Above Nav Container

Utility Container

Search Trigger (Container)

Search

Inquire Button (Container)

Inquire

Mobile Menu Trigger (container)

Mobile Menu

Off Canvas Navigation Container

Close Trigger (container)

Close

Search

×
 

A Narrative History of Montgomery

The Bell Years: 1915-1938

Montgomery School was founded in 1915 by the Reverend Gibson Bell as a preparatory school for boys from the first through the twelfth grades. Situated on Montgomery Avenue (from which it took its name) in Wynnewood, on a former residential property of little more than eight acres, it was a “country day school” at a time when many of its competitors still had their campuses in the city of Philadelphia. The school buildings included the renovated main house and a Lower School building erected for additional classroom space. Football and baseball fields also were on the grounds.

Gibson Bell was born on May 31, 1879 in Newton, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard University. Following his graduation in 1901, he accepted a position at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire; “the youngest and most inexperienced teacher who had ever entered that calling,” as he described himself later. While teaching at St. Paul’s, he felt called to the ministry in the Episcopal Church and was ordained after graduating from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in1908. He continued to teach at St. Paul’s until 1910, when he left to found St. Stephen’s School in Colorado Springs. The next January he married a Philadelphia widow, Laetitia Wheeler, whose sons he had taught at St. Paul’s, and in September, 1915 he came to Wynnewood.

The original Montgomery School campus was just across Montgomery Avenue and to the west of All Saints’ Episcopal Church (built in 1911). Gibson Bell acted as “supply to All Saints” in the absence of the Rector for several years. Then in December 1920, the Vestry of All Saints elected him Rector of the parish, a position that he held for many years, in addition to being the Head of Montgomery School.

In the early 1920s Episcopal Academy, still located in the city and feeling that its chances of survival and success would be improved if it moved out into the rapidly developing suburbs, made an overture to Montgomery School to jointly purchase a larger campus and to merge the two schools, with Gibson Bell as the Head of School. After much negotiation, it was deemed better for the schools to go their separate ways, and in 1922 Montgomery bought 45 acres of the Hopper estate on Old Gulph Road in Wynnewood, and made plans to move.

The Hopper house, a large red brick house in “stock broker tudor” style, was converted to offices and classrooms, and a substantial classroom wing was added at the west end of the floor, and science laboratories in the basement. A barn on the property was used as a gymnasium, and properly graded and drained playing fields were laid out. The front approach to the School from McClenaghan’s Mill Road was by a long carriage drive lined with a double row of silver maples. A gymnasium, the gift of Mr. Atwater Kent, was built about 1930.

The Almy-Ratledge Years: 1938-1954

Montgomery School graduated its last senior class in June 1938, and “Doc” Bell turned his full attention to his duties as Rector of All Saints’ Church, Wynnewood. But the life and mission of the School were not dead, and in September 1938, the Montgomery Country Day opened its doors, under the guidance and leadership of Miss Ann Almy and Miss Louise Ratledge.

Miss Almy, head of Montgomery’s Lower School, and Miss Ratledge, teacher of mathematics in the Upper School, were determined that Montgomery should not cease to exist. They arranged to lease the property, and to notify the patrons of the school that they would still be in business. It was made quite clear, however, that theirs was not the Montgomery School of the Bell years, and they seem to have been given no encouragement by the former Head of School. Throughout the entire period of their leadership, relations between the “two schools’ were strained, and Doc Bell never visited.

Miss Almy and Miss Ratledge, partly to free themselves for the business of teaching, engaged Mr. G. Britton Holmes as Head of School. Mr. Holmes continued until 1943, when his position was “terminated for financial reasons”. Knowing Miss Almy and Miss Ratledge in later years, one wonders whether they also found it difficult not to run their school directly; perhaps it is remarkable that Mr. Holmes lasted as long as he did. In the beginning, Montgomery Country Day School took on much of the enrollment of the old school. Girls were now admitted in the lower grades, and soon the school became established as a co-educational elementary and middle school. After Mr. Holmes left, Miss Almy became the head of Lower School, and continued to teach fifth grade; Miss Ratledge was head of Upper School, and taught mathematics and Latin in seventh and eighth grades. It would be that way until their retirement in 1954.

The years of the Second World War were hard ones for the school. Somehow Miss Almy and Miss Ratledge acquired the property, and more than half of it was sold off to keep the school solvent. But money was still tight, salaries were low, and several teachers were given room and board at the School in Lieu of what they might otherwise have been paid. Miss Ratledge had lived in the main building since 1938, driving to the family farm in Delaware for weekends. The resident-faculty – mostly women at that time – took turns shoveling coal to keep the furnaces going.

