Message from the Co-Heads of School

Dear SAAS Community,

We hope your summer brought time to rest, explore, and reconnect with the people and places you love. Summer has a way of renewing us, and we hope you're returning refreshed for the year ahead. 

As much as we appreciate the slower pace of summer, there's something we love even more about this time of year. In just a few days, our campus will once again be buzzing with the energy that makes SAAS such a special place. New students will walk through our doors for the very first time. Returning students will reconnect with friends, teachers, coaches, advisors, and mentors. Classrooms, studios, labs, stages, and fields will fill with conversation, creativity, laughter, and learning. 

As we look ahead to this year, we’re reflecting on the longtime SAAS mantra “Know the Kid” and how it continues to underpin our new Culture Principles. Knowing every student—leveraging their natural strengths, helping them embrace their individual challenges, and discovering their hidden talents—is deeply ingrained in SAAS’s culture. It’s something we returned to often as we developed the four Culture Principles we’re introducing this year. 

“Know the Kid” has always been foundational at SAAS. In a letter from the start of the 2004-2005 school year, Seattle Academy's second Head of School, Joe Puggelli, wrote that every organization has something so essential that everything else depends upon it. At SAAS, he said, that essential ingredient is the relationship between students and teachers.

A compelling vision is essential, and purpose-built facilities make an innovative curriculum possible. All of that matters. But when all is said and done, great teaching matters most. And great teaching only exists in the context of healthy, meaningful relationships between an individual student and a trusted teacher, coach, or mentor. That’s why we remain vigorously committed to our “Know the Kid” mantra as the foundation of our community. All great educational outcomes start there. 

“Know the Kid” looks like a student finding the confidence to speak up, lead, perform, create, or try something that once felt out of reach. It’s a conversation after class that changes the direction of their thinking. It’s a project that sparks a future career. 

Those moments don’t happen by accident. They are the result of a culture where relationships matter first and where adults make the time to know their students, believe in them, challenge them, and care about them. 

Everything else grows from there.

This year, we're introducing four Culture Principles that capture the kind of community we strive to build every day.

We Build Connection because relationships come first.

We Expand Access because every student deserves opportunities to discover who they can become.

We Foster Agility because meaningful learning asks us to embrace challenges, adapt, and keep growing.

We Pursue Excellence because excellence isn't about perfection. It's about showing up each day with curiosity, purpose, and the desire to become a little better than we were yesterday.

These principles aren't a new chapter for SAAS. They're a clearer way of expressing what has always made this community special. They remind us that culture isn't just something we talk about; it's something we create together, in every classroom conversation, every rehearsal, every practice, every advisory, every adventure, and every moment when one person helps another grow. 

The culture we create together prepares our community to contribute boldly, evolve with a changing world, and tackle the unknown challenges that lie ahead. It’s what makes SAAS such a special place to learn and grow.

Warmly,
Rob Phillips and Giselle Furlonge