New 11th & 12th Grade Principal Named

Khalid Bashir has been selected as Burroughs' new 11th and 12th grade principal, effective July 1.

 

Following a nationwide search and a highly competitive pool of candidates, Khalid emerged as a leader whose experience, values, and presence align deeply with Burroughs’ mission and community.

 

Khalid has spent most of his life in independent schools. A New York native, he attended the Collegiate School for Boys in Manhattan before earning his bachelor’s degree in American studies from Williams College. After graduating, he began his career at Lawrence Academy, a boarding school in Groton, Massachusetts, where he taught English and worked in admissions — early roles that grounded him in both the academic and relational dimensions of school life.

 

Since 2017, Khalid has been at Georgetown Day School, where he has served as an English teacher, basketball coach, high school dean, and assistant principal. In those roles, he worked closely with students and faculty while also helping to shape the broader academic program. Most notably, he collaborated with a faculty cohort to re-envision Georgetown Day’s DEI seminar curriculum, the program on which Burroughs’ own seminar model was based.

 

Khalid earned his master’s degree in private school leadership from Columbia University and has consistently taken on leadership responsibilities that reflect both strategic vision and hands-on engagement. His experience includes service on Georgetown Day’s head of school search committee, strategic planning committee, and curriculum review committee; leadership of the Minimester program and the Black Student Affinity Group; and participation in the Stanley King Institute and the Klingenstein Institute — preparation that will serve him well in this next chapter.

 

Just as important as his resume was the way Khalid connected with the Burroughs community during his visit. Students, teachers, department chairs, and staff consistently described him as thoughtful, present, and deeply student-centered. One interviewer captured the sentiment shared by many: “He’s a person focused on cultivating joy in all he does.”

 

Khalid will be returning to campus throughout the spring to get to know our community and prepare for the transition. He will be joined in St. Louis by his wife, Suzy Hamon Bashir — who taught in the JBS Math Department from 2003 to 2015 — and their 4-year-old son, Bakari.

 

Please join us in warmly welcoming Khalid and his family to Burroughs, and in thanking Mark Nicholas for stepping in to serve as interim principal for the 2025-2026 school year.