DAVID SULLIVAN JOINS SPARC TEAM AS SENIOR ADVISOR

As SPARC surpasses 200 member schools and 500 individuals, we continually evaluate our capacity to offer exceptional member value while driving auxiliary program excellence across all independent schools. With so many exciting new initiatives currently underway and on the horizon, the time has come for SPARC to add a new member to our team. It gives me great pleasure to announce that David Sullivan will be assuming the full time role of SPARC Senior Advisor starting in July 2023. 

 

I’ve had the honor of knowing David for many years as he’s been an integral member of the SPARC community as well as a founding member of our Advisory Board. He brings deep experience in independent school leadership and auxiliary program management that will add tremendous value to our ongoing work. I’ve asked David to share his own thoughts on joining SPARC, which you can read below along with his professional bio. Please join me in welcoming David Sullivan. The entire SPARC community is about to get an injection of creative insight, seasoned leadership, and a great sense of humor!

With excitement,

Nat Saltonstall

Executive Director

David's Letter to the Community
 

Thirty-six years ago I accidentally started my career in education.

Growing up, school was my least favorite place. I liked learning new things and enjoyed activities with others, but that seemed to be most satisfying and enriching when it was in the context of a Saturday program, a summer program, or after school. It was in those settings that I made the best friends, felt most creative and vital, and had the most fun.

My first teaching job was as an instructor at a summer program, and I was determined that if I continued in education, I would need to find a way to bring that love of learning and engagement I saw and felt “outside” of school into the school day. Along the way I heard the expression “campification of schools,” which became a guiding influence on my conception of education.

My first-hand experience with the positive impact of auxiliary and summer programs on my growth and learning created an innate sense of their value to young people. Way more than just babysitting, these programs are an integral part of a complete education.

In addition to the educational benefits, auxiliary and summer programs bolster both the mission and the margin of a school. Independent schools have a very challenging (and not sustainable for many) business model based on raising tuition as much as possible, reducing costs where you can, and then fundraising out of the “gap”. Independent schools are increasingly going to need more levers to pull in order to solidify finances.

For many years I toiled in some amount of isolation as I built an auxiliary and summer program at Breakwater Learning. A few years ago I discovered SPARC—an energetic, entrepreneurial, dedicated, and passionate group of professionals who were supportive and understood the challenges inherent in creating such programming. I have never encountered more people willing to say “how can we?” rather than “can we”. From the onset I saw the high value SPARC brought to my school and to my own professional development. 

I have been involved as a Senior Advisor and presenter at SPARC since its inception and feel grateful to now have the opportunity to give SPARC my full professional attention. I look forward to further building my SPARC community for more learning, sharing, and having some fun along the way!

Best to all,

David

David's Background

David Sullivan started his career as an instructor at the Explo program where he became a founding director of their Junior Program. As a graduate of Thayer Academy, David is well versed in independent school life and has served as a faculty member at Northfield Mount Hermon and Milton Academy. He also served as a principal at The Brooklin School, a public school in Maine, where he created an award winning boat building program and started the first public preschool program in the county. 

For the past sixteen years David has served as the Executive Director of Breakwater Learning, a non-profit in Portland, Maine, that runs an independent day school, a youth enrichment center, and a parent and professional education center. Breakwater’s programs have gained notoriety for their innovative organizational structure, partnership with the community, and disproportionate success for a small school in a small city. Auxiliary and summer revenue currently accounts for 20% of Breakwater’s gross revenue (25% if you count early childhood summer) putting it in the 1st percentile nationally. 

A graduate of Hampshire College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, David has expertise in program development, leadership, strategic planning, and organization development. He has served as Chair for the Commission on Independent Schools at NEASC, and been an active presenter and contributor to the SPARC community. He looks forward to  joining SPARC full-time in mid-July, 2023.