RG175 Blog

After her appointment in the late autumn, a future head was invited to a January board meeting of the school she would eventually be leading in July with sincere assurance from the search committee chair that she would be there just to watch and observe. It seemed like a helpful opportunity for the... read more

At the end of his lengthy tenure, a school head significantly reduced attrition, doubled the number of applications, increased enrollment by 55%, completed three successful capital campaigns, and helped his school become a “player” in a very competitive independent school market. Before he arrived,... read more

The relationship between a head of school and the board chair is often referred to as a marriage, and the analogy has some validity. You spend a tremendous amount of time together. Working in concert to lead and manage a school community is not unlike dealing with a large family, complete with share... read more

Strategic plans can be effective tools for charting the course of a school’s future, for getting key stakeholders on the same page, and for appropriately allocating time, energy and resources for the purpose of helping the school do a better job of living its mission. But despite these potential ben... read more

Recently, my wife and I were signing up on the whiteboard at the YMCA to use the cardio equipment. With eraser in hand and knowing that my wife wanted to row, I quickly saw that no one was on one of the rowers and yet a name and time were written down. I erased the name and started to write my wife’... read more

Sitting with an independent school board president and a head of school search committee chair a while back, I was asked, “What makes a search for a new head of school triumphant or tragic?” I asked them to clarify their terms a bit – what would constitute triumph or tragedy in their minds? Swift to... read more