Member of Dean’s Advisory Board; Sage Hill School Head of School
School of Education
January 1, 2010
Gordon McNeill’s path to educational leadership is not a typical one. In 1990, as a senior at the University of California, San Diego, Gordon took on a job as a playground monitor for Francis Parker School in San Diego. Like all good educators, he quickly took on more responsibilities as time passed, including substituting and coaching a variety of different athletic teams. However, his educational career took a turn when he was offered a lucrative job in a computer sales company he had worked for during his college summers. When he told the Head of School at Francis Parker that he would be leaving, she told him the following: “You will be back. There are some that are born to teach and you are one of them.”
At the time, Gordon did not have any plans on returning to education. Over time, however, he would realize she was right. Gordon worked as a general manager for that computer sales company for the next six years. In 1997, with a burning passion to teach kids, Gordon made the decision to pursue teaching and obtained his teaching credential by attending school in the evenings while working during the day. Upon completion of his single subject credential Gordon landed at Corona del Mar High School where he taught middle school history and assisted in coaching several athletic teams. After three years at Corona del Mar High School, the last in which he received the Bunster Creeley Award for Excellence in Teaching, Gordon moved on to Sage Hill School located in Newport Coast, California.
Sage Hill School offered Gordon the opportunity to develop the culture of a new school by naming him the Dean of Students in 2001. Gordon remembers the excitement he felt when he was given the daunting task of establishing a school culture from scratch:
From the moment I walked on Sage Hill School’s campus, I wanted our students to have the same experience I grew up with. In order to do that, expectations had to be set high and accountability had to be introduced. I’m most proud of the fact that our students, nine years later, really own their education and know how to treat each other with respect.
Gordon has been with Sage Hill School for the last nine years and was named the Head of School in 2008. His passion is for life long learning, and he is exhibiting that passion himself as he completes his Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Teachers College at Columbia University.
As Gordon reflects back on his educational career, he looks back on that first experience at Francis Parker School and realizes that he is one of the fortunate ones as he gets to accomplish what he was born to do.
Gordon is the father of four children. His wife received her MDPhD from the University of California, Irvine.