Hazel ‘24, Sofia ‘24 and Natalie ‘24 smile with their dean, Ilyana Contreras, at the junior class Pajama Breakfast.
Marlborough’s administrative team has been working to re-envision the role of class deans for all grade levels. Currently, classes are assigned a new dean each year. However, starting in the 2023-2024 school year, deans will stay with their respective classes for three years in a row. This change was modeled after the shift made to the advisory program in 2017, where instead of switching advisories each year, the advisors began to stay with the same group of students for three consecutive years.
In 7th grade, each class will get assigned one faculty member that will remain with them until they reach the Upper School. Then in 10th grade, they will be assigned a different faculty member who will serve as their dean until senior year.
“The key role of the dean is to really know the students,” Interim Upper School Division Head Regina Rosi Mitchell said. “The dean is our most student-facing administrative role that we have on campus. It’s incredibly important for the dean to really know the class.”
A major effect of this change is that each class will have a different dean for their senior year, allowing for a personalized experience in events such as graduation and prom. For example, Contreras will remain the class of 2024’s dean for their senior year.
“In order to best center you guys, it makes sense to have a dedicated person that follows you, and that gets to really know who you are as a class and individuals, so that … when making decisions about your senior year traditions, we can make decisions that honor the history of this place and still honor you all,” Junior Class Dean Ilyana Contreras said.
This system was devised to allow the deans not only to get to know the grades better as a whole but also the personalities of the individual students within them.
“I’m really excited to have Ms. Contreras’ perspective and for her to be able to guide the class in really shaping the senior year experience to be unique to them,” Rosi Mitchell said.
Through this change is to allow students will be able to form a stronger relationship with a trusted adult on campus who knows them personally.
“Ms. Contreras knows our grade super well on a more personal level than any of my other teachers,” Hunter ’24 said.
