Thomas J. Reid, a veteran educator who has been serving as interim head of St. Paul's School in Brooklandville, has been named the school's 32nd headmaster, effective July 1.
Reid, 51, came to St. Paul's in July on a one-year contract after the resignation of longtime headmaster Robert W. Hallett. Hallett is now executive director of the Edward E. Ford Foundation in Washington.
"I was excited to be the interim headmaster," Reid said yesterday after the school's board of trustees appointed him to the post. "Now I'm really honored to be the permanent headmaster."
Reid says he will look at things a little differently now that his job title has changed. One change may come in the courses that are offered. He says he wants to enrich the curriculum and challenge the upper school students, possibly with an international baccalaureate program or independent study and research.
As headmaster, he will oversee a $1.2 million capital project that will refurbish the school's three lower playing fields and prepare for an evaluation by the Association of Independent Maryland Schools. The association evaluates all member schools every 10 years.
Daniel R. Baker, president of the board of trustees, said the search committee and board officers unanimously recommended Reid.
"Tom possesses stellar credentials as an educator and head of school, bringing to St. Paul's 30 years of successful experience in independent education as well as a personal understanding of and deep commitment to the mission and values of our community," Baker said. "He has demonstrated a dedication to service in many ways, including active involvement over many years in an innovative and successful ice hockey program for inner-city youth in Harlem, even while serving as a head of school."
A native of St. Paul, Minn., Reid served for 14 years as headmaster at the Buckley Country Day School in Roslyn, N.Y., a coeducational school with about 320 students. He also spent nine years at the Pomfret School, a boarding school in Connecticut, where he was a history teacher, athletic director and dean of students. He started his career at Chestnut Hill Academy, a private boys' school in Philadelphia.
Reid graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received a master's degree in educational administration from the University of Connecticut.
St. Paul's has about 860 students on an 81-acre campus that is shared with St. Paul's School for Girls. Reid is responsible for St. Paul's lower school, which is coeducational and has students from prekindergarten through fourth grade, and the middle and upper schools, with all boys in grades five through 12.