As you probably know by now, Stephanie Hinkle, one of the founders and director of our school, has announced that she will be leaving Trillium at the end of next year. She is to be commended and thanked for everything that she has done for the community, and we all wish her well in her next endeavors.
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Dear Trillium Families,
Today I told the middle school and high school students that next year will be my last year as the Director at Trillium. This decision has been emotional but not unexpected. I always knew that I really love the creation and forming of new things, and that I would eventually leave my job to pursue more of those experiences. Trillium is now in a place where it can stand without me. We have a very strong Board of Directors. We have an incredible, stable, hard-working staff, and we have a stable school culture full of wonderful students and families that really live the dream of Trillium all the time.
I wanted to give the school plenty of time to work through this transition in a healthy way. This is not a crisis, and shouldn’t be viewed as one. It is also not a secret, and together we can plan for what can be a tricky point in a school. Leadership transition for charter schools and other independent schools can be a very fragile time for them. Doing the transition well and thoughtfully is critical. That is the reason I am giving us such a long time to move to this new point.
This school has been my life for so long now. I started the process of creating it three years before we opened. It is one of my offspring and will always be very important to me. I will not ever completely leave it. It is my community and my family. But, like children who grow and don’t depend on parents, Trillium does not need me in the same way it used to. It exists and flourishes as it’s own entity. That is something we should all be very proud of. I certainly am. I appreciate everyone so much who has created this with me. It has been a life-changing experience.
When I was talking to the students today, I talked a lot about my reasons for starting the school and my expectations for them. I take very seriously our tag line “learning for change”. I expect them to change the world. That is the reason I started down this road. I want them to know that their contributions to the world are essential. They need to take the responsibility seriously. I want them to learn to work hard. They have become amazing thinkers. They are caring. They can see things from multiple perspectives and they care about the world. I
In my last year and a half here, I want to help them embrace hard work. Hard work is what gets us our dreams. We have worked really hard to create an environment that teaches respect through giving respect to students. We care about their emotional and physical health as well as their academic success. We care passionately about the kind of global citizens they will become. These things matter. I talked in the high school meeting about the meaning of life.
Last week I listened to a speaker talk about why he started a charter school, and he related an experience that he had as a young college student. He was asked to write a 5 page paper on the meaning of life for a philosophy class. He worked on it some, but before he finished, he heard the Dalai Lama speak about the same subject. The Dalai Lama summed up the meaning of life in 5 words, not 5 pages. Those words were “to be happy and useful”. That really rang true to me. I want all of these wonderful humans we call students to be happy and useful.
We talked some about love today. Schools usually shy away from the topic, but I think it is important to embrace it. Love is the reason I started the school and the expectation I have of staff members. I love these kids and expect that they are treated with loving regard at school. Love is the strongest force in the world and can be used to accomplish many things. I believe there are two forces in the world – not good and evil, but love and fear. I also believe that fear is an illusion resulting from our disconnection from love. So, I leave you with my love and want to remind us all that we do not have to stay in our fear.
We will keep you informed about the plan for hiring as things move along. Feel free to talk to your elementary age children as you see fit. I will be visiting their classrooms this spring, but they are far more connected to their teachers than to me, and that is as it should be. I think some still don’t really know who I am yet. I am available for if you need to talk about this.
Stephanie
Filed under: Community
