Should Interim Head of School Roles Raise Concerns?

[Anonymous]

The head could have been holding out for a specific profile of school—geographic location; prestige; so on.

[Anonymous]

Are you talking about the bisgaardian stench of Whittle?

[Anonymous]

He probably worked for a search firm that hires out interim heads. They send people in essentially as "fixers" for a year to right the ship when a head leaves under messy circumstances and the school is undergoing a search for a new HOS. The interim is not applying for the permanent role.

It's not unusual for former heads to do this for a few years before retirement. The person I know who did this was an empty nester and enjoyed it because it was well paying and allowed him and his wife to leave in a new city for a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interim head in many ways is a very different job and requires somebody who has been a successful head.

Some people kind of specialize in serving as interims later in their careers. Have seen this in the ED non-profit space too.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He probably worked for a search firm that hires out interim heads. They send people in essentially as "fixers" for a year to right the ship when a head leaves under messy circumstances and the school is undergoing a search for a new HOS. The interim is not applying for the permanent role.

It's not unusual for former heads to do this for a few years before retirement. The person I know who did this was an empty nester and enjoyed it because it was well paying and allowed him and his wife to leave in a new city for a year.

I wish our school had done this instead of having an internal interim head. When the new head started, the fixes were more well overdue and I think their tenure got tainted by the messes they had to clean up.

[Anonymous]

Assuming the OP is talking about who others assumed, speak to parents of kids at that school. TLDR: People were braced for a problem. Instead, he’s been fantastic and I’m unaware of people who don’t like him.

[Anonymous]

This is Maret. As a (former) parent, I was very surprised that Maret even would have considered him. Fine, it's great that some people seem to like him, but, had I been a board member, I would not have entertained the resume. The list of candidates was really dreadful. Don't know why Maret didn't keep searching for another year. Glad it worked out for people there, and even happier that we left the dreadful institution.

[Anonymous]

We have an interim at our private preschool this year, and she's dynamic and refreshing compared to the previous short-lived "permanent" head. We know the interim has has accepted a permanent role elsewhere for next year, but this year gives the board breathing room to hire someone great compared to the last permanent hire. I wouldn't think twice about our interim's credentials going forward.

[Anonymous]

I understand that an interim role is important, and doesn’t mean anything bad about the HOS. At the same time if you are a dream candidate probably you can directly get a full time position. I haven’t seen any other HOS from the elite institutions in DC that had the interim role in the past. Am I missing something ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is Maret. As a (former) parent, I was very surprised that Maret even would have considered him. Fine, it's great that some people seem to like him, but, had I been a board member, I would not have entertained the resume. The list of candidates was really dreadful. Don't know why Maret didn't keep searching for another year. Glad it worked out for people there, and even happier that we left the dreadful institution.

What made your experience dreadful?

[Anonymous]

Interim HOS usually have two paths. One is retirement and they don't want long term gigs and take on this specific role. Two is a HOS looking for their next permanent HOS role--these searches are competitive and may not pan out if you're a finalist. All three finalists were competitive and all three eventually ended up as HOS in different schools. I wouldn't worry about an Interim role on resume.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is Maret. As a (former) parent, I was very surprised that Maret even would have considered him. Fine, it's great that some people seem to like him, but, had I been a board member, I would not have entertained the resume. The list of candidates was really dreadful. Don't know why Maret didn't keep searching for another year. Glad it worked out for people there, and even happier that we left the dreadful institution.

So, you hate the HoS that you don’t know because you left. And, you found the school and community so awful that you left before that? You sound like a gem. Maret is sorry that you got away.

[Anonymous]

In his past two jobs Bisgaard convinced the schools to hire his wife but not this time. Shame on Maret! A HoS salary of 500k is not enough to pay for vacations in Martha’s Vineyard !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is Maret. As a (former) parent, I was very surprised that Maret even would have considered him. Fine, it's great that some people seem to like him, but, had I been a board member, I would not have entertained the resume. The list of candidates was really dreadful. Don't know why Maret didn't keep searching for another year. Glad it worked out for people there, and even happier that we left the dreadful institution.

What made your experience dreadful?

Disagree that the candidates were dreadful. As far as I know, all three candidates ended up as Heads of School at other good schools.