But there was a spirit, vitality, to the School, which was indomitable. The faculty was a close-knit community of dedicated teachers, who shared their successes and their disappointments both frequently and regularly, and who gave each other great encouragement and support. Years of working closely together forged these ladies with their superiors, into an almost invincible team. After the war it was possible to engage younger men to teach, and the School enjoyed growth and health and renewed vigor.

Miss Almy and Miss Ratledge believed strongly that the School should be a community, joined together in many ways with common purposes and common tasks. Weekly assemblies were an integral part of this community, for the assemblies were almost always done by the students themselves, each class presenting to the rest of the School some aspect of its work. It was important, too, that the whole School be involved in these assemblies, either as “presenters” – but never “performers” – or as an audience giving respectful attention to what others had to offer.

As one looks back on the Almy-Ratledge years, it seams that it was Miss Almy’s idealism and strength of character, which really made the School what it was. She was firmly committed to working with each individual student to meet his or her needs. Miss Almy was also firmly committed to the ideal of excellence in everything to which students were exposed. No shoddy work was acceptable, and books and materials which students used had to be correct, attractive, and well produced.

Weekly chapel, daily work squad, the annual Thanksgiving Service, the closing day pageant, Greek and Roman Games. All these were woven into the fabric of the Montgomery Country Day School. At the end of each day, the teachers assembled for afternoon tea in Miss Ratledge’s sitting room, and many loose ends were tied up before faculty went home to prepare for the next day.

Early in 1954, Miss Almy and Miss Ratledge announced their intention to retire at the end of the academic year. Later they announced that they had selected the Reverend Michael Martin, formerly Head of the Casady School in Oklahoma, to be the next head of the school. He assumed his duties on July 1 and the third chapter of this history began. Much would be changed, much would be preserved.

The Michael Martin Years: 1954-1972

The Reverend Michael Martin assumed the position of Head of the Montgomery Country Day School on August 1, 1954. An Episcopal priest and a bachelor, he planned to live at the School, occupying the rooms that Miss Ratledge had used. His arrival was preceded by a delivery of his furniture, which awaited him in the Upper School dining room; there was something faintly ominous about this impending presence.

Mr. Martin had begun his teaching under Kurt Hahn at the Salem School in Germany, in the early 1930’s; one of Salem’s best known graduates in Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. Mr. Martin left Salem when the Nazis took over and Kurt Hahn was arrested, but throughout his career as teacher and headmaster, he reflected Kurt Hahn’s influence.

Upon his return to the United States, Mr. Martin started the Glenacres School in Connecticut; but as he felt called to the ministry, he sold Glenacres and entered the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Before coming to Montgomery, he had been Chaplain at St. Mark’s School in Southboro, Massachusetts, and then the first Head of the Casady School, an Episcopal School in Oklahoma City. He was for a short time associated with Christ Church Cathedral, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

When he arrived at Montgomery in August 1954, Mr. Martin brought with him a young man, one of his acolytes form the Cathedral. The two of them immediately pitched in, cleaning out the accumulation of years, scrubbing, painting, and repairing. Mr. Martin was not a big man, but what he lacked in stature he more than made up for in energy and drive. To anyone who cared to look, it was clear that things were going to be different at Montgomery.

The first noticeable change was the arrival of new dining room furniture, paid for with the proceeds of the 1954 Spring Fair, to replace the homemade tables, and the rickety folding chairs. New chairs for the assembly room also arrived that summer, given in memory of a fifth grader who had been killed in a boating accident during spring vacation that year. Then gradually the dreary brown woodwork throughout the schoolhouse wing was painted, and new lighting fixtures appeared. During all of these improvements, Mr. Martin himself was always in the thick of things, either making sure that the work was done right, or doing it himself.

As the appearance of the School improved, so did that of the students. Blue jeans and sneakers disappeared, and jackets and tines – even a School blazer – and neat skirts and blouses replaced them. As yet there was no uniform- that would come later – but students were expected to look their best, and sloppiness was not allowed.

Another significant change in the physical arrangements at the School was the moving of the library, which had previously shared space with the Upper School dining room, to the east end of the second floor. This new library room was furnished in memory of George Thayer Almy, who died while a student at the George School. His family and their friends, much involved in the School (four of his brothers and one sister also attended), gave generously; the library is still the Almy Library, but now in a broader sense, as we shall see.

