STOCKBRIDGE — Berkshire Country Day (BCD), an independent school serving elementary and middle school students, has appointed veteran school administrator Mary Warner as its new head of school.
Warner, who will officially replace interim head Susan Benner on July 15, comes to BCD from Maine’s Hebron Academy, where she was acting head for a year after the abrupt departure of Hebron Head of School Dan Marchetti, who resigned after complaints about his management style and dozens of faculty members had left the school in protest.
“We could not be more excited to welcome Mary to the BCD community,” Scott Sylvester, president of the BCD Board of Trustees said in a written statement issued by the school. “A strategic thinker who brings a deep well of experience, empathy, and humanity to our school, Mary’s broad skill set will prove invaluable in realizing the vision of BCD’s Civics Action Lab. We know that she will lead BCD into its next chapter with passion, strength and creativity.”
In 2020, the trustees adopted a new strategic plan for the school that directed the creation of a Civics Action Lab, a whole school initiative for civics education that builds on the school’s existing mission, strengths, and curriculum.
“From the moment I read the vision for the Civics Action Lab, met with the board members and faculty, and then was interviewed by the students themselves, I knew BCD was the right fit,” said Warner. “The measure of a good school is the care it takes of its students; the measure of a great school is the vision that lifts its students to the next stage of growth. In the Civics Action Lab, BCD has set that vision, and it is one that students will carry through their academic lives.”
BCD says Warner brings much expertise in school management, community relations, fiduciary management, enrollment management strategy, board relations, advancement, capital campaigns, and marketing and communications.
Before Hebron, Warner was assistant head for external affairs at Mater Christi School in Burlington, Vermont, a pre-K–grade 8 day school. Warner also has held positions of increasing responsibility at Green Farms Academy and Choate Rosemary Hall, both in Connecticut. Warner is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and holds a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California.
In taking the post of Head of School at BCD, Warner looks forward to combining her love of New England with closer proximity to her family in Connecticut and Vermont, and her appreciation and fondness for preschool through middle school students and the joy they take in learning and life. Warner said her three children learned to ski at Butternut and the Berkshires “have always held a special charm for our family.”
Founded 1946, Berkshire Country Day School has provided students from throughout Berkshire and Columbia Counties with what the school calls “a progressive, challenging, and well-rounded education.”
BCD enrolls students from age 2 through 8th grade on a 27-acre campus in Stockbridge that includes art studios, science laboratories, a full-sized gym, a new library and learning commons, several playing fields, a swimming and skating pond, and wooded trails.
