While most students are still asleep, Madison Country Day Head of School Mark Brooks is already working. By the time he arrives on campus at 7:15 a.m., he’s been answering emails and preparing for the day since five a.m. His favorite part of the day is greeting students as they arrive and ensuring he’s setting a positive tone for the day.
Brooks begins working from home every day before sunrise so that he’s able to focus on students as much as possible when he arrives at school around 7:15 a.m. Before students are dropped off, he meets with his assistant, Colleen Schmidt, to review the daily schedule and to make sure that they’re meeting various deadlines. After Brooks greets students at drop off, he attends numerous meetings that typically end by afternoon pick-up. He also spends time on the phone with parents when various student issues arise throughout the day. After the school day ends, Brooks has several phone meetings with businesses in relation to the school, including bankers, insurance agents, lawyers and architects. He also participates in board meetings.
Brooks’s favorite part of the day is morning drop-off, which he refers to as “waking the school up” in the morning. This means that he’s arriving on campus and greeting students, staffulty and overall trying to set the tone for a positive and productive day.
MCDS’s carline is very different from the school where he previously worked in Los Angeles. That school’s carline saw students loading in and out of cars on one of the busiest corners in California’s largest city. Brooks highlights the differences between the two schools’ drop-off and pick-up systems by emphasizing how beautiful MCDS’s long driveway and 40 acres of property are. “I think it is important that our students be welcomed in a friendly manner every morning if possible,” he said. “Our carline is a very pleasant experience in that we are able to have all their cars on our property and not be interacting with cars and drivers who are not dropping off students,” he added.
Brooks gets a lot of requests from students, staff and parents and tries to accept them all. He is often required to be in multiple meetings at once, having to step out of one and into another. He does many important things throughout the school day, but assisting students, parents and faculty members is the most important thing to him. He says that a day in the life of MCDS is much more varied than previous schools he ran due to characteristics that are unique to MCDS. Leading a school that teaches students across 13 grades: pre-K through 12th grade requires Brooks to switch from an issue with a four-year-old to a high school issue within a matter of minutes, which proves to be a fun challenge due to all of the different activities available to students each day.
Brooks says one of his daily highlights is going to the Hub to sample lunch and greet students while they are eating. He greatly enjoyed this year’s Grandparents and Special Friends Day, when students bring their grandparents or special friends to MCDS, take them to their classes, and share with them the school day experience. “It was so wonderful to see our students interacting with and showing their grandparents their school,” says Brooks.
Brooks says his least favorite part of the day is leaving school at night and wondering if he could have handled something better or helped someone more, since there are so many matters he’s tasked with handling.
With such a busy schedule, Brooks has to make accommodations to keep in touch with his immediate family members. He calls his East Coast family members in the morning and calls his family members on the West Coast on his way home from school at night. His son is a teacher and understands the demanding schedule for a head of school. “My family is very proud to be associated with MCDS and they know how much I appreciate the wonderful students and community here,” Brooks said.