Upon his arrival at Montgomery, Mr. Martin was determined to heal the breach between the “Bell School” and the “Almy-Ratledge School”. Doc Bell was still Rector of All Saints’ Church, and Mr. Martin soon became associated with the parish as an assistant, and Dr. Bell started to be seen again on campus.

To the weekly all-school chapel Mr. Martin added a second chapel, for the upper grades only. He did these chapels himself, and the Upper School chapel gave him a chance to speak t the older students about things, which would not be appropriate for the younger ones; he did a lot of teaching in chapel.

In spite of his strong and undisguised Christian orientation and approach, Mr. Martin was sensitive to the needs of those students and their families who were not of Christian background, and many families chose Montgomery for their children because they valued the attention the School paid to moral and spiritual development.

Living at the School full-time, including weekends and vacations, Mr. Martin took full advantage of the gracious residential qualities of the building and of the grounds.

The boarders and resident faculty dined by candlelight every evening, and the faculty had coffee together in the Head of School’s sitting room after dinner. On weekends and holiday, Mr. Martin entertained at the School, and took pleasure and pride in his dinner parties. He restored the formal garden, and worked in it himself with some student help. His office was furnished with handsome antiques and fine prints; the oriental rug there was a present to him from appreciative parents.

At the same time, Mr. Martin continued the School’s strong commitment to excellence, as established by Miss Almy; excellence morally as well as intellectually.

In September 1969, Mr. Martin suffered a serious heart attack three days before the opening of School. He returned to his quarters after Christmas, but he was not back in his office until the following summer. He ran the School for two more years, but was not the same man he had been, and those who knew him only then missed the excitement of his keen mind and his indomitable spirit. He retired in June 1972, and moved to New Hampshire, where he had maintained a summer home for many years, and where he continued to entertain old friends from the School. He did not visit the school, however, for he was determined not to interfere with the work of his successor.

The Stedman and Woodward Years: 1972-1987

In the spring of 1971, Mr. Martin had announced his intention to retire as Head of Montgomery Country Day School at the end of the next academic year. The Board immediately appointed a Search Committee and began considering candidates. Early in the winter of 1972, the Board announced that it had chosen Mr. Derek C. Stedman to be the next Head of School.

Mr. Stedman came from Bedford-Rippowam School in Bedford, New York, where he had been had of the English department and director of the summer program. He was married, and had two daughters, the younger of whom would enter Montgomery’s seventh grade in September 1972.

On the afternoon of the day of Commencement, in June 1972, a moving van arrived at the School and all of Mr. Martin’s furniture was taken away. When Mr. Stedman arrived on July 1st to assume his new position, the Head of School’s office was empty and bare; he had to start from scratch. In many ways it was an indication of what was to come.

Mr. Stedman arrived at Montgomery believing that it would his mission to restore to life a School that had fallen into stagnation – to “put Montgomery on the map”. Already he had hired several new teachers and there was a feeling of eager expectation, of new beginnings and new ways of doing things. It was clear from the start that Mr. Stedman was a man of ideas, a man on the move, not a man who would do things simply because they had been done before.

One of Mr. Stedman’s first objectives was to involve the parents more actively in the operation of the School. To this end, he established the Parents’ Council, which met monthly at the School to discuss matters of common concern. Since these meetings were generally held on a weekday morning, the Parents’ Council became effectively a council of mothers who either did not work or could arrange their schedules. The Council elected its own officers, and the meetings generally lasted about two hours.

Mr. Stedman was also very interested in extra-curricular activities, and during his term as Head of School dramatics and music and fine arts flourished. He hired the first full-time Art teacher, and later agreed that Art should be a graded curricular course. In his second year as Head of School, Mr. Stedman restored French to the curriculum and hired a part-time French teacher.

In the mid-seventies, plans were drawn up for ambitious and extensive additions and renovations to the two classroom buildings, and a fund-raising campaign was launched. Funds were raised to add to the Lower School building, and the addition was well-planned and provided two additional classrooms, washrooms, and a “common room”. This addition to the Lower School was dedicated in April, 1977. In June 1978, four of the senior teachers at the School celebrated significant anniversaries of their service at Montgomery, and trees of their choosing were planted in their honor on the School grounds. Mr. Stedman also planted flowering fruit trees between the driveway and the tennis courts.

