by Kate F. and Amelia M.

          What is the heart of Hackley to you? We wanted to find out what the heart of Hackley is in Mr. Wirtz’s perspective. So we asked Mr. Wirtz a series of questions. The first question we asked him was, “Why did you join the Hackley community?” Mr. Wirtz explained, “Well, I joined   because I wanted to be Hackely’s head of school, but what attracted me to Hackley was the way that I thought people treated one and other.” The second question we asked Mr. Wirtz was “How did you become the head of school?” He answered, “I went through an very extensive interview process, where I talked with many members of the board of trustees ( A group of people that make big decision to make sure the school runs well) and also some senior administrators there were faculty members on the search committee. So I had a chance to meet a number of people. I had to answer a lot of questions, do some writing, and give them my thoughts on education and leadership, and when I did that, they called me up and said, we’d like you to come to the hilltop.” Third, we asked Mr. Wirtz “Did you teach a class before you became the head of school?” He mentioned that he had taught  for around twenty years, including introductory, AP, and organic Chemistry and forensic science course. We were also curious to know about his love for bow-ties. He confessed that he received a bow tie from his mother-in-law and they make him feel happy! Mr. Wirtz also answered our next question about why he joined a school for a job? He shared that his great experiences with his own teachers prompted him to continue helping others feel the way he felt about learning. Lastly, we asked him what he felt the heart of Hackley is? “The people. Absolutely the people! The people, and I mean every-body, the students and their family and all the work here. People care about Hackley and they care about it very deeply. They work hard while there and they work hard for the school, and it just leaves people feeling really good. I think people are really proud to be aroused with Hackley and I think we should be because it is a remarkable place. Why do you think that is the heart of Hackley? He happily replied are buildings are beautiful, are campus is beautiful and at the end of the day the thing that matters the most is all the humans that are inside. You can have the world’s best looking campus but if the people are not nice to one another and the values are not strong and the culture is not strong it probably won’t much matter.” That is it, the real thing.