A Decade to Remember
Under the leadership of Head of School Will Moseley, St. Margaret’s has experienced a transformative decade of innovation and excellence. A look back at a memorable 10 years at St. Margaret’s.
By Ryan Wood
Twenty-four words.
Will Moseley settled into his new job as the fourth Head of School in the history of St. Margaret’s back in the summer of 2013. He was eager to, as he likes to say, “start where you are.”
One of the first things on his list did not seem like an overwhelming task at all. It involved the careful dissection of one 24-word sentence—a simple statement that would drive a decade of decision-making, and take St. Margaret’s to new heights.
Our mission at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School is to educate the hearts and minds of young people for lives of learning, leadership and service.
Rare is it to find a school so driven by something as simple as a one-sentence Mission statement. Yet Mr. Moseley studied it closely. He took notes. He went to the Board of Trustees with questions. He asked how the school should interpret the phrase “hearts and minds.” He took special notice of the word “lives” and, of course, what those lives were to be educated to do. Learn. Lead. Serve.
The last decade at St. Margaret’s has seen full enrollment every year, a dramatic transformation of the campus, an innovative approach to strategic planning, a reimagined program for service learning, across-the-board success in academics, athletics and arts, and a new Core Value devoted to equity and inclusion.
To Mr. Moseley, whose time as St. Margaret’s Head of School will conclude after the 2022-2023 school year, it all stems from that 24-word Mission statement that guided the direction of the school and formed the bedrock of his vision.
“It’s important to understand the direction we are going together,” Mr. Moseley says now. “The clarity of direction provided by a Mission statement is central to a school’s success. If we execute our Mission, the outcomes will follow.”
Mr. Moseley starts every one of his presentations and meetings by reciting St. Margaret’s Mission statement to his audience, be it students, teachers, parents or alumni. Professional community members quickly memorize it and keep it front-of-mind when brainstorming innovative curriculum, new programming or strategic direction.
So where exactly is St. Margaret’s today? There are countless aspects that could be examined in-depth for a look at the progress that has taken place, but let’s focus on just a few: the school’s culture of innovation, a reimagined approach to service learning, capital projects, the growth of the alumni base, and a look into the future.
Culture of Innovation
In late 2015, St. Margaret’s Strategic Plan was due for a refresh.
Mr. Moseley had an idea.
For years, a thought danced around in his head. What if the Strategic Plan was a living, visionary process, not a static document that’s pulled out of a desk drawer every now and then?
How much higher could the school fly?
The Board of Trustees agreed, and the work began to architect this bold new path. In January 2016, the Board unveiled the Strategic Plan, purposefully constructed to realize the school’s Mission and Core Values. It was then handed over to St. Margaret’s professional community to implement action steps for achieving the larger direction identified by the Board.
Mr. Moseley appointed Ryan Dahlem to a new role of assistant head of school, where he was tasked with overseeing St. Margaret’s strategic initiatives. In the summer of 2016, Mr. Dahlem announced that the school would pursue strategic goals using the design-thinking methodology created by Stanford University’s d.School with inspiration from the fields of engineering, design and social science.
Strategic Plan work, 2016.
After learning how to utilize the methodology in August 2016, the professional community was off and running. They divided into self-selected teams and went through the steps of design thinking—empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. They drew from the input of the entire Tartan community, especially the students (the “end user” in design-thinking methodology) to find actionable solutions to the Board’s strategic priorities.
In hindsight, Mr. Moseley considers it one of St. Margaret’s more impactful initiatives of the last 10 years.
“It altered the trajectory of the school, and created a culture where change is not something to be feared,” Mr. Moseley said. “We started to wrestle with big ideas. ‘How do we figure this out? Let’s start prototyping.’”
The Strategic Plan work brought a flurry of enhancements to the student and school experience, including:
- A redesigned school schedule in 2018 with an emphasis on student health and well-being. The new schedule featured a later start to the school day, consistent class times, breaks built into the schedule and blocks carved out for service learning and innovation.
- An innovation grant program, incentivizing the creation of new curriculum that blends disciplines and allows for cross-divisional connections. Students expressed an interest in both connecting with students in different divisions as well as integrating subjects to illuminate learning.
