For Fryeburg Academy Head of School, this will be her final year
Mayo Tenure Notables
Some of the notable accomplishments during Mayo’s tenure include:
• $1.9 million raised towards the Students in the Center Campaign to construct Shaffner Hall that includes the 21,600 square-foot LaCasce Dining Room, the Theodore Blaich Post-Secondary Counseling Center and the Scott T. Gamwell Student Union;
• Enhancement of the Academy’s technology and applied learning programming, including the addition of a workplace internship program for juniors and seniors;
• Renewal of FA’s 10-year contract with MSAD 72;
• Development of the school’s Outdoor Learning and Research Center (OLRC) facilities and experiential learning opportunities through installation of a 30-foot climbing wall and extensive low-ropes course;
• Establishment of new pathways and partnerships for commuter-day and boarding student recruitment; Successful completion of the Academy’s AISNE re-accreditation; and
• $1.3 million raised to date towards the FA Scores! Campaign to construct a new, multi-sport synthetic turf field and complex with outdoor lighting, new bleachers, scoreboard, sound system, and an expanded spectator seating capacity of 650 (opening in the fall of 2022).
FRYEBURG — Erin P. Mayo enters her 10th year as Head of School at Fryeburg Academy.
And, 2022-23 will be her last.
Mayo announced in a letter to community members that the upcoming school year will be her final one at the Academy.
“I write with warmest gratitude to inform you that 2022-23 will be my final year of service to our school. Upon my very first visit to the Academy in the fall of 2012, I was struck by its balance of durability, vibrance, high expectation, and uncommon kindness: becoming this school community’s leader became my chief aspiration, and my appointment has every day since been among the very chief privileges of my life,” Mayo wrote. “Leaving will not be easy, but I’ve informed the Academy’s Board of Trustees that the time has come for me to renew and grow within a new leadership opportunity, as well as to strive for closer proximity to beloved family.”
Christopher M. Gordon, ’81, president of the Fryeburg Academy Board of Trustees, noted that Trustees are already hard at work thinking about the future. A search committee will start work soon on finding the next Head of School to lead Fryeburg Academy into its 232nd year in the fall of 2023. Trustees will be reaching out to the school community for their thoughts.
“Educator. Above all else, Erin Mayo is a talented, dedicated, effective educator. Throughout her nine years at Fryeburg Academy, virtually every discussion with me or the Trustees has been focused on what is best for our students – today and in their future. This guiding principle has provided us with a clear, driven leader constantly demonstrating integrity, innovation, and progress,” Gordon said. “The Board of Trustees would like to thank Erin for all she has accomplished for the thousands of students who have traveled our halls during what will be a decade she has been at the helm of the Academy – by any measure, her time has been a success that will leave an impressive mark on our history and set the school up for more success going forward. Our academic programs are strong, our test results are impressive, our student body is diverse, our financial position is solid, and our campus looks superb.”
Mayo noted she is both “amazed and proud” of what has been achieved during her tenure.
“As I reflect on the last nine years and the 221 that came before them, I am amazed and proud of all that we’ve achieved together in building upon the Academy’s storied history and firm foundations. We developed and delivered on ambitious strategic goals, including expanding campus by 60-plus acres; erecting Shaffner Hall to include the new LaCasce Dining Room, with near-doubled seating capacity, the Theodore Blaich Post-Secondary Counseling Center, and the T. Scott Gamwell Student Union; evolving curricular offerings to meet both 21st-century demands and opportunities and the diverse, changing needs of the students we serve; hiring, developing, and supporting an outstanding, dedicated faculty; stabilizing and growing enrollment,” she wrote. “Not least of all, in weathering the pandemic together with shared clarity, purpose, love, and grit, the Academy community has – in William Faulkner’s words about his best hope for humankind – not merely endured, but prevailed.”
Mayo continued, “Fryeburg Academy’s mission, independence, and service of the public good have been my collective north star, calling for me to exercise a kind of leadership that has been made possible by a very wise, empowering Board of Trustees and by my indispensable, talented senior leadership team. I am so very grateful for their faith in me. And I can’t speak of this degree of appreciation without also thanking my husband Peter and our children Musa, Maeve ’14, and Gunnar ’19 for their abiding love and support, always.”
She concluded, “I have great trust in our Board to identify a successor best suited to understand our special school world, lead it forward, and make it thrive, and I will do all I can to assist with the transition. In the meantime, this letter is not a goodbye! We have Fryeburg Academy’s 231st year yet ahead, full of promise and waiting to be shared.”
