Kindness, trust, and joy.

According to Rye Country Day School’s new Upper School Principal Peter Quagliaroli, these three values are necessities in a community. 

Quagliaroli, who will be joining the RCDS community in July 2022, has had a deep respect and appreciation for education since his childhood. “Education was always the highest priority in my household growing up,” he recalled. “[My brother and I] were given the opportunity to go to great schools, schools a lot like Rye. Just amazing schools with remarkable teachers.” 

While Quagliaroli entered college pursuing medicine, this love for schools never truly subsided; he eventually realized education and working with kids was his true calling. “I applied to sort of continue with the things that I loved: I loved coaching, I loved studying literature,” Quagliaroli said. His favorite novel, he shared, is Toni Morrison’s Beloved. “At the end of studying that novel, both as a student and then many times as a teacher, there’s this recognition of sort of the fundamental humanity of all of us,” Quagliaroli explained. “I felt as though that novel was so powerful on both sides of the desk […] Teaching that novel reminds me of what I really love about studying literature and teaching itself.”

After teaching English and coaching soccer at two independent schools, Quagliaroli transitioned from teaching to a college counseling position at Groton School in Massachusetts. He described his transition from teaching to administration as “lucky, serendipitous, [and] accidental, almost,” with mentors who saw potential in him guiding his path. After thirteen years at Groton, Quagliaroli joined St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Virginia and took on the role of Head of the Upper School just two years later. “I’ve always felt very at home working with students and being in school,” Quagliaroli said. “Working with adults who love working with kids has just felt [like] a very natural progression for me.”

Emphasizing the importance of joy in education, Quagliaroli shared his view on leadership: in a broad sense, leadership is service. “I think first and foremost [my role] is to be the primary support person for the faculty,” he articulated. “I want the faculty to feel as though the beauty of the work that they’re doing is seen and valued and supported.” Kindness, trust, and joy, Quagliaroli’s core community values, are critical to this support and appreciation. 

RCDS caught Quagliaroli’s attention in this light: he was drawn in by the soul of the community. “I came to campus and I met the students and I met some parents and administrators, and it was clear that there was a seriousness about the daily work, but there was also this firm grip on the larger mission of the place. And it all spoke to me.” Reminded of his own view on leadership reading the motto of “not for self, but for service,” Quagliaroli felt his values coincide with those of RCDS. 

Joy, of course, one of his three essential values, was also on Quagliaroli’s mind as he spoke. Without joy, he noted, “life has no life to it.” Quagliaroli emphasized the importance of students making time for what they love, recalling a lesson his children were taught in kindergarten about the “have-tos and want-tos” of life. “There was also a hidden curriculum there, I think,” Quagliaroli explained. “When I think about high school students today, I think what I worry about is the balance between the have-tos and the want-tos. There’s just a ton of pressure to pursue, there’s a ton of pressure to succeed, achieve.” Working hard is important, but should not drown out the rest of life.

As he concluded, Quagliaroli reiterated the importance of becoming part of the RCDS community. “The principal needs to be the main narrator of the values of the school for the division,” Quagliaroli said. “So perhaps the most important job that I have is to be fully present, to learn about and really become a true member of the community.”