- The development of the Innovation Block in the Upper School, where students can pursue relevant learning opportunities outside the normal structure of class, from personal finance to food preparation to mindfulness.
- An emphasis of the health and well-being of students, which led to programs and initiatives like the Student Commons.
- A revamped service-learning program to strengthen relationships and meet the authentic needs of the local community (see below).
The innovative way St. Margaret’s approached strategic work captured the attention of top schools across the country. Mr. Moseley, Mr. Dahlem and others presented on St. Margaret’s Strategic Plan implementation at a variety of national conferences, including the CASE-NAIS Independent Schools Conference and the National Association of Independent Schools Strategy Lab Sandbox.
NAIS tabbed St. Margaret’s as one of the most innovative independent schools in the country at its 2019 annual conference, largely based on the school’s strategic work.
St. Margaret’s students returned to campus in the fall of 2020.
More importantly, though, the reimagined Strategic Plan transformed what was possible at St. Margaret’s. The new culture of innovation was given a major test in the spring of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically disrupted life around the world. At St. Margaret’s, the school went to work devising protocols, policies and safety measures to be implemented in quick time to see through Mr. Moseley’s goal of “Every Tartan, Every Day” – having Tartans back learning and interacting on campus, safely, as soon as possible.
The priority was a fruitful one. While schools around the country grappled with the challenge of educating students and maintaining a sense of community, the 2020-2021 school year went forward at St. Margaret’s with almost all students on campus for a large majority of the school year. Academic data shows that the “Every Tartan, Every Day” goal was crucial to student success, as Tartan students continued to grow academically at rates exceeding like schools through the pandemic.
In the eyes of Upper School Principal and Head of School-Elect Jeneen Graham, St. Margaret’s “became a different place” after the 2016 Strategic Plan launched.
St. Margaret’s Trustee Jason Weiss, who was Board President in 2016, agrees. “St. Margaret’s Strategic Plan has been lauded within the independent school community and proved dynamic in invigorating much of the great work that has been achieved at the school,” he said. “The outcomes have been consistent with our greatest hopes.”
Service Learning
Back to that deep-dive into St. Margaret’s Mission—Mr. Moseley studied it intensely, intrigued by the three desired outcomes of a St. Margaret’s education. Lives of learning. Lives of leadership. Lives of service.
Lives of service.
St. Margaret’s, through its Strategic Plan work and its closer examination of the school’s Mission, decided to look closer at its service-learning program a few years into Mr. Moseley’s tenure. The question burned—is service learning meeting its full potential at St. Margaret’s?
“We challenged ourselves to review how we dedicate time within the school program for service,” Mr. Moseley said. “Through our Strategic Plan work, we charged our service-learning team to seek new ways to incorporate service into the student experience and align the program across the school.”
The seeds started to sprout in the spring of 2017, when the service-learning leadership team designed a pilot program with a group of Upper School students with a high interest in service. They left campus during the school day several times over the course of the semester to perform service projects with a local school partner, Family Assistance Ministries.
It turned out to be a successful glimpse into the potential of service-learning at St. Margaret’s. Soon after, the Upper School moved away from a 70-hour service requirement for students and instead adopted a school-day program where advisories would develop a partnership with a local organization, which had the potential to endure through the entire four years of a student’s high school experience.
Upper School now engages in meaningful partnerships with organizations like Laura’s House, Special Camp, The Shea Center, Breakthrough SJC, local schools and more. Other divisions have adopted similar approaches, with the Lower School tying its service initiatives to each grade’s United Nations Sustainable Development Goal.
The 2022 All-School Service Learning Project was a partnership with St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church’s Infant Pantry.
St. Margaret’s also developed the All-School Service Learning Project, which has become an anticipated springtime tradition at the school. The project brings divisions together to meet the existing needs of a partner organization, provide a cross-divisional opportunity for student learning, and rally the school community around a common purpose.
The project had led to impactful partnerships in recent years with The Ecology Center, The Infant Pantry of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, Family Assistance Ministries, relief funds for Californians impacted by wildfires, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Capistrano Valley.
The success of the All-School Service Learning Project, and Mr. Moseley’s leadership in reimaging service learning at St. Margaret’s, was profound. In March, the Board of Trustees honored this work when Board President Paul Westhead announced the William N. Moseley Venture to Serve. The Moseley Venture to Serve will have two annual components: the continuation of the All-School Service Learning Project, as well as the launch of a service venture fund.
