Living Together
Head of School Matt Cavellier reflects on Halloween at SSM and the way it symbolizes our shared community.
One of the special bonuses of boarding school life is the fact that we all live together: students, faculty, and, of course, the families of our faculty. These days at Shattuck-St. Mary’s, that means that along with the students and faculty there are over 30 children who live on our campus or in close proximity. In fact, on the east side of campus, from the Gate House to the south end of Kim Hall, there are 13 children of faculty members.
These kids—including my own two boys—grow up with the campus as their yard and with 500 older brothers and sisters. And the relationship is certainly symbiotic—often our students have younger siblings back home and enjoy the opportunity to play the role of big brother or big sister—especially when they can return them to their parents later!
This past Halloween provided another great example of how awesome it is—for parents, students, and faculty children—to live at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School. Halloween night was upon us, which for the youngsters meant Trick-or-Treating on campus, and there was a costume party and chuck-a-puck fundraiser at the J.P. Parisé arena during the Prep Boys hockey game. It was here where the two worlds collided yet again as the faculty children, all sugared up on candy, joined in the full stands with our costumed students—all there to cheer on other SSM students. It just doesn’t get much better than that.
