Welcome to Head-Royce!

I have a fabulous job. I get to hang out with kids a lot. Take today, for example: The 6th grade has just started reading Animal Farm, and I can tell the whole “this is about the Russian Revolution” thing is going to blow them away. After hearing some of that discussion, I got to hang out with 2nd graders. Second graders are wild and have no personal boundaries, and want to learn exactly everything I am thinking and to share exactly everything that they are thinking. Some wanted to shake hands, some wanted to hug, and others made eye contact and told me all their thoughts about life. This afternoon, I got to watch Senior Night for the women’s varsity basketball team; I’m so proud of that team. They won, sure, which was awesome. But even better was how much they have improved over the course of the year. They pass like the cast of Hoosiers and “play D” like the ’89 Pistons. Oh, and last night I saw the Senior Play (a tradition that brings the entire senior class together to put their own twist on Shakespeare, Twelfth Night this year).

I could go on, and I probably will if you meet me and give me any opening to talk about Head-Royce. I love this school and the students who attend here so much. They are thoughtful and diverse and interested and interesting. They have spirit and creativity. They put wheels onto furniture and a motor, too, which makes me nervous. They dress up for “rhyme without reason” day. (Jayhawk and Cornstalk…that kind of thing.) And our students love their school.

I tell parents all the time, choose this school because of the academic excellence. But then I think, no, choose Head-Royce because of the Center for Community Engagement. And then that feels wrong, and I say, choose it for the diversity, for the athletics, for the fact that our production of Hadestown was professional quality. Ultimately, though, I hope you choose us for our community in every way. I hope you will want to experience that joy, too.

Sincerely,

Ricky Lapidus
Interim Head of School