Wakefield Country Day taps new Head of School
Jessica Lindstrom: ‘I see a bright future for WCDS and leave the school knowing it is in good hands’
After an “extensive” search process, Wakefield Country Day School in Huntly has appointed educator Patrick M. Finn as its next Head of School.
The school’s Board of Directors voted unanimously on the hire, which will become effective July 1, 2020.
Finn brings to WCDS more than three decades of success in private schools as a teacher, coach and administrator. Previously, he worked at The Canterbury School in Connecticut, St. Timothy’s School in Maryland, and Foxcroft School in Middleburg.
“I look forward to working with our tremendous faculty to continue to grow and evolve WCDS in innovative and inspiring ways,” Finn said in a statement. “Together, with the faculty and staff, with the students and alumni, with all WCDS families past and present, and the greater WCDS community, we will continue to accomplish great things.
“Most importantly, we will work to ensure that the incredible opportunity for a WCDS education endures long into the future.”
Current Head of School Jessica Lindstrom, who made the decision to step down last fall and let the board know of her plans, told this newspaper late Tuesday that she is pleased with Finn’s appointment.
“I see a bright future for WCDS and leave the school knowing it is in good hands,” said Lindstrom, adding that Finn “has wonderful experience as an administrator in independent schools.
She said she has “very much” enjoyed her eight year tenure as Head of School “and am proud of what I accomplished. I have not, however, decided what my next career path will be, but I plan to stay actively connected to the school in an advisory capacity.
“Come the end of June, my goal is to spend much more time with my family who patiently has sat in the wings while I have been busy running a school,” she said. “I am looking forward to taking advantage of all that Virginia offers: glorious hikes in the Shenandoah and moonlight sails on the Chesapeake, to name just two.”
Lindstrom has spent 40 years in the education field, assuming the helm of WCDS in 2012.
The past year has been a rocky one for WCDS, culminating with the appointment of Paul F. Larner of Slate Mills as the school’s board of trustees chairman.
Just prior to Larner’s arrival the previous board abruptly sent a twopage letter to the WCDS community stating that unless a tremendous amount of money was raised in only a few weeks’ time the school would likely have to shut its doors at the close of the 2018-19 academic year.
Under Larner’s leadership, school alumni and friends united in unprecedented fashion and a wealth of supportive funds poured into the school, which suddenly was on a more sustainable financial footing.
As Larner later pointed out to the Rappahannock News, though it had caught many off guard, the unsettling process provided “a unique opportunity [for WCDS] to reinvent itself, while still sticking to its core principles.”
Founded in 1972, WCDS is a co-educational school offering classes for students in preschool through 12th grade.
Under board chair Paul Larner’s leadership, alumni and friends united in unprecedented fashion and a wealth of supportive funds poured into the school.