In addition, Mr. Westhead announced the creation of the William N. Moseley Venture to Serve Endowment, which will generate income to ensure the future of the All-School Service Learning Project in addition to providing grants for students, alumni and professional community looking to create new and innovative ways to serve.
Capital Projects
The Maseeh Middle School grand opening in 2015.
When Mr. Moseley began his time at St. Margaret’s in the summer of 2013, there was no set timeline to move forward with the much-needed and oft-discussed fundraising and construction of a new Middle School campus.
Less than a year later, millions had been raised and construction was underway.
It was one of a series of significant upgrades to the campus during the last decade, as the campus master plan came into focus and the Tartan community supported the development of new campus spaces for students to learn, collaborate, interact and grow as people.
The Board of Trustees saw the 2013-2014 school year as a chance for Mr. Moseley to “listen and learn” as he settled into his new role. Major initiatives would wait.
Those plans changed just a few months later, when Mr. Moseley met with Mr. Weiss in September of 2013. There, Mr. Moseley expressed a desire to move forward with the development of a dedicated space for Middle School students to call home.
“Behind Will’s articulation of his vision of the Middle School and its intended impact on St. Margaret’s, the Tartan community rallied around this initiative,” Mr. Weiss said. “We raised more than $10 million in six months, and had shovels in the ground by June 2014.”
The Maseeh Middle School opened one year later in August of 2015, a triumph that instantly enhanced the learning experience and student life for grades 6-8.
There was no time for victory laps, however. The success of the Middle School sparked a forward-thinking push to enhance the campus in ways that would benefit student learning, growth, and community. The Maseeh Middle School was followed by:
- Highlands Quad and Chalmers Field (2016)
- Johnson Wallis Visual Arts Center (2017)
- Lower School Outdoor Classroom (2018)
- Lower School STEAM Center (2018)
- Ortega Administrative Center (2021)
A rendering of the Student Commons project.
In addition, the Board of Trustees enacted a policy to earmark 20 percent of all capital project fundraising toward St. Margaret’s endowment, a long-term pool of funds used to generate capital gains and interest income to support the annual operating budget. The growth of the endowment was significant over the past decade—from about $3 million in 2013 to almost $20 million in 2023.
An endowment also was created to support Breakthrough SJC, ensuring its future and supporting its mission to break the cycle of poverty through the power of education by serving students from underrepresented backgrounds. Recently, the headquarters of Breakthrough SJC, which is hosted and sponsored by St. Margaret’s, were moved to Campaigne Center as part of a 2022 campus upgrade.
The work continues, too. St. Margaret’s is currently fundraising for a major campus master plan project that will benefit the health and well-being of all Tartans. The Student Commons is a 30,000-square-foot, two-story building which will feature a from-scratch kitchen, a dining hall, a modern strength and performance center, and student-centered spaces for collaboration, downtime and more.
Tartan Alumni
Mattingly Messina graduated from St. Margaret’s in 2013, just a month before Mr. Moseley began his tenure as St. Margaret’s Head of School. Now the president of the Tartan Alumni Association and a member of St. Margaret’s Board of Trustees, Mr. Messina has a unique vantage point of the last decade of the school’s history.
Mr. Messina at the 2022 Senior Banquet.
“St. Margaret’s has remained the same in all the right ways: a caring community, a focus on academic and personal excellence, strong relationships between students and adults across campus, and an emphasis on service,” Mr. Messina said. “But St. Margaret’s has also transformed in ways our alumni can be proud of: stunning new buildings and facilities, a broader and more innovative academic curriculum, and a deeper emphasis on equity and inclusion.
“St. Margaret’s has grown into a nationally recognized independent school, and I often hear from our alumni that colleges and companies know a St. Margaret’s graduate is going to be a prepared and kind leader.”
As part of his role, Mr. Messina oversees relations between St. Margaret’s and its ever-growing alumni base. How much has it grown? When Mr. Messina graduated in the spring of 2013, he was one of 1,700 Tartan alumni, dating back to the first graduating class in 1986. Ten years later, he is one of 2,700.
