With Director of Admission Mrs. Mary Lou Primm retiring at the end of this academic year, the School has already begun the process of filling her place with a new position: Director of Enrollment Management.  

Earlier this year, Mrs. Primm announced that she would be leaving the School after 18 years of dedicated service.

Discussing her future plans, Primm said, “I’m not sure where life will take me, but I’m excited about beginning a new chapter.”

However, she still has over half a year ahead of her and plans to make good use of it.

“I [am looking forward to] meeting and exceeding the School’s enrollment goals for the 2021-2022 school year. [For this year,] our 231 new students represent the highest number enrolled in the history of the School, and we enrolled 26 students over goal, so enrollment is in a good spot right now,” she said.

Although the School is sad to see Mrs. Primm and her talents go, Benjamin is already making plans to fill her position.

The first step the School took was the decision to create a new position. 

Commenting on the School’s motivation for creating the new role, Head of School Mr. David Faus said, “Over the last several years, schools have moved to creating this position that centralizes a lot of the enrollment-related work into one place. We hope this makes the entire enrollment process easier for our potential new families.”

The School then focused on establishing the requirements for the new position. 

The person succeeding Mrs. Primm will be working closely with Mr. Faus. Their job will be to oversee the student recruitment and financial aid process, manage Benjamin’s online admissions presence, as well as be tasked with being the School’s most visible advocate and spokesperson.

Finally, to advertise this position, the School has made multiple postings on the internet. This includes the official Benjamin website as well as the National Association of Independent Schools website. 

Mr. Faus, who leads the hiring process for the job, has put together an advisory committee in order to help him select the best candidate. He noted that there has been great interest in the position from many qualified applicants and plans to have a selection made by the new year with a start date of July 1, 2021.

Although the new hire will only begin next summer, members of the Admission Office have mixed emotions about Mrs. Primm’s departure, particularly Director of Summer Programs and Admission Associate Mr. Christopher Nordland. 

“I am definitely sad about Mrs. Primm’s departure because we started the same year–both of us in 2003. Looking back, we’re probably the two most veteran people left. [But] I’m also excited to see what the next chapter looks like for her. She’ll definitely land on her feet.” he said. 

Offering advice to whoever fills the new role, Nordland added: “Anytime someone is new, especially in an [Administration] role, you have to be a good listener; you have to get in at the ground level and understand  the culture before you start to make wholesale changes.”

Additionally, Mr. Faus is grateful for Mrs. Primm’s hard work. 

“I certainly want to recognize the good work of our admissions office and particularly of Mrs. Primm who has served the school for the last 17 years. [She] has always been a huge supporter of the school and has admitted thousands of students to Benjamin[.]We are deeply appreciative for her commitment and leadership in TBS admissions,” he stated. 

Although she has the rest of the school year ahead of her, it is clear that Mrs. Primm will be sorely missed by her colleagues and will always remain a part of the Benjamin family.