Five days before the start of the 2015-16 school year at Northwest Yeshiva High School, Rabbi Bernie Fox is busy in his office preparing for what he describes as the “all-consuming position as head of school.”

This year will mark his 31st in that position, and 36th altogether with the Jewish college preparatory school. Last March, he alerted his colleagues, co-workers and community that this would be his last year as head of school. He hopes to continue at Northwest Yeshiva as a teacher.

“The position of head of school requires one’s complete attention. It does not leave time for the pursuit of other interests or personal priorities. I want the opportunity to refocus my efforts and explore other areas,” Fox stated in letter he sent NYHS community members.

“This is an appropriate moment for this transition,” he continued. “NYHS is well-positioned for this transition.”

Even in the hustle and bustle of overseeing all the moving parts one manages as head of school, Rabbi Fox is engaging in conversation, carefully choosing his words — pausing at times to gather his thoughts. He will make the occasional self-effacing joke, and laugh out loud when casually recalling his father or a circumstance that ties in with an anecdotal response to a question.

“I am very pleased with the accomplishments of the school,” he said, adding he’s worked with over 500 graduates, a sizable amount for a high school that annually graduates roughly between 15-20. “I think that it’s a good time, I think schools benefit from change.”

Fox began with NYHS as a teacher in 1980, moving to Seattle with his wife, Shirley, who also works as an administrative assistant at the school. Both were offered jobs at NYHS. The rabbi had  just earned an MBA at Long Island University.

The thinking was the pair would take a year off and move to Seattle, a place they’d never been that seemed exotic and a natural fit for a year. But one year turned to two, two turned into five, and somewhere along the line, they decided to stay. After five years with the school, Fox took over as its head.

“Over those first five years, I sort of developed a fascination with the school and really thought it could be something,” he said. “I liked looking at different issues and thinking about how they might be solved. I guess I had different types of solutions because of my business background. I thought I could do more for the school if I had more leadership in it.”

Taking an untraditional path from business to teaching didn’t always prove easy for Fox, who also holds a Bachelor of Hebrew Letters degree from Yeshiva B’nei Torah of Far Rockaway in New York. Fox called doing a budget the easiest part of his job, while finding that teaching himself educational theory and process was a bit more difficult.

That doesn’t mean Fox didn’t find success in the classroom, building relationships with his students. Fox has remained a teacher throughout his tenure as head of school. It is an opportunity to better understand the young people he served, he explained.

“My kids loved him as a teacher, he very much engages the students,” said Deanne Etsekson, past NYHS board president and co-chair of the search committee for the next head of school. “He wants to get to know them all and hear what they have to say, it’s very much a give-and-take. The students’ opinions truly do matter.”

Rabbi Benjy Owen first knew Fox when as was a student at NYHS in the ‘80s. Owen later worked alongside Fox for 11 years as assistant head of school at NYHS. This year, Owen is beginning his first year as head of school at Margolin Hebrew Academy in Memphis.

“I can’t think of any area that he has not had an indelible imprint on my professional life,” Owen said. “He’s just a high-level critical thinker. His engaged critical mind, it comes out in all areas, constantly evaluating, constantly watching and observing, constantly listening carefully. It’s a unique strength he has that I’ve not seen in a lot of people.”

Throughout his tenure as head of school, Fox’s days typically began at 6 a.m. With most of his family back east, early mornings are set aside for anything Fox needs to do for them. From 8 a.m. until 4 p.m., Fox is at school, beginning with morning prayer, then teaching classes, meeting with faculty and taking care of administrative work. Evenings are devoted to parent and committee meetings, all before preparing classes for the following day. Depending on the time of year, the day doesn’t end until about 1 a.m.

Fox said among the things he’s most proud of with his tenure is the school’s responsiveness to the needs and interests of its students. Students have changed quite a bit over 30 years, as have the landscape a college preparatory school serves, the level of competition for college admissions and the way people approach faith.

“People affiliated with organized religion is decreasing,” he said. “Here we are, we’re a Jewish school, we’re trying to intensify the bonds between our students and their religion, you’re bucking up against the cultural trend.”

The answer, he says, lies in the connection between the needs and goals of students being pursued by the school.

“As time goes on, schools can never assume that what was true about kids and adolescents yesterday is going to be true tomorrow or is even true today,” he said. “I think the students that come here have decided this is where they want to be, but they also interface with the world outside where their religious attitudes won’t be as readily accepted as they might’ve been 10-15 years ago,” he said. “In that sense, we have to be prepared to help our students anticipate some of the issues they will encounter.”

When the school year is finished, Fox hopes to remain with the school as a teacher and to write. But not before responding to his duties during his final year as head of Northwest Yeshiva.

“Every moment has been exciting. There have been interesting and fascinating challenges at every turn. I have had the opportunity to grow in ways I never would have dreamed of had I pursued a business career,” Fox said. “I just hope that in exchange, I have done a good job in serving the community and serving the students.”