As the alumni base grows, it intertwines into the St. Margaret’s community in new and more impactful ways. Today:
- Five of the last six graduating classes have had at least one student with a parent who also graduated from St. Margaret’s.
- There are more on the way! Today, more than 30 children of alumni are currently attending St. Margaret’s.
- There are 12 alumni currently working in the professional community at St. Margaret’s.
In addition, Tartan alumni span the globe, and are making noticeable impacts in the worlds of business, technology, law, medicine, the arts, nonprofits and much more.
“We now have thousands of alumni around the world and are ready to connect them as much as possible,” Mr. Messina said. “The next decade will be transformative as we see more of them send their own children to St. Margaret’s, return to work at their first alma mater, and provide the time, talent and resources to the school. The future of all independent schools rest on their alumni and we are dedicated to meeting all Tartans wherever they are.”
As a vehicle for alumni to connect and contribute to the St. Margaret’s experience, the Tartan Alumni Association launched the Tartan Alumni Legacy Endowment (T.A.L.E.) in 2014. T.A.L.E. is an endowment with income earmarked exclusively for St. Margaret’s Financial Aid program.
Mr. Messina looks back at the last decade as transformative for the alumni base at St. Margaret’s, and he sees the next decade being just as impactful in a variety of ways.
“We’ll see alumni folded into every area of our school,” Mr. Messina said. “We’ll see more alumni in leadership at St. Margaret’s, improved career programming, strong regional networks around the country, greater fundraising, and thousands of new Tartans to help keep our school’s Mission alive.
“Our goal is to show the world that St. Margaret’s takes that Mission seriously—that they prepare us for lives of learning, leadership and service.”
The Next Decade
St. Margaret’s celebrated its 40th anniversary during the 2019-2020 school year, with the school adopting the theme “40 Forward” as a nod to the Tartan spirit of growth, excellence, innovation and progress.
The 40th anniversary birthday party, October 2019
The slogan was perfect. Over the last decade, Mr. Moseley insisted on the need for St. Margaret’s to continually look forward—realizing the importance of a school’s success serving as a catalyst for continued growth.
“An academic institution that’s standing still,” he would often say, “is falling behind.”
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where St. Margaret’s will be in 2033, but the school’s rock-solid foundation, its culture of innovation, its expert faculty and staff and its strong and loving community are all key ingredients for continued excellence.
“It has been a memorable decade, with many achievements and accomplishments we should all be proud of,” Mr. Moseley said. “Yet I’m confident the best is yet to come for St. Margaret’s. The school is in great hands behind the leadership of Dr. Graham as the next Head of School. The careful guidance of our professional community, and the generous love and support of our parent and alumni community will take St. Margaret’s to new heights.
“The future is bright, and it’s exciting to think of all that is possible at St. Margaret’s in the years to come.”
St. Margaret’s Strategic Plan has evolved into an Innovation Strategy, an ongoing model for strategic planning which continues to mirror innovation sectors like technology and design while putting it’s end users—St. Margaret’s students—at the heart of the process.
It’s an essential approach in a rapidly changing world, as education continues transforming to meet the needs of new generations of students.
The school is poised to continue its excellence in academics, athletics and arts. It will continue serving the local community in more authentic and meaningful ways. It will continue prioritizing the health and well-being of its students, with the planned Student Commons serving as a physical embodiment of that important commitment. And it will continue preparing young people for the rest of their lives, as a growing alumni base keeps expanding its impact on St. Margaret’s—and the world.
“It is an exciting time at St. Margaret’s,” Dr. Graham said. “The momentum we have collectively built over the last 10 years and beyond have put our school in a position to continue growing and pursuing a high standard of excellence for our students and the Tartan community. If the last 10 years have shown us anything, it’s that there’s nothing we can’t achieve together.”
Such trajectories are only possible through shared values, or as Mr. Moseley put it, “understanding the direction we are going together.” It is why he studied all 24 words of the school’s Mission statement from endless angles. It is why he shared those words with Tartans every chance he had, and why the community is marching forward with a unified commitment toward the school and its students, every single day.
Our mission at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School is to educate the hearts and minds of young people for lives of learning, leadership and service.
Those 24 words are a guiding light for St. Margaret’s Episcopal School—a school that has come a long way in the last 10 years, and a school with a bright future ready to be realized.