Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Bertha.
Hi Chris, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am the oldest of four children, and I grew up on the East Coast and in the northern Midwest. I was educated in public schools and graduated from West Bloomfield High School in West Bloomfield, Michigan, in 2001. I went to undergrad at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where I studied biomedical engineering. I initially planned to attend Medical School, but I felt drawn to a career in education instead. I started my career at Hilton Head Prep in the winter of 2006. After the 2006-2007 school year, I took a leap of faith and moved to Japan, where I taught English for a year. I returned to Georgia and taught high school science at The Lovett School in Atlanta. At Lovett, I became interested in the systems and processes that make a school run, and I started pursuing opportunities to learn more about school leadership. In 2012, I attended a master’s program in organizational and private school leadership at Columbia University’s Teachers College. After graduation, I moved to Texas to begin my administrative career. I was fortunate to meet my wife three years later while working in San Antonio. I continued my leadership journey in independent schools in Dallas and Houston until I accepted an opportunity to lead a K-12 charter school in the Tampa Bay area. When my wife and I found out that we were expecting a child, we started searching for a school community where I could work and be a parent. The search led me to Hancock Day School, where I am currently serving as the head of school.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has had smooth stretches, but there have certainly been significant challenges along the way. Leadership is incredibly rewarding, but I have yet to find a program that can fully prepare someone for a leadership role. Experience and mistakes have been my most influential teachers as I’ve developed my leadership philosophy and practice.
One of the most persistent struggles has been reconciling my personal beliefs with what is best for the institution I serve. The tension between personal belief and institutional need has driven me to develop institutional filters I use to “sift” and refine ideas. Like all leaders, I have opinions about what I think is right or good, but many of my ideas don’t make it through the filter. I learned a lot of hard lessons before I took the time to critique my own process and commit myself to becoming an effective advocate for my school.
Another challenge has been working through disappointment in the people I worked for. I was brought up believing in people and trusting authority and institutions. It has been hard for me to see people I respect and admire make personal and professional choices that I don’t understand. Those disappointments have driven me to feel an increasing sense of responsibility and care for the people I work with and the community I am a part of.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Hancock is a special place! I’ve had the opportunity to work as a teacher and administrator in several schools, and I’ve never seen anything like the sense of community and commitment I see at Hancock. Hancock was founded in 1953 and has grown over the last 70+ years. The school has changed over the decades, but we have consistently been known for having a strong academic program that definitively prepares students for high school and beyond. We cultivate a nurturing environment with an explicit emphasis on character development and hold ourselves to the high standards of “The Hancock Way.” The Hancock way is challenging to define but can be summarized as a commitment that all members of our community hold themselves and one another to the highest personal and professional standards at all times. The aspirational nature of the Hancock way, along with an explicit focus on academics and character development, makes Hancock a unique place for a child’s most formative years.
Hancock is the only accredited, non-sectarian school offering pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in the Metro Savannah area. There are significant advantages to being a pre-k through eighth-grade school, including the ability for us to focus on and highlight the unique talents and needs of middle school students. Students who complete their education at Hancock have a strong sense of self and purpose. This empowers them to make their “right choice” for high school. There are many wonderful high school options in our city, and we believe it’s an advantage for a student to go through a search, application, and acceptance process for high school, four years before they do so for college.
I am also incredibly thankful for and proud of our faculty and staff. Despite changes in leadership over the past 12 years, the HDS faculty and staff have remained committed to Hancock students, families, and our founding ideals.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I am grateful every day for the opportunity to be in Savannah and to serve Hancock Day School. My wife, daughter, and I believe we’ve found a home, and we hope to stay here for a very long time! I’m grateful to my family for supporting me and to the Hancock community and our Board of Trustees for affording me this opportunity.
Pricing:
- Tuition and application information is available on our website at https://hancockdayschool.org/admissions/
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hancockdayschool.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hancockdayschool/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HancockDaySchool
