“For one thing I’ll tell, from the first moment I walked into Parker, I could feel a sense of mission that was just palpable,” Rika Yoshida, Parker parent of junior Jenna Mansueto, freshman Daniel Mansueto, and seventh grader Johnny Mansueto, current second Vice President to the Board, said. “It felt to me that everybody in this school–the faculty, the students, the administration–were really going in the same direction, going for the same thing, and really focused on the Parker mission. I find that kind of atmosphere really uplifting and energizing, and I wanted to be a part of that.”

Following the end of a three-year term served by former Parker parent Brett Gledhill, Yoshida has begun work as the next President of the Parker board starting in the next school year.

Yoshida joined the Board in 2011 and has since served many roles, including as a member of the Facilities Committee; the Trustee Committee, which handles membership to the board; and the Executive Committee, which consists of the President, Vice Presidents, Treasurer, Secretary, and any other members at large appointed by the President; as well as serving at separate times as both the First and Second Vice President.

“When the Trustee Committee, the President, and Principal Frank consider who would fit the role of President, they look for someone who invites engagement and carries a lot of trust,” Gledhill said. “A person the board wants to hear from, who represents a positive light, as a leader – good at listening, at encouraging debate, and at hearing the themes of a discussion.”

For Yoshida it’s been a natural progression. “Like many parents, I have volunteered at the school, but when the opportunity came for me to join the board, I really couldn’t turn it down,” Yoshida said. “It’s such a great organization to be a part of, and when you join the board of an organization you get a different birds eye view of it than you do as a volunteer in the classroom or as someone with kids in the school.”

Gledhill approached Yoshida about her future on the board a few years ago, and since then, the two have worked closely to prepare Yoshida for the position. “At the beginning of last year we made it a little more formal, and I was voted in as First Vice President,” Yoshida said. “That position is not necessarily always held by the next Chair of the board, but in this case we used it in that way. He helped update me on some of the things on the board that I wouldn’t have known about just because I wasn’t on those committee or working with those groups. He really mentored me in a very nice way to take the position now.”

During this process, Gledhill saw that Yoshida possessed the characteristics necessary to be a successful President. “The Trustee Committee and the board see Rika as a great listener, someone who is very compassionate about Parker’s mission, and overall acts as an inclusive leader who brings in and welcomes input from many different directions,” Gledhill said. “She then thoughtfully works in partnership with others to offer suggestions and provide the best direction, in order to help form a consensus.  I know she will partner with and support Principal Frank and ensure the board completes its responsibilities.”

Over the course of her time on the board, Yoshida came to feel like there are misconceptions of the role the organization has in the school. “I guess I should back up a little bit and talk about what the board does, which I think is sometimes misunderstood,” Yoshida said. “The board has a very broad oversight function of the school, overseeing the long term strategic plan. Our eyes are on the ball five, ten, fifteen, 20 years out. That’s one thing we do. Another thing the board does is it serves as an advisory or sounding board for the head of school, Dr. Frank, and the administration as they should see the need.”

Gledhill also feels it’s important to really understand what the role of the board actually is. “It is important to distinguish for people how different operating the school is versus being a member of the board,” Gledhill said. “One of the biggest challenges of a school board, whose members tend to be parents of students, is that naturally a lot of the board members are very interested in what’s happening day-to-day in the school, and yet that’s not the role of a board member. Instead of being worried about the day to day operations of the school. The board helps to ensure that over the mid to long-term the school meets and lives into its stated mission.”

One of the reasons the board can provide insight to the administrators is due to the members who make up the group.“It’s made up of a very different people with a lot of different backgrounds and expertises,” Yoshida said, “It’s a really great pool of information and intelligence that the administration has to draw on for various things.”

Gledhill also sees the importance of drawing from one’s own experiences in discussion. “Try to use in discussion, like always, any experience you have to try and make things better and shape things,” Gledhill said. “Certainly in anecdotes of, say, managing things, you pull on your experience often, whether it’s a specific incident or whether it’s all the collection of incidents that help frame your judgement.”

It’s the group of people on the board that Yoshida has learned the most from. “I think it’s just working with the immensely talented, passionate, people who are on the board,” Yoshida said. “I’ve met a lot of people I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise and have learned about a lot of things I would never have had a window into. I now have this great group of folks to call and ask for advice and opinion from. It’s always illuminating to talk to them. I really enjoy that.”

Other than the adults on the board, an important group for Yoshida is comprised of the student representatives who attend meetings. This year’s student reps were freshman Lilly Satterfield, sophomore Wilson Cedillo, juniors Zach Lending and Jack Maling, and senior Simone Turner. “The more people we have who have a slightly different views of various issues, the better our decision making,” Yoshida said. “They’re very important in that sense. All of us left school a long time ago, so it’s so valuable to have the viewpoint of people who are experiencing Parker now.”

“We show up at every meeting and we talk about what our grade has been doing and what we’re looking forward to as a great. We also sit there and listen to what the board is discussing,” freshman Lilly Satterfield who was a board representative from the 2017-2018 school year.

Satterfield can see the characteristics of a board President in Yoshida. “She walks up to me at the beginning and end of the meetings and says ‘Great job talking, it’s nice to see you,’” Satterfield said. She believes that a president should, “Definitely be someone who is organized and motivated and just excited to be there.”

Though Gledhill’s three years as President has come to a close, he will remain on the Executive Committee. The bylaws of the board do not require that a former President remain on the board, but Gledhill was asked to stay on for some time. “President and trustee turnover is important for an organization to stay healthy and moving ahead,” Gledhill said.  “Specifically, succession acts both to keep advancing the discussion, and to find fresh, and innovative perspectives, important pillars to the longevity of the Board, as a whole. I think three just made sense to me, given other boards I have experienced.”

Gledhill will miss the work he did specifically with Principal Dan Frank. “I will miss having a lot of interaction with Principal Frank,” Gledhill said.  “I think he is a tremendous person given the school’s mission. He is the peripatetic leader of the school. He is there greeting people in the morning, there at meetings across the evenings, and there at every turn of the strategy and leadership of the organization. The mission is embodied by Principal Frank, both in how he lives and treats the world and what he hopes for in every student’s development. I’ll miss having as much interaction with Principal Frank as the President does. That was my favorite part of the role, partnering with him.”

For right now, Yoshida can’t yet pinpoint specific goals she has for her time as president.  “It’s hard for me to say I have a goal for year one, year two, or how ever many years I should serve,” Yoshida said. “To me it’s really about–certainly at the beginning of my term–trying to create an atmosphere, and set the tone and parameters for conversations to take place with the board and with the administration that will advance the long-term goals of the school.”