This year, Hillbrook is proud to welcome Mike Peller to our staff as our Founding Head of Upper School – from the very beginning, it was clear he understood the opportunity before him and before our community. We’re delighted to share his letter to the community, which he first shared at an evening event at the Moir building, one of our two new high school campus locations.
Dear Hillbrook Community,
I’m Mike Peller, Hillbrook’s new Head of Upper School. I am eager to meet each of you. To get to know you. And to better learn how Hillbrook has positively impacted your life, and the life of your family. I am a progressive educator, committed to building schools grounded in purpose and wellness. So of course I fell in love with this school during the interview process. During my first two visits, I have heard an abundance of laughter of joy—from students and adults.
I have observed a senior leadership team who is both wickedly smart and remarkably generous.
I have seen teachers masterfully engage students in authentic learning.
I saw middle school students playing in the rain one minute, and the next grappling with geo-politics.
I saw first graders wrestling with ideas of race, and then engaging in art work where they found the paint color to match their skin tone so as to create self-portraits.
I observed Student Council engage in a wonderful design process to build a new pizza (showing up soon to a Pizza My Heart near you!).
I saw a group of kids skipping over to the pool, with unbounded happiness.
I saw a math class create a carnival game in the Hub and then use experimental probability to model expected payouts.
I saw students proud of the musical they were performing.
I saw fifth graders programming in a math class as they explored coordinate geometry.
Great work; meaningful work; challenging work and joyful work is happening here. It is my hope that, in a short time, when you visit the Upper School, you will see the same learning and living that I saw reflected on the Marchmont campus. I already see it. I see unbounded potential.
I see students meeting there after school having recently founded new clubs.
I see an extension of our Reach Beyond Block where students use San Jose as a classroom, engaging in place-based learning that requires them to use interdisciplinary systems thinking on topics such as: health care; housing; transportation and energy.
I see students returning from multi-week Reach Beyond programs as they learn to be curious citizens of the world.
I see students engaging in advanced coursework that feels risky and relevant, purposeful and transferrable.
I see students laughing on the stairs, possibly gathering around the stairwell for a community meeting.
I see students and families co-creating this high school with us. The fingerprints of the founding families—those of the first four years—will be left throughout the campus for years to come.
I see students launching and sustaining social impact ventures out of the Scott center for social entrepreneurship… and …
I see our graduates having the confidence to thrive in uncertainty, and the courage and compassion to reach beyond themselves to make a difference in the world.
I see a school full of hope and justice in action.
I see a school the world desperately needs.
We congregate in potential. We gather to build upon the excellence of a remarkable JK-8, as we imagine what is possible when we extend a spirit of curiosity and kindness, of risk-taking and fulfillment, into an expanding high school.
I could not be more excited to serve Hillbrook at this pivotal time. Thank you for your belief in Hillbrook, in its mission, vision and core values, and for having the courage to join in this venture of expanding. I look forward to building and creating with you a world renowned JK-12 school that is both in and of Silicon Valley.