Friends School of Portland’s board cares for and guides strategic decisions. This small thoughtful group has been clerked by Lise Wagner for 6 years. She has led the board through the Completing the Vision Capital Campaign to build the middle school wing, the Head of School Transition, and our Strategic Plan. This June, Lise Wagner stepped down as board clerk and Kathy Beach has stepped up.
Lise’s connection to FSP began when founding teacher, Mary Tracy, asked her to be a part of the initial group of people meeting to create a school. Lise’s son Doug was in the founding kindergarten class. After he graduated in 2015, Lise joined Friends School’s board. “At FSP, I love how everyone is seen and everyone matters, how everyone cares for each other. Older children help younger students, and teachers help the youngest. I remember hearing a mom at graduation who said to the entire room: ‘you all taught me how to be a parent.’ It is a loving and beloved community. And Friends School has indeed helped me be a better parent and raise my child into who he is today.” Although Lise is stepping down as clerk, she is looking forward to one more year of service on FSP’s board, as Kathy Beach steps into the role of clerk.
Kathy has two grand-nieces that attend FSP. You may have seen her at pick-up or at meeting for worship, which she attends nearly every week. Her love of the school is deep: “Whenever I go to the school, I always see some kind of interaction that is so tender. There’s a little girl in her second year of preschool, and the way she takes care of the younger preschoolers… Way above leadership, that type of empathy and caring; she sees the big picture.”
Kathy has attended Quaker meeting since 1988; she served as the treasurer for Portland Friends Meeting for 12 years. Kathy and her husband Chris created conflict resolution guidelines with Barbie Potter and Kate Potter that have been used at Portland Friends Meeting, and other meetings, and used to train teens in Canada’s Yearly Meeting. “Chris and I in our twenties as Peace Corps volunteers started a school in Kenya. I taught all the sciences and geography. By the fourth year, we had given subjects to new teachers who came. We built that school up from 20 students to 120 students. It’s still running – now there are 1200 students there.” She has also taught medical students at the University of New England.
“Never having been a parent but having been a midwife to people having children, it gives me a different perspective than a lot of people have. I love children and I get to be a ‘mom’ in a lot of different ways. I also got to stand firm in my beliefs as a midwife. Midwifery is a role between nurses and physicians… You have to know what you think because you’re sometimes between two different positions, and you get to interact with so many people.” Coincidentally, Kathy was Lise’s midwife and delivered her son Doug, an FSP alum and now an Earlham grad!
As Kathy said: “I’m very excited about being in the role that Lise has done so well for so many years. I’m looking forward to it because I respect this school so much.”
Each year brings changes to Friends School’s board of directors. At our June meeting, we shared appreciation for our departing board member. Jason Wentworth P’21 is stepping down after six years of board service.
Board members acknowledged Jason’s kindness, calm thoughtfulness, focused presence, critical thinking, wisdom, sense of humor, and valiant work to make the processes used by Board Governance and the board more transparent, fair, and organized. Deeply devoted to the school, Jason is known for his tremendous advocacy for the student body and his intimate knowledge and understanding of our Passive House school building. As we said during his departure: “The board will honor his stewardship on the board by not being complacent, challenging ourselves not to be too comfortable, and by doing that with kindness and gentleness.” Thank you to Jason!