A-B Principal Accepts Post at Seattle School

Alixe Callen, the Acton-Boxborough Regional High School principal, has been selected as the next Upper School director for Lakeside in Seattle, according to a press release on the school's website.

According to the release, a search committee recognized Callen as being “outstandingly qualified.”

“Alixe will bring to Lakeside exceptional leadership experience in both public and private education as well as a vision of schools as places where the intellectual and emotional growth of individual students is the foremost goal,” Head of School Bernie Noe wrote in the release.

“From the moment I walked onto campus, I felt such a connection to the school," Callen said in the release. "Lakeside's deliberate attention to the changing nature of society and education is inspiring. What impresses me most, however, is the school's ability to be forward thinking while simultaneously affording every member of the community such care and attention. The chance to learn and grow alongside Lakeside's students and adults is an opportunity I find hugely exciting.”

Callen has served as the principal of Acton-Boxborough since 2008, overseeing all operations of the 2,000-student high school with more than 200 faculty and staff.

From 2004 to 2008, Callen was an assistant principal at Needham High School, where she completed between 30 and 40 teachers evaluations each year and hosted monthly support sessions for new faculty.

According to the release, Callen will move to Seattle this summer, along with her husband and two children, ages 10 and 14.

“My family and I are ecstatic to be joining the Lakeside community,” she said in the release. She will officially start at Lakeside in July.

About Lakeside

Lakeside has 793 students:
(50 percent boys, 50 percent girls)

GRADE LEVELS: 5-12

FACULTY: 107
  Faculty of color: 20.5 percent
  Faculty with advanced degrees:
  79 percent

AVERAGE CLASS SIZE: 16

STUDENTS OF COLOR:
 51 percent

STUDENTS RECEIVING FINANCIAL AID:
29 percent, totaling $4.6 million. The average tuition for a financial aid recipient is $7,000. Lakeside also offers aid of $600,000 to support students for costs above and beyond tuition.

LIBRARIES 
 Middle School: 10,000 volumes 
 Upper School: 27,500 volumes

ARTS PERFORMANCES: 30+

ADVANCED PLACEMENT (Spring 2011)
While Lakeside does not offer AP courses, the intensity of our program meets or exceeds AP material. In May 2011, 265 students from the classes of 2011-2014 sat for 471 examinations in 24 subjects. 78% scored 4s and 5s, and 94% scored 3 or better. Fifty seniors have earned AP Scholar Award Recognition.

NATIONAL MERIT (Class of 2012)
  31 National Merit semifinalists
  40 National Merit Commended students
  5 National Achievement Scholar Award winners
  3 National Hispanic Recognition Award winners
  60 percent of senior class recognized

INTERSCHOLASTIC SPORTS
Lakeside is an A-size school playing in AAA classification for most sports
  139 League Titles 
  71 State Championship Titles

COLLEGE-BOUND GRADUATES 
 100 percent of our graduates are accepted and ultimately enroll in four-year postsecondary institutions