Leaving gracefully
Former student Katie Elliott, now a program manager in PG&E’s customer energy efficiency department in San Francisco, is effusive in her admiration for Nix. “He’s a very moving person, a big thinker and very compassionate. I felt he truly cared about every single student. He nurtured a sense of community and developed a wonderful faculty and staff.”
Nix has been much more than a headmaster. He teaches classes regularly and conducts morning assemblies “where he would deliver moving speeches,” Elliott recalls. “One in particular that I remember was when he made us write on our hands, ‘I can do it, yes I can, yes I can.’ He was so focused on keeping a positive attitude and pursuing intellectual curiosity. And he inspired the teachers and staff to foster a sense of social and environmental stewardship.”
Nix is also famous for keeping up with the students long after they leave SCDS, writing congratulatory notes on their accomplishments and offering advice as they pursue college and careers.
“One thing that really struck me is how available he’s been since I graduated,” Elliott agrees. “I went back and talked with him about my college thesis. He brainstormed with me about ideas and even helped me look for a job. He still cares about me and helping me develop personally and professionally.”
Elliott credits Nix and the learning environment at SCDS with giving her the confidence to actually create her own major when she attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo. She built her own curriculum and course of study in environmental policy. The year she graduated, the school built upon her work and created an official, sanctioned major.
Nix has also played a critical role in the lives of the faculty and staff at SCDS. “He’s been a life-long mentor to me and to the people around me,” Cole says.
“Philip believes a teacher is a way of being, and his greatest leadership quality is constantly exemplifying that. It’s not only which reading program you select and implement or what credentials you have. What sets you apart as a teacher is how you interact with those around you. Philip models that in the manner in which he engages and teaches students, and also how he engages and teaches the adults around him.”
“He has a marvelous capacity to be present for people in their lives,” Fisher explains. “I’ve never seen anyone like him. He provokes you to think about things you don’t normally think about—and how you can be there for others.”
Nix has been a guiding light for board members as well. “Not only did he help us as the founding headmaster, he helped us develop as board members. I always feel when I leave the school [after a meeting] that I’ve learned something. My 26 years with the school has shaped me and my life,” Fisher says.
For all the praise, Nix responds in humble tones. Much like Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot of the U.S. Airways jet that successfully landed in the Hudson River last January with no fatalities, Nix maintains that he’s just been “doing my job.”
“If I mismanaged this transition, it would contradict everything we’re about,” he says. “It’s important to learn not only to accept change, but to love it. I’m delighted Brad will be here, because we share the same core values. We both believe this is a passionate vocation, not a profession.”
Nix also believes the school did the right thing in focusing on the future. “It hired someone who can bring a vision, not a replacement for me,” he says. “Brad is exactly in the right place. He’s inheriting a strong school with a mature teaching staff. He has 25 years of value, so he has a bank account. And he’s passionate, trained and not cynical.”
As for Nix’s personal future, Southern California beckons. He and his wife, Susan, have two children, Matthew and Esmé, who both live in Los Angeles. Matthew is the creator, writer and producer of “Burn Notice” on the USA Network, and has three young children, Charlie, Esmé and Mateo, who, Nix says, will provide him with “a good workshop” for his continued study of the concept of embodied knowledge. Susan’s elderly parents also live in the area, so relocation will make it easier to tend to their needs.
And while he readily admits he’ll miss the daily experience of “humor, learning, exchange of ideas and affirmation,” that he’s enjoyed at SCDS for so long, Nix is ready for his next challenge.
Ever the pragmatist and always the planner, Nix says, “At some point, I, too, will get old and need assistance. I need to be living somewhere that’s appropriate when that time comes, so I’m planning for it.
“It’s a good idea to simplify life and put it in order—be present to it and have some say over it.”
Nix knows he’ll be missed, but he’s also a realist. “In three years, one-third of the people at SCDS won’t have known me. In six years, it will be two-thirds. And in nine years, I’ll be a memory,” he reflects.
Maybe so…but a memory that will be long treasured.
A Legacy of Leadership
Janet Durgin, head of school at Sonoma Academy, says they’re “tireless,” and Sandi Passalacqua, founder and head of The Healdsburg School calls them “mentors.”
They are Kirt and Bev Zeigler, the “dynamic duo” of education, and if there’s an independent school in Sonoma County, their fingerprints likely are all over it.
Over the past 26 years, the Zeiglers, who live just outside Santa Rosa city limits (he’s a founding partner in the law firm of Anderson, Zeigler, Disharoon, Gallagher & Gray), have devoted countless hours at their own expense to help build the concept of independent education in the North Bay. They’ve worked the frontlines in securing funding, served on and chaired boards of trustees and supervised the construction of two campuses (so far)—all for the love of education.
It started when Kirt’s daughter, Beth, enrolled in Sonoma Country Day School the year it opened. Not one to sit on the sidelines when it came to his children’s education, Kirt got involved and soon found himself appointed to the SCDS Board of Trustees. In a few years, Kirt and Bev’s daughters, Laura and Josie, started attending SCDS as well, and Bev became an active volunteer and also joined the board.
When it came time for SCDS to build its permanent campus, located on the west side of Highway 101 north of Airport Boulevard, Kirt supervised the effort and guided the school through the land mines that are always waiting to blow a hole in any construction project of such magnitude.
