“I hope he’ll do a much better job than I’ve done over the past five years,” said Larry Stowe with a laugh. Stowe was referring to Kevin Rogers, who will become Head of the Science Department in the fall of 2008. Other department heads stepping down include Head of the Language Department Scott Mattoon, who will be replaced with Katherine Jewett, and Paul Tines, the head of the Arts Department.
Mr. Mattoon, who has been at Choate for eight years and a department head for two, will be moving to Oregon because of his wife’s job relocation. Mr. Tines, who was unavailable for comment, is also changing schools. Mr. Stowe, on the other hand, who has been at Choate for twenty-six years, has no plans to leave any time soon. “I’ve done [the job] for five years, which is a standard term for department heads,” says Mr. Stowe. “It’s been an interesting change, but I’m feeling ready to devote myself to teaching a little more, and giving up some of the administrative responsibilities.”
No replacement has been found for Mr. Tines yet, but Mr. Rogers and Ms. Katie Jewett were selected in February and early March, respectively. Ms. Jewett, who taught French at Choate from 2000 to 2006, has been living in Japan for two years, teaching English and French, and learning Japanese. “I am pleased and eager to share Steele Hall with colleagues and students again,” she says. “Leaving Choate two years ago taught me the hard way that teaching is a bit of an addiction, something I’ve been doing for nearly twenty years straight. When I take too much time away from it, the withdrawal symptoms are quite terrible.” Mr. Rogers, who has taught chemistry at Choate for eight years, says what interested him most about the job was “the challenge of trying something new. I’ve loved my teaching here … I guess I saw it as an opportunity to reward myself, get into the job, try a different role. You know, you look for new challenges and this is definitely a new challenge.”
The application process for the job of department chair is somewhat mysterious, and almost entirely led by Kathleen Wallace, the Dean of Academic Affairs. According to Mr. Stowe and Mr. Mattoon, neither had much say in their replacements. “No more than a normal person in the department,” says Mr. Stowe. “It’s the decision of the administration, and they listen to all the members of the department, not just the department chair. It’s not a vote, but they do try to choose someone who’s supported by the department, and also that they feel will do a good job.” Mr. Rogers, as an applicant, was able to clarify what the actual process was like. He says it all starts with an e-mail notification that the department head position is open. “Then, it’s open to the members of the department to either nominate someone or nominate [themselves],” explains Mr. Rogers. “Once you send your nomination in or someone nominates you, there’s a series of questions that Ms. Wallace asks us to consider.” Meetings with individuals follow, in addition to comments from department members. He adds that “she also probably consults with the senior deans as well as the headmaster to ultimately make the choice.”
Being department head, naturally, comes with many new duties. “A lot of [the job] is, like you would envision, sort of straight administration,” says Mr. Rogers. “You know, ‘Who’s going to teach what?’ ‘How many sections of this class are running?’ ‘Do we have enough students enrolled in this?’ and then I’d say the other major aspect is the evaluation of junior faculty members.” Mr. Stowe commented that this was one of the most challenging parts of the job for him. “I like giving them some feedback, in a professional development sort of way,” he says. “The actual evaluation can be stress producing if I have to write some negative things or say some negative things about the teachers. That’s always a difficult time for me. It’s an important part of the job, but it’s a little tough sometimes on personal relationships."
Department heads are also in charge of handling parental complaints, deciding if a student gets credit from a course at a past school, and talking to prospective students. Mr. Stowe said he also ran department meetings approximately once a month.
Both Mr. Rogers and Ms. Jewett will continue teaching. “One of the things I appreciate about Choate, as opposed to some of the public schools where I have taught before, is that our administrators teach in addition to their other duties,” notes Ms. Jewett.
Neither Mr. Rogers nor Ms. Jewett has specific changes they’d like to make to their respective departments. “I think [Science] is a great department,” says Mr. Rogers. “I think all Choate departments are very strong. We have great faculty; we’ve been fortunate over the years to pick up new faculty who have new and different things to lend to the department. But like with any program or plan, there’s always the need to ask yourself where the weaknesses are: ‘How might we shorten things up?’ ‘How might we make things better?’ ‘Are there different options we could offer students, not just in terms of electives, but in our core courses as well?’”
Mr. Stowe has some words of advice for new department heads: “Start early with everything because things get very busy around this time of year, and it can be very difficult if you haven’t been on top of things. I think [Mr. Rogers] has some great ideas of his own and I’ll try to support him in those ideas.”
