By Abigail Chachoute – ACBJ/Dow Jones Intern, Philadelphia Business Journal

Aug 22, 2025

A familiar face returned last year to Germantown Academy as the head of Upper School. 

Dave Samson served as a counselor and in other roles at the Fort Washington school from 2004 to 2015. During this time he was part of an administrative team that incorporated the House System in 2007 to provide Upper School students more bonding and leadership opportunities. He developed a new curriculum for the Freshmen Seminar Program and taught honors psychology and Upper School English, which he will be teaching again this upcoming year. 

Returning after using his leadership experience at private schools in Utah and Massachusetts, Samson looks to bring back what he learned in the last nine years to offer a different perspective to the Germantown Academy community.

Samson sat down with the Business Journal to talk about his first year back as head of Upper School, including how the elimination of cell phones for students in classrooms and the lunchroom is working. 

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

How has Germantown Academy changed since your departure in 2015?

It’s evolved in all the right ways in terms of how we can be inclusive as a school and how we can work with students and faculty with a variety of different identities. We set more intentional time and programming for identity development and social emotional wellness. Our schedule has changed a little bit, which allows more time for kids to connect with teachers and for clubs to meet, so that also enhances student leadership. When I was here before, the schedule didn’t really have the time for the advisers to meet with their students to do some of this important identity work or some of this work outside of the curriculum. Social-emotional learning work that happens in our advisory spaces are in this new block of time called community time. … We also have a more robust computer science and robotics and engineering program than when I was here. Some of the new additions of courses are electives for seniors. We have organic chemistry – it’s become a popular class. We have astronomy, anatomy and physiology, and a variety of really exciting English and history seminars.

How are you working with some of the challenges presented in trying to enforce the new policy limiting cell phone use?

This past year we started with cell phones being eliminated in certain spaces, like classrooms, hallways, the lunchroom or important locations, but they were allowed in house spaces, outside and the health and wellness lobby. We recognize the impact cell phones have on learning, connection, community and obviously their own mental health. I think we made progress, but we still have work to do. We are looking at a model for next year where they are going to be banned from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on campus so it’s more black-and-white and there’s less gray area. … We want to make it really clear on why we are doing this. … It also allows the faculty to enforce it a little bit more knowing that they’re never going to be allowed from 8 to 3. We’re still in the works of the process for that and where the phones will be, but we are using the summer to think about that.

How have you seen this change impact the student body?

Even this past year, and students would say it, by not having their phones in the lunchroom, they’re connecting with kids much more. They are building community within and connecting with one another. I think they’re less distracted. We had a few pilot days where the kids turned in their cell phones in the beginning of the day and didn’t get them back until right around lunchtime. Teachers actually commented that they felt their kids were more engaged in their classes. It just felt like knowing that they didn’t have them on them allowed them to engage that much more intently than they had been. ... I think the parents are in support of our plan moving forward for the most part. I think email will still be a way that they can communicate with their kids or through the office, but that’s been the hardest part is just if the parents want to communicate with their kids, how will they go about doing so. But the kids will have a device that they can email on so we’ll have to work with the parents to do that. 

Are there any other new initiatives in the works?

We’re opening the school year with sort of more intention-setting on building community right away. We’re continuing to navigate when it’s appropriate to use AI and when it isn’t. Most of the students are doing their writing for major writing assessments in the classroom rather than at home because when we have a proctor in a classroom we know it’s their own writing, and that’s been a little bit of a change.

What are some insights you have gained from implementing initiatives as head of Upper School and assistant principal at private schools?

I think the challenge of leading a division is recognizing there are so many different stakeholders involved in a decision and trying to fairly balance the needs and interests of all the groups. So I want to make decisions with what’s in the best interest for students, and so when a decision has to be made, thinking about how that will impact the students and getting different faculty points of view involved, getting some students involved. One of the things I’ve really learned is that if you include other people’s voice in the decision, you can’t make everybody happy, but there’ll be more support for the decision once it’s made; that different stakeholders’ voices were used. Sometimes it takes time. I think early on in my career I felt rushed to make a decision right away, but the more you can sleep on it and you can fairly balance the needs of everybody else who has a thought about it, it leads to a more successful outcome.

AT A GLANCE

Dave Samson

Head of Upper School, Germantown Academy

Education: Bachelor’s degree in sociology-based human relations from Connecticut College, master’s degree in counseling psychology from Lesley University

Past roles: Head of Upper School at Brookwood School in Manchester, Mass.; Upper School assistant principal at Rowland Hall in Salt Lake City