This year, Peter Hatala joined the Castilleja Administration team as the Head of Upper School. While his initial impact may have been marked by his enforcement of cell phone and parking policies, Mr. Hatala aims to be recognized for much more than rule-setting.

Hatala has many interesting anecdotes to share.; he lived as a monk for a few months when he was 20 years old, an experience he deems formative and a time of self-discovery. He is deeply interested in how people find meaning and purpose in life and schools’ roles in developing these ideas.

What shone clear throughout my interview with Hatala was his love for being an educator. Hatala grew up in Hudson Valley, New York, and attended a private boarding school for one year during high school. He struggled to find a strong sense of community and belonging during that time and ultimately left after a year.
However, he returned to that same school to start his career in education as a learning specialist, inspired by a desire to support students who, like him, found it hard to fit in.

Following his time at his former high school, Hatala spent three years at a public high school before deciding to return to iIndependent schools, as he preferred the “close-knit environment you can have.” This decision led him to Emma Willard, an all-girls school in New York, where he worked for a decade.

During his 10ten years at Emma Willard, Hatala achieved what he deems his “proudest professional accomplishment.” He started as a history teacher and department chair and eventually became the Director of Curriculum and Innovation. In this role, he shaped the academic program. He introduced academic program pillars (similar to Castilleja’s core competencies), which allowed the school to become more experiential and reflective in teaching practices and focus on faculty growth and development. Hatala’s proudest moment is knowing that his work “helped set the school in a direction that it’s still on today.” He added, “I think that direction is really successful and I’m really proud of that work.”

Hatala left Emma Willard to work as the Director of Studies at The Webb Schools in Claremont, California. Just a year later, he saw an opportunity to join Castilleja, drawn by the prospect of returning to an all-girls school: “I think single-gender education for girls in particular remains really vital and important for the world.”

When asked about his goals at Castilleja, Hatala expressed a desire to continue learning from the community: “I think a mistake a school leader can make – or anyone in a leadership position — is to come into a new environment, think they understand it immediately, and then start to make decisions. I don’t think that’s a successful way to lead in any organization.” With this mindset, Hatala is still in what he calls the “seeking to understand” phase.

However, he does have a vision: to “double down on what we do best.” He aims to continue weaving Castilleja’s competencies into the educational experience, saying, “We want to continue to be intentional about being sure that they are in all aspects of school life here.”

So, who really is Peter Hatala? He is certainly quite professionally accomplished, but beyond that, what stood out to me in our conversation is his genuine desire to establish connections within the Castilleja community.

This is Hatala’s first job in 20 years of being an educator where he is not teaching a class. When asked what he wants people to know about him, he said, “At the heart of who I am is a teacher, and in the same way that they feel comfortable approaching their teachers, I want people to know that they can and should approach me because I’m really interested in getting to know them.”