The Board of Trustees is committed to making the search an inclusive process and is providing opportunities for community input at various times throughout the process. The first opportunities occurred when the search consultants from Educators’ Collaborative held virtual listening sessions via Zoom in late January and early February to learn more about Whitfield’s strengths, the opportunities facing the school over the next several years, and the traits, skills, and experience desired in the next Head of School. Members of the faculty and staff, alumni, parents, and students participated in these sessions. In addition, members of the school community were invited to share their thoughts about the School and the search through a confidential online survey administered by Educators’ Collaborative consultants. 

The School will be forming an Advisory Committee made up of members of multiple constituencies, and this committee will assist with the finalist interviews and support the Search Committee in making its ultimate recommendation to the Board of Trustees.

Finally, as the search nears its conclusion, members of the school community will have an opportunity to meet the finalist candidates and provide feedback as to their impressions of each.  

One way to think about the search process is that it essentially consists of three phases.

In the first phase, the Educators’ Collaborative consultants get to know the school thorough conversations with the Search Committee, the Board of Trustees, the administration and faculty, parents, alumni, and students; through a community survey; and through reviewing data and documents provided by the school. This enables the consultants to develop a leadership profile for the next Head of Whitfield. Simultaneously, the consultants publicize the leadership opportunity and begin their outreach to prospective candidates.

The second phase takes place almost exclusively behind the scenes and is highly confidential, as the Educators’ Collaborative consultants recruit and do the initial vetting of candidates through interviews and reference checks. While any qualified candidate will be considered up until the completion of the search, interested candidates were asked to contact Dr. Ling and Mr. Conard before March 1 so that their candidacies could be appropriately vetted.

In the final phase, the Search Committee becomes very engaged, learning more about candidates whom the consultants have put forward for consideration, conducting preliminary confidential interviews, selecting the finalists, and assuring that the finalists’ visits to the School are successful. During the finalists’ visits, the Advisory Committee will interview each of the candidates and provide detailed feedback to the Search Committee for consideration in determining which individual will be recommended to the Board of Trustees for approval. The work of the Search Committee concludes when it presents its nomination of the candidate of choice to the Board of Trustees.

It is our expectation that the final phase will take place before the end of the 2020-2021 school year. Each search has its own unique pace and timing, however, and the time frame may shift, if necessary.

The Search Committee takes the lead in the search process and is charged with selecting a candidate for Head of School to recommend to the Whitfield Board of Trustees, which bears the ultimate responsibility for appointing the Head of School.

The Advisory Committee is one of the ways in which broad community participation in the process is ensured. This committee is composed faculty and staff, alumni, parents, and students who bring their perspectives to the search. The Advisory Committee will play an important role in the final phase of the search, assisting with finalist candidate interviews and ultimately supporting the Search Committee in making a recommendation to the Board of Trustees of a candidate for the next Head of School.

The Advisory Committee will be formed during the second phase of the search, probably in early April.

A sub-group of the Board of Trustees conducted broad research on national search firms. They reviewed proposals and conducted initial and follow-up interviews. Following reference checks, the group unanimously recommended to the Board of Trustees the selection of Educators’ Collaborative. 

Educators’ Collaborative is a nationally-known search consulting firm, specializing in finding heads for independent schools. Dr. Deirdre Ling and Mr. Nathaniel Conard have been engaged to assist with the search. Dr. Ling and Mr. Conard have both headed independent schools, and together they have assisted numerous schools with head of school searches.

Dr. Ling and Mr. Conard will provide guidance to the Search Committee on format, logistics, procedures, and best practices in the search process. In addition, they will interview candidates, check references, and support the Search Committee throughout the interview process. Educators’ Collaborative will also provide transition support to the new Head of School after that person has been hired and throughout the new Head’s first year.

The search for the new Head of School for Whitfield is international in scope. Candidates from throughout the United States and abroad will be considered, and nominations are welcome. The consultants also devote considerable effort to recruiting candidates who might not be actively seeking a new position. Many candidates will not want it known at their current institutions that they are considering a change, and for this reason we must maintain strict confidentiality about individual candidates right up until the finalist stage of the process. 

All candidates, both internal and external, who are interested in the opportunity to be the next Head of Whitfield are encouraged to apply. To every extent possible, the Search Committee will attempt to create a level playing field, ensuring that the eventual nominee as Head-elect is assessed in the context of the entire field of candidates. In addition, the confidentiality of internal candidates is as important as that of candidates from outside the School.

Candidates will be assessed in light of the skills and characteristics identified by the community and described in the leadership profile in the Information for Candidates report.  Those skills and characteristics were drawn from the survey responses and listening sessions conducted by the Educators’ Collaborative consultants. With the assistance of the consultants, the Search Committee will go through a series of steps to acquaint themselves with the pool of candidates before narrowing that group down to a group of semifinalists who will be confidentially interviewed, and then to a smaller group (likely three or four) of finalists. The Search Committee’s evaluation of the finalist candidates will be informed by input from the Advisory Committee, which will conduct interviews with each of the finalists during the campus visits.

The Board of Trustees decided the membership of the Search Committee and approved the retention of the search consultants Educators’ Collaborative. The Board has charged the Search Committee with conducting a comprehensive, national, and international search for a new Head of School. The Board of Trustees will refer all inquiries related to the search to the Chair of the Search Committee and Educators’ Collaborative. As the process draws to completion, the Board will review the recommendations of the Search Committee, formally resolve to pursue a candidate, bear responsibility for negotiating any terms of employment, and ultimately appoint the new Head of School. The Head of School is the only employee that is hired by and reports directly to the Board of Trustees, and, as a result, choosing a new Head of School is one of the Board's most important responsibilities.

The person selected by the Board of Trustees will officially become Whitfield School’s Head of School on July 1, 2022.  Until that time, John Delautre will continue to lead the School, a role in which he has served so well. We anticipate that there will be opportunities during the 2021-22 school year when the Head-Elect will be on campus and have a chance to learn more about the School, but it is a high probability that the selected individual will have ongoing professional responsibilities elsewhere.