Head of School Search
Dear Cambridge Friends School Community,
We take great pleasure in welcoming Peter Sommer to Cambridge Friends School as next head of school, effective July 1, 2008. Peter’s depth of experience and thoughtful, caring, proactive approach to educationmatch the character profile that we as a community created in our position statement for a new head of school and confirmed through our inclusive search process. We are proud to say that, in the best sense of Quaker procedure, Peter represents the sense of our community as the head of school we desire for this exciting stage for CFS. We welcome him in unity and love.
Peter brings extensive knowledge of and experience with the education of young children, having taught at and led the middle school at the Dalton School in New York City. He has also provided leadership for a Quaker community when he was Upper School head of the Brooklyn Friends School in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Peter comes to CFS from his current role as educational director and lead applicant for The Ethical Community Charter School of New York and New Jersey. In this role, Peter won support both politically and financially to create new charter elementary schools in New York City, N.Y., and Jersey City, N.J., featuring ethics education and an interdisciplinary core curriculum. He designed the educational program, professional development plan, and means of program development for these schools to open September, 2008.
Before creating The Ethical Community Charter School, Peter was an educational consultant and director of education at the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning of Columbia University. He has also been interim headmaster of The North Shore Hebrew Academy in Kings Point, New York.
Peter received his A.B. Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with Honors in both Philosophy and Religion from Hamilton College. He earned his M.A. in Philosophy of Science with a minor in Classical Philosophy from Princeton University.
Peter has a clear sense of our school and the goals to which we aspire in furthering our Quaker educational mission. He said: “When I visited CFS, I found a vibrant, intellectual community of teachers and students, who shared a profound belief in the power of education. CFS is gifted with a diverse and multicultural faculty and student body, who value difference as indispensable. The school is steeped in a Quaker vision of what is possible for both individuals and communities, and a belief in fulfilling this vision through reflection, collaboration, and action. I feel as if my entire professional life has been in preparation for being a part of this community. From the moment I entered the school building, I experienced that which so many convinced Friends speak of – the feeling of coming home.”