In January 1979, Mr. Stedman announced his intention to resign as Head of School as of June 30th, and a Search Committee was appointed to recommend a successor. That spring an oak tree was planted on the grounds northwest of the tennis courts in his honor. At the end of June, he departed to become the Head of the Pine Point School in Stonington, Connecticut. Late in the spring of 1979, the Board announced the selection of Mr. Thomas M. Woodward, Jr. to be the next Head of Montgomery Country Day School. Mr. Woodward had been for many years a teacher and administrator at The Haverford School, and more recently the Head of the Hun School in Princeton, New Jersey. He was married and had three children, all of them too old to attend Montgomery.

Mr. Woodward was impressed with the traditional character of Montgomery, and during his Headship he did a lot to put the School back in touch with its past. He welcomed the return of a portrait of Mr. Martin, which Mr. Stedman had declined, and he commissioned a portrait of Dr. Bell, which was unveiled in June 1982, and which was hung over the fireplace in the Main Hall. He strongly supported such traditional institutions as the formal sit-down lunch, twice-weekly chapel – which he asked the members of the faculty to share with him, work squad, the Greek and Roman Games – an annual event since 1973, and the school uniform for girls. He had a school necktie designed and produced, combining the School’s colors with an architectural detail of the main building. He also commissioned the design of a flag, incorporating the colors and the seal of the School, to be displayed with the national flag in the assembly room.

In the spring of 1985, the Board voted to change the name of the School back to Montgomery School, and to adopt a new seal and a motto for the School, which was adopted that summer, and the School flag was changed accordingly.

The mid-1980’s proved, however to be a difficult time for middle schools in the Philadelphia area, because of a significant decline in the number of children of that age group. Some public schools closed, and the competition for students for the independent schools became keen. In order to keep a financially viable enrollment, Montgomery had to adjust its standards of admission to meet the needs of a more diverse student population. After serious consideration of the prospects for Montgomery’s future on its Wynnewood campus, the Board voted to sell the property and look for a new location further west.

In the fall of 1986, Mr. Woodward announced his intention to resign as Head of School of Montgomery as of June 30, 1987. The board appointed a Search Committee to recommend his successor, and in January 1987, it announced the selection of Mr. Geoffrey D. Campbell as the next Head of School.

Mr. Campbell was an “in-house” appointment, having been with Montgomery for two years. With strong and enthusiastic support from the faculty, as well as from the students and their parents, Mr. Campbell began planning for the move and for the future shape of Montgomery School. Property in Chester Springs was acquired in the summer of 1987, and work began in the fall and winter, with plans to move the School in the summer of 1988.

And so the past is over, and the future is about to begin; about that future we will not attempt to speculate, but only hope that it will be worthy of its past.

Geoffrey D. Campbell: 1987-1999

Mr. Geoffrey D. Campbell came to Montgomery School in September 1985 as fifth grade homeroom teacher and director of boys’ athletics. The following summer he was appointed Assistant Head of School, sharing office space with the Dean of School. When Mr. Woodward announced his intention to resign as Head of School in the summer of 1987, Mr. Campbell threw his name into ring as a candidate for the position. (ARIAL 14)

Meanwhile, in January 1987 the School’s Board of directors made the decision to move the School from its Wynnewood campus to a location farther west. It was becoming increasingly difficult for Montgomery to maintain its identity in the face of local competition, and the Board concluded that a fresh start, in virgin territory, was needed. The search for a new campus began. Two searches were now underway. (VERDANA 14)

After interviewing a number of well-qualified candidates for the Head of School, the Search Committee recommended that the Board appoint Mr. Campbell. As the “in-house” candidate, he was clearly the best man to guide the School through its impending move – to maintain continuity with the old, and at the same time to strike out in new directions. Mr. Campbell was well liked and well respected in the School community – by students, faculty, and parents – and he was fully involved and supportive in all phases of School life and activity. The School in its transition would be in good hands with him in charge.

In the summer of 1987 Montgomery acquired its new campus in Chester Springs. Forty-three acres of farmland, a large barn, and a farmhouse, at the intersection of Route 113 and Horseshoe Trail, offered the opportunities needed for new beginning and growth, and the School settled in for its final year at Wynnewood. On a cold grey Sunday afternoon in November the School community and its guests gathered for ground-breaking ceremonies in Chester Springs, sitting under a tent, on chairs carried out from Wynnewood in the school bus. In the farmhouse the initial plans for the new Schoolhouse were on display.

