August 17, 2014
Shop Talk
Q&A with James P. “Trey” Cassidy III, Head of School, Bancroft School
James P. “Trey” Cassidy III,
Head of School, Bancroft School
By Rick Saia
“Trey” Cassidy is back in the state where he grew up, this time as the new leader of Worcester's private Bancroft School, a 500-student school serving grades pre-K to 12. Cassidy, who was an administrator at a private school in Grosse Pointe, Mich., is taking over at Bancroft as it embarks on a set of strategic initiatives, called Vision 2016, that it hopes will position the school for growth.
After being in Michigan, how does it feel to be here in Massachusetts, amid a bunch of successful private schools?
It feels great. The challenge in Michigan was that there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm or understanding about independent schools. So we had a lot of work to do just to convince families that independent schools were of value in the community to begin with. Here, a lot of people understand that already.
So, is this kind of like going into the big leagues?
(Laughs) I don't know if I'd refer to it as going into the big leagues, but it's a different league altogether.
The school's endowment as of last year was estimated to be at around $26 million. Is there room for improvement? Or do you believe that's a good position for Bancroft?
It's an excellent position. The school has done a wonderful job of building the endowment and maintaining and managing it in a really positive way, while taking advantage of opportunities to create new programs and to think clearly about the development of the school in the long term. Of course, it's always nice to have more money in your endowment to be able to do more of the things we want to do, to have access to more cash, to be able to work programmatically or institutionally on facilities. So I think we'll continue to try to build our endowment, but we're also not afraid to use it to help us do what we need to do.
How does Vision 2016 play into the school's long-term sustainability?
When we refer to sustainability, we're talking about a lot of things. We're talking about the physical space of the school (and) we'll be looking at facility upgrades and some improvements and some things that we'll kind of want to look at campus-wide; how do we build and maintain a campus that makes good sense for the school long term? Some of the elements of Vision 2016 point to that, particularly this notion of BACE — Bancroft Academic Center for Excellence, and thinking about the spaces for the kinds of learning that we want to see our kids involved in. The other piece of Vision 2016: It's not just about the campus, it's also about the relationships and connections to the rest of the community that surrounds us.
Bancroft talks about offering a “progressive” education. Do you feel most schools can use more of that? Or are they all moving toward that goal?
I don't think all schools are moving toward progressive education. I think there are plenty of schools and plenty of examples we can point to that are not necessarily doing that. But it's an important part of our fabric. Historically, the school has been progressive in its ideology and its thinking about working with students and allowing faculty to have the kind of freedom and flexibility to make choices that are right for those kids in the community. So no, I don't think it's right for all schools and I don't think all schools are moving in that direction. But if you have a dynamic community where you have multiple options for schools, you have a better system overall.
What was the most important reason you decided that you wanted this job?
I think this school has a wonderful community. There are people here who live up to the vision they've presented. And when I first read about the school, I thought, “OK, it sounds interesting. It sounds like a thoughtful place. It sounds like a place where kids are valued, where teachers are given opportunities to grow and be leaders.”
I was looking for an opportunity to lead a school, that had a vision for itself into the future and wanted to do something great, and it felt like a good fit from the very beginning.
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