Northern Light School

Derek Boyd is Head of School at Northern Light School, where he leads with a strong focus on climate, culture and instructional leadership. An educator with 17 years of experience and a math teacher by trade, he spends his time in classrooms and across campus, conducting observations, supporting staff, building relationships with students and staying closely connected to families. He also emphasizes culturally relevant curriculum, community engagement and relationship-driven leadership as key pillars shaping the school’s long-term direction.

Climate, Culture and Connection

A big part of my work centers on climate and culture because I do not see those as soft elements around learning. Students need to feel connected, supported and secure in order to learn well. That work includes instructional leadership, faculty and staff retention, culturally relevant curriculum and community engagement. It also shows up in practical ways throughout the school day. I am in classrooms doing observations and pop-in visits, collaborating with my assistant head of school on evaluations, leading Wednesday professional development and thinking about our long-term strategic direction.

Just as important, I spend time on the playground during recess and lunch building relationships with students. I help organize visits to the high schools our students will attend, so we are preparing them well for what comes next. Small gestures matter too because they shape the feeling of the school community.

Sometimes that means bringing pastries and coffee for staff or handing out popsicles to students on a hot afternoon. Those things may seem simple, but they contribute to something larger. They help make school feel grounded, joyful and human.

In my view, schools are not just academic institutions, but community hubs where students, families and educators grow together through periods of rapid social and technological change.

Balancing Academic Rigor with Equity

One of my strongest beliefs is that academic rigor and equity are not competing priorities. They depend on one another.

That begins with using data thoughtfully. We look at assessment scores, reading levels, attendance and a range of indicators, but I do not believe in searching for one magic-bullet metric that tells us everything about a child. We are also looking at whether students are reading above or below grade level and whether they are prepared in reading, writing and math for what comes next. Every data point contributes to a story. Sometimes that includes attendance patterns or simply noticing whether a student is showing up tired, withdrawn or not eating regularly. My role is helping assemble that fuller picture.

I partner with my assistant head of school, admissions, operations and our teachers to understand what students need academically and personally. We maintain a strong awareness of what is happening in students’ lives because those realities shape how they show up to learn. Sometimes a parent shares that a child had a difficult weekend or a hard night at home. Sometimes scores shift dramatically, and the question is not simply what happened academically, but what may have been happening around that student.

We also support students through specific interventions. Our learning specialist helps us build a profile for every learner, whether a student needs extra time on exams, check-ins during transitions or differentiated classroom strategies.

Curriculum receives that same level of attention. We keep it under regular audit, and when a change is needed, we make curriculum adoption a thorough process that brings all voices to the table. Wednesday professional development is a key part of how we stay aligned around rigor, instructional quality and the type of classrooms we want students to experience. Those sessions are also essential for building teacher capacity and ensuring the entire faculty remains aligned around shared expectations and student outcomes.

At the center of it is helping students reach their full potential without erasing their humanity or autonomy in the process.

Amplifying Thinking, Not Replacing It

I tell students that technology is a tool to support their thinking, not to take on the entirety of their thinking load. We create space for debates without screens where students pull together their thesis, topic sentence and evidence on their own and work through their ideas for essays without technology. Recently, students debated whether they should have homework, gathered their evidence and sent me letters outlining their arguments.

For me, the challenge is not whether students will use AI, but whether schools can ensure students retain confidence in their own thinking. AI can help polish their work, but it does not have their voice or their lived experiences. That lesson becomes real when our eighth graders interview at their high schools and have to speak without a computer or phone in front of them, just from their knowledge and their heart.

I worked at a school before this one where, when the power went out, a teacher from Ethiopia told the students, “Friends, this is a regular Tuesday back home, we’re fine.” That perspective has stayed with me because technology will continue to change quickly, but students still need confidence in themselves beyond the tools at their disposal.

“We build belonging through daily actions, balancing rigor with equity, leading with heart and ensuring every voice feels valued, supported and empowered to grow.”

As automation grows and technology keeps advancing, the emphasis on the mental health of students, families and staff has never felt more important. Schools need to become community hubs where families can grow alongside technological change rather than feel left behind by it. Students should feel connected, families should have access to support and everybody deserves to feel empowered and have agency in that process. I was a math teacher by trade and taught Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II and Statistics. I do not know whether all those classes will still exist in the same form in the future, given how quickly technology is changing.

Connection as Leadership Strategy

My advice to peers is simple. You are the biggest driver for change as a head of school. If you want to shift culture, you have to build relationships with families, students, faculty and staff. It cannot be delegated away. Creating an environment that feels inclusive and serves as a learning space for everybody is incumbent on you.

I put a lot of energy into greeting everyone, asking how their weekend was, referencing stories they shared months earlier, keeping my door open, having coffee and monthly conversations with families, and celebrating birthdays every month so nobody feels unseen. I also believe everyone entering the building should feel acknowledged, including maintenance staff, families and visitors.

I try to bring a sense of lightness into the work because learning is much easier when people are having a good time. The work is serious, but we do not always have to be. Schools should feel safe, collegial, collaborative and joyful, places where people can laugh, sing in the hallway, ask for help and genuinely enjoy being together. None of that happens without the head driving a model that creates opportunities for others.