Charley Stillwell
After 18 years, the head of one of Richmond’s largest private schools is stepping down and heading north.
St. Christopher’s School Headmaster Charley Stillwell on Thursday announced his decision to leave the school next year after accepting a similar position with Episcopal High School, a 435-student coed boarding school in Alexandria, Virginia.
Stillwell started at St. Christopher’s in the summer of 1998 and will remain throughout the 2015-16 year before starting his new position July 1, 2016.
“I love St. Christopher’s, and it was a very difficult decision,” Stillwell said. “I took over at a very young age – I was 35 – so the question was whether I would try to stay and lead the school for the next 10, 15 years, or whether I had time for one more significant professional challenge as a final chapter in my career.”
A search committee has been formed and already began the process to find St. Christopher’s next headmaster. Delores Smith, the school’s director of development, said a replacement will be found by the end of the coming school year.
She said the committee will launch a national search in order to consider all possibilities.
“We love Charley. We’re grateful for all he has done here and we’re going to miss him tremendously, but he is leaving the school in great shape, and we will be looking for our next new great leader,” Smith said. “There are a lot of great candidates out there, we’re told.”
St. Christopher’s sits off Patterson Avenue near UR.
Most heads of schools in the private school industry remain in their positions for five to seven years, Smith said. But in its 104-year history, St. Christopher’s has had only six headmasters, a number she attributes to the school’s “strong sense of community.”
During Stillwell’s tenure, St. Christopher’s said it has reached both record enrollment and endowment levels, and annual giving is at an all-time high.
The all-boys school currently has 1,001 students enrolled. As of July 2014, its endowment was $64 million, and between 2013 and 2014, alumni donated a total of $1.47 million.
It’s the second-largest private school in the Richmond market, according to a recent BizSense ranking.
“It would be hard to leave St. Christopher’s if I didn’t think the school was in a terrific place institutionally,” Stillwell said. “We’re hitting on all cylinders.”
St. Christopher’s also recently completed its $45 million Second Century Vision campaign. The funds will increase the endowment for use on school programs and financial aid and will complete financing on the Luck Leadership Center, which was built in 2012.
Those funds will also be used to launch a new initiative, the Center for the Study of Boys, a research program aimed at developing practices for “how to teach young boys to become men of character,” Smith said.
St. Christopher’s was founded in 1911. The school teaches students between junior kindergarten and grade 12 at its West End campus at 711 St. Christopher’s Road.
Tuition for students in grades nine through 12 was $25,000 for the 2015-16 school year.
Charley Stillwell
After 18 years, the head of one of Richmond’s largest private schools is stepping down and heading north.
St. Christopher’s School Headmaster Charley Stillwell on Thursday announced his decision to leave the school next year after accepting a similar position with Episcopal High School, a 435-student coed boarding school in Alexandria, Virginia.
Stillwell started at St. Christopher’s in the summer of 1998 and will remain throughout the 2015-16 year before starting his new position July 1, 2016.
“I love St. Christopher’s, and it was a very difficult decision,” Stillwell said. “I took over at a very young age – I was 35 – so the question was whether I would try to stay and lead the school for the next 10, 15 years, or whether I had time for one more significant professional challenge as a final chapter in my career.”
A search committee has been formed and already began the process to find St. Christopher’s next headmaster. Delores Smith, the school’s director of development, said a replacement will be found by the end of the coming school year.
She said the committee will launch a national search in order to consider all possibilities.
“We love Charley. We’re grateful for all he has done here and we’re going to miss him tremendously, but he is leaving the school in great shape, and we will be looking for our next new great leader,” Smith said. “There are a lot of great candidates out there, we’re told.”
St. Christopher’s sits off Patterson Avenue near UR.
Most heads of schools in the private school industry remain in their positions for five to seven years, Smith said. But in its 104-year history, St. Christopher’s has had only six headmasters, a number she attributes to the school’s “strong sense of community.”
During Stillwell’s tenure, St. Christopher’s said it has reached both record enrollment and endowment levels, and annual giving is at an all-time high.
The all-boys school currently has 1,001 students enrolled. As of July 2014, its endowment was $64 million, and between 2013 and 2014, alumni donated a total of $1.47 million.
It’s the second-largest private school in the Richmond market, according to a recent BizSense ranking.
“It would be hard to leave St. Christopher’s if I didn’t think the school was in a terrific place institutionally,” Stillwell said. “We’re hitting on all cylinders.”
St. Christopher’s also recently completed its $45 million Second Century Vision campaign. The funds will increase the endowment for use on school programs and financial aid and will complete financing on the Luck Leadership Center, which was built in 2012.
Those funds will also be used to launch a new initiative, the Center for the Study of Boys, a research program aimed at developing practices for “how to teach young boys to become men of character,” Smith said.
St. Christopher’s was founded in 1911. The school teaches students between junior kindergarten and grade 12 at its West End campus at 711 St. Christopher’s Road.
Tuition for students in grades nine through 12 was $25,000 for the 2015-16 school year.