During a special meeting Feb. 5, the Bolles Board of Trustees appointed Associate Head of School Tyler Hodges as the school’s ninth president and head of school.
Hodges takes over Bolles’ top administrative post this summer from Dave Farace, who will leave at the end of the 2017-18 school year to become head of the Baltimore-based McDonogh School, his alma mater.
“The board has worked tirelessly during the past month to analyze all of the school’s options for appointing our next head of school,” said C. Daniel Rice, chair of the Bolles Board of Trustees. “Bolles is fortunate to have many skilled professionals in key leadership positions on all four campuses. We are also privileged to have an associate head of school in Tyler with the foresight, leadership skills and compassion that has already proven successful within our community.”
Rice added that the move provides a smooth leadership transition for Bolles as the school enters the 2018-19 school year.
“Tyler has been at the foundation of our success since he arrived, and we are pleased to offer him an opportunity he is more than qualified, and ready, to accept,” Rice said.
Hodges said he is elated to begin his tenure as the Bolles president and head of school.
“I am honored to assume this role at Bolles and am grateful to the trustees for providing me the opportunity to lead what is inarguably one of the foremost independent schools in the world,” he said. “I respect Bolles’ many fine traditions, its incredible community and the school’s time-honored values. I am humbled to build upon the momentum we already have established at Bolles and to help shape tomorrow’s leaders by supporting their mental, social, emotional and physical needs on all four campuses for years to come.”
As Bolles’ associate head of school since July 2015, Hodges has been working toward a head of school position for many years. In his current role, he has been overseeing all day-to-day administration duties of faculty, curriculum and student academic affairs for students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12. This includes articulating the school’s vision of distinction and excellence in a manner consistent with the school’s mission and strategic plan.
Hodges’ educational career includes more than 18 years as a teacher and administrator at some of the country’s top independent schools, including Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. He has been a history and leadership instructor, class dean and coach. He has led accreditation visits, handled discipline matters as dean of students and, prior to coming to Bolles, was the director of upper school academics and student life at Laguna Blanca School in Santa Barbara, California.
While in California, Hodges was invited to join a partnership with an orphanage in Haiti to offer aid and educational support. Following the devastating earthquake there, Hodges was asked to serve on the orphanage’s educational board for his counsel and curriculum guidance as they created a school, Maison de Lumiere, contiguous to the orphanage. He assisted in this servant leadership capacity for three years.
Hodges received his Master of Education in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University Graduate School of Education and a Master of Arts in diplomatic and military history from Temple University. He received a Bachelor of Arts in history with a minor in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia. Hodges is an avid reader and loves a variety of sports, rare books, maps and 19th century literature. He also enjoys spending family time with his wife, Tristan, and their two daughters, Hannah and Madalene.
