SSFS HOS leaving

[Anonymous]

How many of his acolytes are placed in DC area privates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people seem pretty wary of her. She is a professional interim after all and she’s only here to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, I gather that she has already broken with some longstanding Quaker process in her communication with faculty. At this stage, I think we are all just trying to survive the school year and waiting to hear who comes next.

While I completely understand how this is a problem, I also think it's reasonable to give her a little grace and understanding that she may not be familiar with the quaker process. As you said, she's a professional interim who was brought in to stop the bleeding. If she can hold onto as many staff and families as possible in the interim and begin to right the ship, the school can then fully return to the Quaker process under the new Head.

[Anonymous]

I also heard that her interactions with faculty left a lot to be desired. But I don’t know what happened. Hopefully she isn’t going to make staff leave, that’s my worry.

With reenrollment just around the corner I just don’t know what to do. It still feels so dicey, I don’t know if we can take another year of this recovery. Weighing options.

[Anonymous]

We share your same concerns. I’m sure a lot of families do. Our hope was to have as much information as possible before re-enrollment to try and best determine what direction the school is heading in and that has been hard.

[Anonymous]

I’m hoping the BOT might do more in answering concerns before we head out to winter break. We plan to make the go no go re enrollment decision during the break so having clear information on what’s ahead is going to be key.

[Anonymous]

There is a new webpage with updates on the head search. It was buried in a Sunday email, so very easy to miss, but it does have useful info. It’s a shame the board didn’t proactively email the community to highlight this resource.

[Anonymous]

The timing for the HOS search isn’t optimal - other schools in a HOS search process are announcing their new head for next year around this time whereas we are waiting to find out the list of finalists that the BOT settled on (who are likely to have been candidates in an existing search who weren’t ultimately selected).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The timing for the HOS search isn’t optimal - other schools in a HOS search process are announcing their new head for next year around this time whereas we are waiting to find out the list of finalists that the BOT settled on (who are likely to have been candidates in an existing search who weren’t ultimately selected).

Which is exactly what makes us nervous about locking down contracts without knowing hos or LS principal. It’s like signing up in the dark.

[Anonymous]

Given the situation and circumstances I’d hope the board and interim head would know many families won’t sign contracts if key positions aren’t named before then. They need families to come back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The timing for the HOS search isn’t optimal - other schools in a HOS search process are announcing their new head for next year around this time whereas we are waiting to find out the list of finalists that the BOT settled on (who are likely to have been candidates in an existing search who weren’t ultimately selected).

What do you mean by “who are likely to have been candidates in an existing search..”? The bot can’t still be connected to the candidates from the hos search from 5 years ago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Given the situation and circumstances I’d hope the board and interim head would know many families won’t sign contracts if key positions aren’t named before then. They need families to come back.

It’s not physically possible to name candidates in 3 weeks. I’m not criticizing the BOT, it’s just not a real possibility. And the assistant hos and cfo are also open which are key as far as the school’s future goes.

We are assuming that we need to make a decision without knowing those key pieces of information. Basically are we okay no matter who ends up in those posts next year? If yes we will stay. If we need to know who’s filling those posts, coming back next year just isn’t in the option space.

We haven’t decided yet but will be taking a hard look at the experience we are getting for the cost and whether that experience is independent of leadership. That’s the only way we can stay.

[Anonymous]

Usually a few (most often 3) finalists are put forth to community in a HOS search - one is selected and those not selected could then be in play for our search since we are on a delayed track for typical HOS search timeline.

[Anonymous]

Last go around at SSFS, we met the three HOS finalists in September. One of the 3 candidates from the last search was just named HOS for FCS (was hoping she could be in the running for our search). That being said, our experience this year in Upper School has been pretty ideal and our DC would not want to leave so we are staying and hoping for the best. New leadership on BOT could also help support the school going forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given the situation and circumstances I’d hope the board and interim head would know many families won’t sign contracts if key positions aren’t named before then. They need families to come back.

It’s not physically possible to name candidates in 3 weeks. I’m not criticizing the BOT, it’s just not a real possibility. And the assistant hos and cfo are also open which are key as far as the school’s future goes.

We are assuming that we need to make a decision without knowing those key pieces of information. Basically are we okay no matter who ends up in those posts next year? If yes we will stay. If we need to know who’s filling those posts, coming back next year just isn’t in the option space.

We haven’t decided yet but will be taking a hard look at the experience we are getting for the cost and whether that experience is independent of leadership. That’s the only way we can stay.

I agree, but we were hoping given the circumstances they would allow an extension for contacts to be returned. They need families to re-enroll. I also suspect many families won’t return if tuition increases, given the unknown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last go around at SSFS, we met the three HOS finalists in September. One of the 3 candidates from the last search was just named HOS for FCS (was hoping she could be in the running for our search). That being said, our experience this year in Upper School has been pretty ideal and our DC would not want to leave so we are staying and hoping for the best. New leadership on BOT could also help support the school going forward.

The new HOS for FCS is phenomenal. SSFS missed out on a great one!