“Rich Coombs and the Airport Business Park donated the property, which had to be taken out of the open space district and rezoned, and then we had to secure a use permit for a school,” says Zeigler. The hitch? “It had never been done before in the United States.”
There were many county hearings that included reviews of flight patterns at the nearby Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport, conversations with neighbors and even approval from the Town of Windsor for the use of its sewer system. For every acre of open space that was used, two additional acres had to be found as “replacement.” Zeigler negotiated with nearby Standard Structures, Inc., which permanently designated eight acres as open space, and the school ended up purchasing additional acreage for an open space easement on the south side of the freeway exchange.
And all that was before they could start construction.
Once building began on the site, they discovered the property had a rather unique idiosyncrasy—all of the water from neighboring properties pooled on the school’s land. “We had to figure out how to drain it,” Zeigler says. They ended up installing specially designed underground “monster pipes,” that drained water to the northwest corner of the property and into a creek.
The entire planning and construction process took six years and the school moved to the new campus in Fall 2000.
“It was overwhelming how people pulled together to get the campus built,” says founding headmaster Philip Nix. “Kirt Zeigler is one tough guy. He stays with a project and it’s really quite amazing.”
Even with the SCDS construction project boiling away, both Kirt and Bev had another major project on the front burner—establishment of Sonoma County’s first independent college preparatory high school, Sonoma Academy. As founding trustees, both were very instrumental in the core organization effort, securing funding and hiring head of school, Janet Durgin.
“All the money for independent schools has to be raised,” Bev says. “It’s all about selling a fantastic idea that you believe in and getting people to participate. It’s actually a joy and pleasure to look for resources. I’ve received as little as $1 and have asked for as much as $10 million. I’ve learned to tell people it’s not about the amount of money they give, it’s all about the opportunity to be part of the effort.”
In 2001, with Sonoma Academy up and running in temporary quarters at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts (now the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts) and Sonoma Country Day School established on its new campus, Bev joined ranks with another Sonoma Academy founder, Barbara Banke of Kendall-Jackson Winery, to begin the search for land for a permanent home for the high school. They found a perfect spot at the base of Taylor Mountain in south Santa Rosa. Banke and her husband, Jess Jackson, purchased the acreage and donated it to the school. Fresh off his SCDS project, Kirt Zeigler volunteered to don a second hard hat and supervise construction of Sonoma Academy.
“After our experiences with the county in building Sonoma Country Day, I was uncertain how the City of Santa Rosa would act,” Kirt says. “But it was like night and day. They were utterly ecstatic [about the Sonoma Academy project] and just wonderful to work with.”
Zeigler enlisted the aid of a retired contractor, Ted Sibert, who had also helped him with the SCDS project. In 2007, construction on Sonoma Academy began in earnest. This time water drainage wasn’t a problem at all…but the rock and clay hillside certainly was. And then there was that high pressure PG&E gas pipeline that had to be relocated—to the tune of $500,000. Oh, don’t forget the maintenance of Colgan Creek and the detention ponds and wetlands mitigation.
Somehow, miraculously, enough work had been completed by the start of the 2008-2009 academic year to allow the school to transition to the new campus, just as its lease expired at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts.
Throughout it all, with both the SCDS and SA projects, Kirt has been determined not to compromise. “Some people probably would have liked to shoot me, but [those schools] are institutions and will be here a long time,” he says.
Still the Zeiglers weren’t finished. Bev frequently worked side-by-side with Durgin to recruit students to Sonoma Academy. Over time, she became close friends with Sandi Passalacqua, principal at St. John’s School in Healdsburg, whom Bev describes as “a great educator.” In 2006, Bev retired from the board of Sonoma Academy, just about the same time Passalacqua submitted her resignation to St. John’s.
Two days after Bev left the board, Passalacqua called her with the news that she’d decided to follow through on Bev’s advice and open her own kindergarten through eighth-grade school, to be called The Healdsburg School. She wanted Bev and Kirt to help as founders (along with a few others).
“I told her no, I just couldn’t do it,” Bev remembers. “And then 20 minutes later, I called her back and said yes. It was just too important.”
“Kirt and Bev brought a layer of board development understanding and the expertise of having helped start two other schools—Sonoma Academy in particular,” Passalacqua says. “They were mentors and true drivers in terms of networking for The Healdsburg School. They helped us negotiate every avenue you can think of that’s involved in starting a school. We would never have been able to do it without their help and experience.”
THS opened junior high classes in 2007 and the elementary component in 2008. The school is presently located on a tree studded campus at 33 Healdsburg Avenue in Healdsburg, with plans to relocate to a permanent campus in a couple of years. And yes, she’s planning on having a conversation with Kirt about that project as time draws closer.
When the Zeiglers are asked why they give so much of themselves, Kirt jokingly refers to it as “insanity.” But Bev plays it dead straight:
“I’m committed to education. It’s the most important thing for the future of our planet. Learning, being curious and opening the human mind is the key to the past, the present and the future.”
Durgin sees it on an even higher level. “Kirt and Bev give to the future tirelessly, at their own expense. But I know they’re also constantly renewed by their faith in education; it’s a perfect feedback loop. These are good people who believe in the potential for schools to change the world,” she says. “And the world does get better as the result of their commitment.”
