Hammond School welcomes Mr. Rick McCormick to the community as he takes the role of Middle School Head.

Originally from Fort Worth, Texas, Rick recently completed his fourth year as Lower/Middle School Head in a pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade day school in Albany, New York - Albany Academy. After graduating from Texas Tech University, Rick began his career in Fort Worth in the public schools where he worked with gifted and talented children in math and language arts. Over a three-year period, Rick was recognized with several awards for his instructional leadership. In 1991, Rick initiated his career in independent education. From 1991 to 2001 he taught middle school students at Fort Worth Country Day where he lead the effort to reconfigure the structure of the middle school ultimately incorporating fifth grade students into a middle school model. While teaching at Country Day, Rick completed his master's degree at the University of North Texas. Since July of 2001 Rick has served as Head of the Lower and Middle Divisions of Albany Academy which includes grades pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. During his tenure there, Rick successfully expanded the foreign language program, adopted a new and more challenging mathematics curriculum, expanded the parent volunteer program, implemented a faculty mentoring program, and worked to improve the transitions between all three divisions of the school.

Rick's wife, Allison, and two of their three children, Claire who will enter 7th grade next year and Barrett who will enter 4th grade, have joined him in Columbia. Their oldest - Shannon - will begin her college career in the fall. Rick began his work at Hammond on July 1.