Head of School Ben Lee left his position with the international college preparatory boarding and day school located in the Village of Oak Creek on June 7 after helming the school since July 2023.
“During his two years at [Verde Valley School], [Lee] has had a significant and positive impact,” the VVS Board of Trustees wrote in a press release announcing the change. “[Lee] cultivated strong relationships within the Sedona and Verde Valley communities, thoughtfully engaged with our families and alumni, built meaningful connections with students and faculty, and collaborated closely with the [VVS] Board to develop strategic plans for the school’s long-term stability and success. [Lee’s] tenure is marked by thoughtful leadership and unwavering dedication.”
In the announcement, the VVS Board of Trustees also stated that Kevin Warren would serve as interim head of school.
“Thank you so much everyone,” Warren stated. “VVS is on the move. Lots and lots of good things [are happening. Thank you all for your support of this wonderful school. The kids are still the same. They get the mission. They are so wonderful, just like all of you. Come back for reunion — it is such a great time to visit and reminisce with old friends. It takes a team to win, and with all of you, we can do it.”
Before arriving at VVS, Lee served as the high school principal of the Shanghai American School in the Pudong district of Shanghai since July 2016. He was hired to replace Paul Amadio, whose departure at the end of June 2023 marked the second-longest tenure for a head of school since co-founder Hamilton Warren.
“Lee was full of energy, full of wonderful ideas, was a great ambassador for the school in the local community [and] enjoyed interacting with the students and will be missed,” Warren said.
He added that Lee left VVS for personal reasons — Lee and his wife, Lixue Lin, had their first child together this spring.
“Lee had to return to China,” Warren said.
Warren is a son of VVS founders Hamilton and Barbara Warren, a VVS alumnus, and previously worked as VVS dean of students and director of community life from 1989 to 2009. During those years, his wife Amy also worked at the school, and the couple lived on campus. In 2009, they moved to Cora, Wyo., between Jackson Hole and Pinedale.
“We [had] been living up there until we just moved back and we started July 1,” Warren said.
Currently, no other major changes to VVS are taking place heading into the new school year. Warren’s main goals as the interim head of school are to ensure that VVS remains student-centered, mission-driven, community-oriented and fiscally responsible — qualities for which his lifelong history at VVS makes him well-suited.
“I’m the youngest of five children of the founders,” Warren said. “I think my parents would be just super pleased that the school is still here [and] doing well and has been an outstanding member of the community, and that we are giving kids a top-notch academic education, as well as graduating kids who go into the world with an open heart and open mind and a broad perspective on the world.”
There’s currently no timeline for selecting Lee’s successor, but Warren said that VVS will most likely start accepting “resumes in September.”
“We’re all working hard getting ready for the opening of school,” Warren said. “We are looking forward to having the students back, because they enrich all of our lives, and if there’s any members of the community that would like to come see our school, they are absolutely welcome to contact me, and we would be happy to introduce them to our students and our community.”
VVS instruction starts on Tuesday, Aug. 26, for the school’s 78th year, with 115 students enrolled across both day and overnight programs, Warren said.
The three largest challenges that Lee’s eventual successor will have to tackle are enrollment, building out VVS’ endowment — held by the Arizona Community Foundation and restarted in June 2023 with $160,000 — and developing and monetizing about half of VVS’ property. That portion of the campus includes three unfinished buildings formerly part of the now-defunct Camp Soaring Eagle.
The vacant half of the property has been designated the Southwest Ethnobotanical Education Destination, and VVS has solicited public comment on how residents would like to see the property developed.
“We don’t have anything to confirm yet,” Warren said about the SEED land. “But we’re exploring possibilities, and we always have interest in it, because it is probably one of the finest pieces of property in the Sedona area that is left to do something good [with]. It’s just an incredible piece of property.”
Lee did not respond to a NEWS request for comment prior to his departure.
