If you arrive on campus between 7 and 7:15 a.m. on any school day, odds are that you will find Upper School Division Head Butch Keller already sitting in his cozy office getting ready for the hectic responsibilities of an average school day.

Keller, who has been an educator and coach for the past 25 years, was wearing a red shirt on a recent Friday to show support for National Coming Out day. He thought it would be interesting to see how many students were wearing red that day, as well.

As the phone went off every couple of minutes as he sat down to talk with an Aquila reporter, the seemingly reserved man opened up when recalling watching his intelligent mother struggle to her get her voice heard as a writer during the late ‘60s and ‘70s.

“We were always talking about the things she was trying to write or things she was trying to publish and could not get heard,” he said. “But why does she have to be more aggressive than the man standing beside her?”

Thinking about the impact of seeing his mother’s words silenced, Keller explained how he can empathize with many of the females in the Harker community who feel that their voices have not been heard – one of the major controversies surrounding the ongoing dress code debate this fall.

But Keller really doesn’t want anyone in the community to feel that way.

“I do feel unfortunate that there are girls that feel like they can’t speak out,” he said. “But if there was a boy that felt that he couldn’t speak out, I would feel the same way. So it’s not just a women’s issue. It’s a people’s issue.”

Having been the Upper School Division Head for the past eight years, Keller hopes that the community remembers how much care and thought go into working on campus issues.

“When we started looking at the dress code, we organized a committee,” he said. “It did have female representation: female faculty, female parents and female students. Harker administrators just oversaw it to make sure that the Harker philosophy was being upheld.”

Going back to the dress code debate within the community and complaints which found their way to Facebook and other outlets, Keller noted something which he found surprising: none of the complaints were made directly to him.

He wants to redirect the community to beliefs based on communication, support, patience and understanding, and hopes that the community does not forget that changes are made with the well being and happiness of the students in mind.

Keller also pointed out that the new drafted bell schedule has been discussed for the past 18 months as an option based on research that the proposed schedule has benefits for the well being of the students. He explained that the Harker Summit itself was put together to see how to strengthen the community.

Although there are meetings scheduled regarding changes to the dress code, he added that there will be no changes to the code without a strong sense of purpose and understanding of what a true dress code should entail.

An avid reader, Keller compared this belief with a quote from former Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss in his memoir “Fall To Grace.”

The quote reads, “Without a clear purpose you have no foundation on which you base decisions, allocate your time, and use your resources. You will tend to make choices based on circumstances, pressures, and your mood at the moment. People who don’t know their purpose try to do too much – and that causes stress, fatigue and conflict.”

Like Bliss, Keller doesn’t want to make discussions on such a sensitive issue without a complete understanding of the exact purpose of the dress code. But he also wants to ensure that the right amount care and thought go into this.

“I don’t want anyone to leave Harker thinking that they weren’t appreciated for their thoughts, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a male or female,” he said.