For more than 70 years, one Moraga school has been quietly proving that the strongest academic outcomes grow not from coverage and compliance, but from genuine connection and student-driven inquiry. That school is The Saklan School, and under the leadership of Head of School David O'Connell, it continues to set the standard for what independent education can look like when relationships come first.

David's path to leading Saklan is, in many ways, the story of the school itself. When David O'Connell was a student himself, he found traditional schooling hard to connect with. That frustration didn't discourage him. It redirected him, and it has quietly shaped everything he has brought to The Saklan School in Moraga, California.

David grew up in the Detroit area as one of five siblings, and after earning his university degree he spent roughly 25 years teaching and leading in schools around the world, absorbing how different cultures think about learning. When the opportunity at Saklan came along, something about the school's philosophy stopped him. "I interviewed at Saklan and found the school's approach spoke to me as an educator," he has said, and the diversity of the Bay Area, its people and its landscapes, drew him and his family to put down roots here. He and his wife now raise their eight-year-old daughter in Moraga, a community he has called home for about eight years.

The school itself has been part of this community far longer. The Saklan School opened as a preschool in 1954 and grew steadily into a preschool through eighth grade institution. Over the decades it evolved from a more traditional model into one recognized for warm student relationships and hands-on learning. Over the past five years, that evolution has taken a sharper focus: Saklan has established itself as a genuine leader in authentic Project Based Learning, an approach that treats the curriculum not as content to be delivered and checked off but as territory to be genuinely explored.

That distinction matters to David in a personal way. At the heart of what sets The Saklan School apart is a willingness to slow down. "To us, that curriculum is not something to be 'covered' but to be delved into, investigated, and used to pique one's curiosity. This is a recipe for exceptional academics." It is a philosophy that asks teachers to know their students well before asking those students to perform, and families consistently point to the quality of those relationships when explaining why they chose Saklan.

The school serves students from preschool age through eighth grade, pairing that relational foundation with serious academic expectations. Curiosity, the school holds, is not the enemy of rigor. When students feel genuinely known and genuinely interested, the academic work tends to rise with them.