WCDS says it has every confidence of weathering latest storm
Head of School Patrick Finn resigned last week
Welby Lynn Griffin, chair of the Wakefield Country Day School Board of Directors, is seeking to put “to rest any anxieties about what lies ahead” following last week’s abrupt resignation of Head of School Patrick Finn, who had held the top post for only a few months.
Paul Larner, meanwhile, previously board chair until he was appointed last week the interim head of school, also assured this newspaper yesterday: “It’s not a crisis. It’s a bump in the road, and it’s already in our rear view mirror.”
“The resignation of Mr. Finn is not an outcome any of us desired,” Griffin wrote in a Monday letter to the school community. “The Board is currently engaged in careful reflection so that we can take the lessons of this experience forward as we begin a fresh search for a Head of School. But while that search unfolds, you can rest assured that we will be in good hands under the interim leadership of Paul Larner.
“Many of you became familiar with Paul Larner during the challenging spring of 2019 when he assumed leadership of the WCDS Board of Directors,” she noted, referring to a period when the school faced a severe financial shortfall to the extent it might have had to close.
There has been no specific word either from school officials or from Finn himself on the exact reasons for his hasty departure.
In his own letter to the school community last week, Larner revealed: “Last Friday two Board members and I met with Patrick Finn to discuss issues related to WCDS and its leadership. The meeting exposed significant differences in opinion between the Board members and Mr. Finn. Some of these divergences in approach and opinion had been developing for some time ...
“Mr. Finn advised me that under these circumstances and due to personal concerns he desired to cease being HOS,” Larner continued, in part. “I respect and understand Mr. Finn’s decision and commend him for the many ways he thoughtfully sought to challenge and advance WCDS.”
Reached at his home, Finn would only tell this newspaper he was “sorry it didn’t work out.” He added that WCDS has “some great faculty and students and I wish them all the best.”
Finn arrived on the Huntly campus this past summer, carrying in his briefcase three decades’ of experience at independent schools in the northeast and mid-Atlantic, including Foxcroft School in Middleburg.
Larner will fill the post until Finn’s successor is found.
“With Paul’s steady hand on the rudder, I have every confidence we can all oar together towards our shared goal: happy and fulfilled students learning from happy, fulfilled educators,” Griffin wrote.
An independent, co- educational elementary, middle and high school, WCDS is the fifth largest employer in Rappahannock County.