School Committee

“The Board of Trustees is the guardian of the school’s mission. It is the principal fiduciary of the school. It has primary responsibility for strategic planning and for hiring and nurturing the Head of School. It assumes overall responsibility for the health and vitality of the school while delegating to the Head responsibility for the operation and implementation of policy.”

Principles of Good Practice, Friends Council on Education

Membership

The School Committee must be composed of 30% Haddonfield Monthly Meeting members, 30% Friends of other Meetings/schools, and 40% (maximum) non-Friends.

Sam is a current member of the Friends Fiduciary Board. He currently serves on the Finance Committee and is a birthright member of Moorestown Monthly Meeting. He is a former Board of Directors member for Westtown School and Moorestown Friends School; and the Former Chairman on the Board of Directors of the Cooper University Health System. He is semi-retired from Universal Motor Distributors, Philadelphia. Sam attended Westfield Friends School and Moorestown Friends School; and graduated from Westtown School and the University of Delaware.

Mary Anne is the parent of an HFS alum and a member of Haddonfield Monthly Meeting. She is clerk of the finance committee and is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Temple University. Mary Anne has a BS from Rutgers, an MBA from Penn State and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.

Veronica is a member of the HFS School Committee and a member of Haddonfield Monthly Meeting. Veronica is also the parent of two HFS alumni and has long been active in the life of the school. Veronica is a reference librarian and has a B.S. in Journalism from West Virginia University and a Master of Library and Information Science from Rutgers University.

Will is a past MFS parent who served on the MFS school committee and the asset committee. Will graduated from Girard College in Philadelphia and earned his BA from Ursinus College. He presently is a member of the board of Ursinus College and is serving as its Treasurer. He retired from his business, Henry Troemner LLC, in 2016. He also presently serves on the Board of Directors of the Philly Pops.

Cherilyn Widell is an alum of HFS and a graduate of Hood College in American History where she later served on their Board. She received a gubernatorial appointment to serve on New Jersey’s Historic Sites Council and as Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) for California and the Presidio of San Francisco overseeing its conversion to a National Park. Awarded a Senior Fulbright Scholarship to Japan, she worked with the Ministry of Culture to preserve Jiyu Gakuen (the Freedom School) a grammar school designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1921. Most recently she served as the Director of the National Fund for Sacred Places in Philadelphia.Cherilyn is passionate about the preservation and revitalization of historic properties and cultural landscapes and HFS.

Cliff Kazmarek is a current HFS parent with a daughter enrolled in Middle School. All three of his daughters attended HFS. Cliff is the Vice President of Operations for QE Solar, a commercial and utility-scale renewable energy firm. Prior to QE Solar, he held operations and engineering positions at Colonial Pipeline Company and Newell Brands. Cliff is a veteran of the United States Army where he deployed several times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Cliff holds a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a Master of Business Administration from Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

Head of School, Ex Officio

School Committees

Each committee is clerked by a trustee

Committee on Trustees

Cultivates interest in School Committee service and recruits members who are most effective in accomplishing the school’s strategic goals; monitors the health, diversity, and effectiveness of the School Committee; plans and provides orientation and ongoing training; plans for the succession of both Board leadership and Head of School

Finance

Oversees the financial health of the school; helps draft relevant policies; creates, reviews, and monitors the budget; recommends tuition; manages investments, and sets priorities for all-school spending to best support the academic program and the physical plant.

Advancement

Key charges are to encourage a climate of philanthropy in the school, beginning with the School Committee; to assist the administration in strategic thinking about marketing, branding, and communications; to empower all trustees in their role as active “champions” of the school. This committee’s work is a mixture of visionary planning and active participation and is comprised of two sub-committees:

Development: Works with the Head and co-opted members of the HFS Community to implement a successful Annual Giving Campaign and periodic capital campaigns. It solicits the Board and engages trustees in cultivation and solicitation of prospective major donors.
Marketing: Assists the administration in higher level thinking about both internal and external marketing, branding and communications. The committee works closely with the Head in research, analysis, and establishment of visionary goals.