SSFS HOS leaving

[Anonymous]

My partner has been a candidate for several jobs over the span of his career (not in education) that were done as national searches. The interview process is always multi-day. He has always used vacation days and never tells his current employer until he has been offered the new position.

[Anonymous]

Any chance the afraid of failure person is admin or on the BOT? At this point, if parents are calling for a measure to review HOS candidates (or at this point most requests) and it’s doable, it’s a failure to do what is possible for the school. It’s not about what other searches do or what other schools do with this or that, there is more on the line.

[Anonymous]

Something is definitely going on. Many post have been deleted. Someone posted the name of one of the candidates and shared that they withdrew their name after the visit. Not sure if that is true or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something is definitely going on. Many post have been deleted. Someone posted the name of one of the candidates and shared that they withdrew their name after the visit. Not sure if that is true or not.

Don't know if it's true or not that the candidate withdrew but I too saw that post and suspect the reason the it was deleted is because the candidates full name was used in the post.

[Anonymous]

I hope they’re being transparent with the applicants before they come to campus. But, that certainly isn’t a strong suit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any chance the afraid of failure person is admin or on the BOT? At this point, if parents are calling for a measure to review HOS candidates (or at this point most requests) and it’s doable, it’s a failure to do what is possible for the school. It’s not about what other searches do or what other schools do with this or that, there is more on the line.

What parents (besides you) are calling for a measure to review HOS candidates? Speak only for yourself.

Parents have been given access to meet the candidates. If you find that access to be too limiting than bring it up with the people who can actually do something with your feedback.

SSFS hired a consulting firm to head up this national search. They have created advisory groups to represent parents, staff, and the community to assist with the search. Now that they have identified 3 top candidates they are bringing each one to campus to meet in person and open up access for all other parents, staff, and community members to meet.

All of the above has been explained in various emails and in the newsletters and are standard procedures in searches for this type of position.

It sounds like your complaint is that you want to be able to see the candidate resumes and you want the meet and greets to be on zoom.

Your complaints would make for very reasonable questions to be asked to the advisory groups. The best you're going to get out of this forum is what you have likely already read - people offering their guesses that the lack of resume access and zoom may be a privacy issue and posters offering anecdotes of their experiences on other search committees.

[Anonymous]

I was describing failure. Others called for further measures. This isn’t a conversation with one person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope they’re being transparent with the applicants before they come to campus. But, that certainly isn’t a strong suit.

A common theme of this forum is that of transparency with many posters implying SSFS is not transparent. It is easy to demand transparency and feel entitled to transparency but the reality of transparency is that it is complicated. Transparency has limitations, risks, and challenges.

For example, when transparency collides with privacy an institution is limited in what can be shared. We are not entitled to other people's personal information or stories. We are not entitled to know the circumstances around someone's firing, hiring, or departure. The right to privacy can limit transparency.

Transparency also has risks. First, information can be misunderstood. Not all information is easily shared in an email or newsletter. Often information needs context and institutional knowledge to be fully understood and that requires more time and resources to present the information well. Second, once information is shared it can be distorted by others or even deliberately misrepresented.

And transparency has challenges. Overloading the community with information can lead to endless debate which may slow processes that are time sensitive and need to get done.

My opinion is that SSFS has been transparent enough with regards to the departure of RG and transparent enough in the process of hiring a new HOS. I do not believe that any information that has not been made public has been with the intent to cover-up or deceive the community. I believe that decision making around transparency has likely been thoughtful to carefully weigh the limitations, risks, and challenges that come with sharing information.

All that said, my one criticism of SSFS with regards to transparency is the budget. To my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong), I don't believe parents are given access so the school's operating budget each year. Public schools are required to publish their budgets and private schools should do the same. As part of that budget, I do not believe we are entitled to know individual salaries but we are entitled to know the total dollar amount each year that is used for staff salaries just as we are entitled to know the cost for managing the grounds, buildings, etc.

[Anonymous]

LOL you are not entitled to budgets. You just want to know. That’s different.

[Anonymous]

I too think we are entitled to some sort of financial report that helps us understand the schools overall financial health and how our tuition is being used. That report certainly shouldn't breach confidentiality of specific salaries or donors or families receiving assistance but it can provide expenditure categories and percentages and other information that is easy to understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I too think we are entitled to some sort of financial report that helps us understand the schools overall financial health and how our tuition is being used. That report certainly shouldn't breach confidentiality of specific salaries or donors or families receiving assistance but it can provide expenditure categories and percentages and other information that is easy to understand.

Ssfs is able to claim a religious exemption and that is why they do not need to publish financial numbers for the school like public or non religious private schools. Not saying that’s right - I wish they would publish overall budget/income numbers as well. But their status as a religious private school is why they are not required to give us this information.

[Anonymous]

We just got an email to meet the candidate on zoom tomorrow as an option too.

[Anonymous]

Yes, much appreciated!

[Anonymous]

How did the blog lose 2 pages? What all got deleted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
A common theme of this forum is that of transparency with many posters implying SSFS is not transparent. It is easy to demand transparency and feel entitled to transparency but the reality of transparency is that it is complicated. Transparency has limitations, risks, and challenges.

For example, when transparency collides with privacy an institution is limited in what can be shared. We are not entitled to other people's personal information or stories. We are not entitled to know the circumstances around someone's firing, hiring, or departure. The right to privacy can limit transparency.

Transparency also has risks. First, information can be misunderstood. Not all information is easily shared in an email or newsletter. Often information needs context and institutional knowledge to be fully understood and that requires more time and resources to present the information well. Second, once information is shared it can be distorted by others or even deliberately misrepresented.

And transparency has challenges. Overloading the community with information can lead to endless debate which may slow processes that are time sensitive and need to get done.

My opinion is that SSFS has been transparent enough with regards to the departure of RG and transparent enough in the process of hiring a new HOS. I do not believe that any information that has not been made public has been with the intent to cover-up or deceive the community. I believe that decision making around transparency has likely been thoughtful to carefully weigh the limitations, risks, and challenges that come with sharing information.

All that said, my one criticism of SSFS with regards to transparency is the budget. To my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong), I don't believe parents are given access so the school's operating budget each year. Public schools are required to publish their budgets and private schools should do the same. As part of that budget, I do not believe we are entitled to know individual salaries but we are entitled to know the total dollar amount each year that is used for staff salaries just as we are entitled to know the cost for managing the grounds, buildings, etc.

This! All. Of. This. Very well said.