The last year in Wynnewood was a year of determining, in many ways, what would be taken to the new location, and what would be discarded. Friends’ Central School had agreed to buy the Wynnewood campus as a new home for its Lower School, a great relief to the neighbors, who had feared subdivision and development. During the winter and spring of 1988 classrooms and closets were emptied, books and equipment sorted and packed, and much accumulation eventually taken away as trash. This was a time of thoughtful reappraisal, carefully watched by the new Head of School, who was of the in the thick of the action with his sleeves rolled up.

In June 1988 the last eight grade to be graduated in Wynnewood marched in and out of the gymnasium, and the grand piano that accompanied their marching went west.

The next School year opened in Chester Springs with eighty-three students, ten of whom had been at the Wynnewood campus. Classes were held in rental trailers, set up on what would later become a parking area, north of the farmhouse, the administrative center of the School. During this year construction began on the new Schoolhouse up the hill, and students and faculty were able to watch the progress. The Schoolhouse is designed to be in keeping with local Chester County architecture, while at the same time expressing its unique function. All on one floor, the classrooms, library, dining hall, and offices surround a large central area, named Bell Hall, after the School’s founder, Gibson Bell. The plan is expandable, and additions have been made, as needed, in subsequent years.

In the whole process of resettlement and growth, the strong energetic leadership and personal involvement of the Head of School have been evident. This move would never have been successful without Mr. Campbell’s unstinting commitment to every task, however lofty or menial. He traveled extensively, enlisting the support of alumni and friends, he taught classes, and he worked on the buildings and grounds. Whenever a problem arose, he would be there to see it solved, and he gave his loyalty and support to those who worked with him, who, in turn, gave him theirs.

During his thirteen years as Head of School, Mr. Campbell established Montgomery’s reputation in the area as a solid academic institution with a strong sense of values – rooted in tradition, and looking to the future. It is a happy place, with strong school spirit and discipline, a sense of responsibility and mutual respect. Mr. Campbell increased the enrollment form eighty-three students to over two hundred. He built additional classrooms, and, in 1997, he added a well-equipped, modern gymnasium, replacing the rudimentary playing space in the old barn. A year later the School acquired seventeen acres of contiguous land increasing the campus to sixty acres, a comfortable size for future expansion and growth.

In the fall of 1988 Mr. Campbell announced his intention to resign as Head of Montgomery School, effective in June 2000. A Search Committee was appointed, and, as Mr. Campbell took a sabbatical leave for 1999-2000, Mr. Donald Sykes was appointed Interim Head of School. Early in the spring of 2000 the Board announced the appointment of Mr. Kevin Conklin as the next Head of School of Montgomery, to assume the position in July.

When Montgomery moved to Chester Springs in 1988 there were many questions about its future. What distinguishing marks of its successful past would be maintained? It is significant that these have included daily work squad, chapel, family –style lunches in the Dining Hall, and, of course the annual Greek and Roman Games, with their customary tradition and pageantry.

There is also the question of whether – or when – to expand the school in include the secondary grades. With this in mind, the exciting upper grades – fifth through eighth – are now known as Middle School, and are under the supervision of their own director. But it is perhaps one of Mr. Campbell’s most important achievements that he did not rush to add the upper grades, and that Montgomery remains today an elementary and middle school, with an eighth grade senior class. Whatever develops now, in the twenty-first century, will be built on the strong foundation Mr. Campbell has established.

Donald (Skip) M. Sykes, Jr.: 1999-2000

Mr. Sykes was instrumental in reviving the committee structure of the Board of Trustees at the Montgomery School. He worked to make sure the “infrastructure” of Montgomery School was dependable in order to ease the transition of the new Head of School. Mr. Sykes essentially steered the ship in a most capable way until the new Head of School was secured.

Kevin R. Conklin: 2000-2014

Kevin R. Conklin served as Head of Montgomery School from July 2000 - June 2014. Mr. Conklin came from the Beaver Country Day School as the Middle School Director. His experience includes being a teacher, Admissions Officer, Alumni Director and Board Chair of Burke Mountain Academy.

In his 14 year tenure at Montgomery School, beginning in July 2000 and ending in July 2014, Mr. Conklin made a number of significant changes to the curriculum and the physical plant of the campus. He also led the school through the strategic planning process, and launched a successful capital campaign, which allowed Montgomery to build a new dining room, the Gresh Academic Center and Bennett Hill Library, and a state-of-the-art middle school science lab. Mr. Conklin also negotiated an in-kind donation to bring the school three new playing fields, some of the finest in Chester County. Mr. Conklin pursued agreements with outside organizations, including a partnership with ESF Camps, and local churches and universities, bringing additional revenue to the school, while helping to build awareness in the community among potential new families.

