“I was born and raised in Pittsburgh and grew up in a house of educators,” Long said. “My mom worked in a public school and my dad – at the University of Pittsburgh.”
Though Long’s two sisters both became teachers, he thought he wanted to study law. But after doing an internship with a United States Senator, he realized that was not what he wanted to do.
Long went to Grove City College, graduating in 1995 with his bachelor’s degree in education. He went on to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh to earn his Master of Arts in History and Harvard University, where he earned his Master of Education in Administration Planning and Social Policy in 2002.
“I got a job at Sewickley Academy in the North Hills of Pittsburgh,” Long said. “I walked on the campus, and it transformed me. I knew I could be a teacher, an advisor, a coach and wear all the hats as an educator.”
That’s because Sewickley Academy is a private, independent school. Independent schools differ from other types of private schools in that they are not affiliated with companies, organizations or religious entities. Instead, they are run by a board of trustees, independent of any other entity.
“I fell in love with it and ended up staying at Sewickley for 10 years,” Long said.
Long left Pittsburgh in 2008 to take a job at the Louisville Collegiate School as the Dean of Students. Eventually he became the head of the Upper School (high school grades). While in Louisville, he met his future wife, Claire.
In 2019, Long was contacted by the former head of school in Louisville who invited him to apply for a job at the Galloway School in Atlanta, where he was working. By that time he was not only married but had three young children.
“I was looking for more in my career and we ended up moving down there right before the pandemic hit,” Long said. “I was the assistant head of school for all grades, K-12.”
Galloway is where Long encountered the “immersion style” of learning and he was hooked. His children were all flourishing with that method and Long loved how successful his students were, learning through real world examples and experiences.
Then in the fall of 2022, Long spotted a head of school position open in Dayton at the Miami Valley School (MVS).
“Claire had taught at MVS from 2004 – 2008 so it was really a full circle moment for her when I got the job,” Long said.
When his wife left Dayton in 2008, Long said it was well before most of the revitalization projects had begun.
“We expected to come to the city Claire had left when the Arcade was closed and not much was happening downtown,” Long said. “We came back to find Dayton in the middle of a renaissance period with a lot of new stores, restaurants and venues.”
Now moving into his second full year as the Head of School at MVS (equivalent to superintendent in the public school systems), Long and his family are happily living in Washington Twp. His children, Caleb, 11, Bennett, 9 and Virginia, 7, are doing well at MVS and the family continues to enjoy all Dayton has to offer.
“What I really love about MVS is our commitment to the immersion method of teaching and learning,” Long said. “It’s hands on learning and I get to see it in action every day.”
Miami Valley School was founded in 1964 by a few families who were envisioning a new kind of education. At MVS, the educational focus is directed at each individual child, allowing students to flourish by choosing their own paths.
“We have immersion terms for different grade levels where the students dive into a topic of interest,” Long said. “Students travel around the country and the world and for the younger kids, we bring experts into the classrooms.”
Long said that giving students choices to experience a range of experiences is vital to their future success.
“We are giving our kids a chance to be explorers because we know that 50% of college graduates say they aren’t working in the field in which they majored.”
MVS, like other schools, also has the core knowledge requirements and all students take classes like math, history and English. Long sites his own experiences as a child when he did well in school but didn’t really learn.
“I don’t want my kids to simply achieve,” Long said. “We are teaching them to have a learner mindset and we’ve been doing that for 60 years at MVS. It’s important that people see we have a priority to give back to this community. We are a private school with a public purpose.”
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