A Letter from Headmaster Drew J. Casertano
The 2020-2021 school year will be the last one for Linda and me in Pulling House and at Millbrook. We are grateful beyond words that this remarkable community has been home for our family for 30 years and counting. We are thankful, most of all, for the opportunity to serve a school with such a compelling history and worthy mission and to have been part of Millbrook’s remarkable progress since 1990.
Millbrook’s excellence is found in each student’s engagement in “the simultaneous pursuit of the best self and the common good,” expressed so well in our motto, Non Sibi Sed Cunctis. Similarly, my goal has always been to help Millbrook to develop its best self, to be a mission-driven, values-based community with a thick culture that prepares students not just for college, but for lives of meaning and consequence. It has been a joy to engage in that process with you—faculty colleagues, students and parents, alumni, and trustees. As a result, we have terrific Millbrook Momentum, and it is deeply gratifying to see a school so healthy and strong, with the best yet to come.
All that leaves me thrilled with the Board of Trustees’ selection of Jon Downs ’98 as Millbrook’s seventh headmaster. Having known Jon since his IIIrd form year and having watched him play an integral role in Millbrook’s growth and progress over the last ten years, I am certain that the trustees, led by Bill Menard ’78, have acted with characteristic wisdom and foresight. Simply, there is no one better than Jon, with his wife, Erin, as his partner, to enhance our Millbrook Momentum and to expertly guide the school to its centennial in 2031 and well beyond.
With a clear path forward and Millbrook’s seventh headmaster selected, I’m especially excited to seize this unique opportunity to work with Jon over the next 18 months. I have no doubt that it will be fun, rewarding, and exactly right for our students and our beloved school.
Onward!