When Mr. Conklin first arrived, the Head of School’s office was located in the current admissions office in the Farmhouse. Within months of working at Montgomery, Mr. Conklin asked that the Admission Office be relocated into his Head of School Farmhouse space, because it was the nicer office. Mr. Conklin moved into the much less glamorous office across the hall, and this decision indicated the type of leadership that the community could expect from him as he clearly wanted what was best for the school.

Mr. Conklin often talked about the view from the vantage point of our first athletic field that he saw when he visited Montgomery for the first time and toured with interim head, Skip Sykes. He credits the vision of Geoff Campbell, the former Head of School who moved Montgomery to Chester Springs, as being genius in the design and building of the campus. In his time as Head of School, Mr. Conklin looked at the strong traditions of the school, and built upon them as he added new programs and facilities to meet the needs of 21st Century education.

Montgomery School did not have a website, voicemail, or email when Mr. Conklin arrived, and he quickly began to focus on building the infrastructure needed to support these emerging technologies. Mr. Conklin also supported professional development for faculty to learn new ways to use technology in the curriculum, while maintaining academic excellence. He encouraged teachers to use technology to enhance their curriculum and to promote global awareness.

Singapore Math was added to the lower school curriculum during Mr. Conklin’s years. Department Chairs were selected to oversee the curriculum and look for ways to strengthen Montgomery’s subject areas. In the area of technology, improvements have impacted students’ daily educational experience. Montgomery School won a grant that enabled the School to have SMART Boards in every classroom, and infrastructure was significantly updated and upgraded during Mr. Conklin’s years as Head.

Mr. Conklin hired three dedicated science teachers in Middle and Lower School, expanding the science program significantly. Mr. Conklin added STEAM and robotics, and Montgomery School implemented programs in sustainability and created an organic garden. In the area of arts, Mr. Conklin made great strides in hiring, staffing, and supporting visual and performing arts at Montgomery School. He consistently championed the arts, making Montgomery School a leader among area schools.

During his tenure, Mr. Conklin formed a strong bond with students at the school. Having known many of the students since birth, Mr. Conklin greeted students by name each day. He played his beloved concertina at chapel on many occasions. He also took the time to visit each classroom to read a story to the students each year. Mr. Conklin’s sense of community was felt in his participation in the annual Halloween parade, as an avid fan at Montgomery's sports games, and in the way that he shared his passion for fly fishing, the Red Socks, and traditional songs with the students.

As a part of the initial strategic planning process, Montgomery School re-wrote the school’s mission statement under Mr. Conklin’s guidance. The statement included a dedication to character, especially service to others. Mr. Conklin implemented several programs designed to help students grow in compassion and to strengthen their values, including a service learning component included in every grade level. Mr. Conklin often reminded the students of the importance of Veritas, Pietas, and Caritas (Truth, Loyalty, and Compassion) in his chapel presentations, and he emphasized character education throughout the curriculum.

Mr. Conklin began a buddy program, pairing older students with younger students for various activities throughout the year. He also started several Montgomery traditions, including reading the book The Mountain that Loved a Bird by Alice McLerran at the final Chapel each year, to remind the graduating 8th graders to come “home” to Montgomery in the years to come.

A new faculty member shared these thoughts about Mr. Conklin’s role as a leader for Montgomery School, “I was continuing to reflect on our meeting and the comments made about Kevin. As I was thinking about all he has done, it appears as though he is a great source of support for the faculty and staff. I was also reflecting on my interview with him. I recall him telling me about all of the growth, positive changes, and successes of Montgomery, but never once saying, “I…” He appeared to be very humble and credited the team surrounding himself for raising enrollment, acquiring the funds to add new buildings to campus, and the incredible blend of mind, body, and character.”

Sally B. Keidel: 2014-Present

In February 2014, following a careful search process, Sally Keidel was selected as Montgomery's eleventh Head of School, effective July 2014. She is the first female Head to serve the school since Miss Almy and Miss Ratledge. Sally brings with her a long and distinguished history with independent schools, most recently as Assistant Head for Enrollment and External Relations at The Agnes Irwin School. She had also worked at The Hill School, Episcopal High School and Chatham Hall.

Photos from the Past