New Head of School for Boston University Academy

Ari Betof, a lifelong educator who currently leads the private New Garden Friends School in Greensboro, N.C., which includes preschool through grade 12, has been appointed the new head of school at Boston University Academy (BUA). Betof will assume the BU post on July 1.

As the head of New Garden Friends School since 2013, Betof has overseen the school’s curriculum and financial development, expanded its early education programs, and established new endowment initiatives for professional development and the arts. BUA is similar to New Garden Friends School, which has a strategic partnership with nearby Guilford College. Betof is also a lecturer in the University of Pennsylvania’s Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership.

Prior to assuming the head post at New Garden Friends, Betof was a physics and mathematics teacher at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill, Mass., and director of institutional advancement at the George School in Newtown, Pa., where he oversaw admissions, communications and marketing, and fundraising. He is a faculty member in the National Association of Independent School’s School Leadership Institute, and is frequently asked to speak on financial sustainability and leadership of independent schools.

“Given BU Academy’s stature as one of the region’s preeminent preparatory schools and its very special partnership with the University community, it was essential that we identify candidates with the energetic leadership, strategic vision, and impassioned commitment to academic excellence critical to charting the Academy’s future,” says Jean Morrison, University provost and chief academic officer. “Through extensive conversations with him about his ambitions for Boston University Academy, it was evident early on that Dr. Betof’s dynamic leadership style, infectious energy, and exceptional track record of financial management and relationship-building with students, staff, and parents are an ideal match for our needs at BU Academy.”

Betof says he is excited to join the BU community and is looking forward to strengthening ties between the University and the high school, whose upperclassmen take classes at BU for college credit. “BUA is unique in its ability to be agile in offering opportunities for students to be both challenged and supported at the academy and at the broader University,” he says. “It will be a privilege to support BUA’s dedicated and dynamic teachers as they work with the school’s exceptional student body.”

James Berkman, the head of school at BUA for the past 9 years, will retire in June after 31 years in education. “Ari Betof rose to the top of a strong pool of candidates due to the combination of his excellent credentials, educational vision, and enthusiastic warmth,” Berkman says. “I am confident he will make a strong head of school at BU Academy, and am already enjoying my work with him as we move through the transition to his arrival on July 1.”

Betof is a graduate of Guilford College and received his doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania.

University overseer Ruth Moorman (CAS’88, SED’89,’09), who served as chair of the search committee and is a BUA parent, says the search process began in the summer of 2014. Betof, she says, was chosen from a wide pool of candidates. “Members of the BUA community describe Ari Betof as energetic, joyful, compassionate, motivating, respectful, and a team builder,” she says. “Dr. Betof is someone who wants to lead a small high school within a university setting. He wants to know each student, parent, and faculty member at BUA, while strengthening and building community connections between BUA and the broader University.”

The new job also means that Betof will be closer to family—his wife grew up on the North Shore, and his sister works at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is an avid runner and swimmer, and has coached soccer, tennis, and wrestling.