Head of School Search Update

12/7/2016

Dear Greenhill Community,

We are writing today to provide you with an update regarding our Head of School search and the process we intend to follow in the coming months. Given Greenhill’s exceptional reputation in the independent school community, we will conduct an international search to attract the best qualified candidate to succeed Scott Griggs as our fifth Head of School. We are confident that with the School’s mission, history, and financial stability, we will attract a pool of excellent candidates for the position.

We are pleased to announce that the Search Committee has selected Carney, Sandoe & Associates (CSA), the largest nationally recognized educational search firm, to assist in identifying the next leader of Greenhill School. Carney Sandoe brings a deep knowledge of independent schools from their nearly 40 years of experience placing school leaders, administrators, and educators.

We are proud to share that Devereaux McClatchey, President of CSA, will be leading the firm’s search team. Devereaux brings 16 years of experience in executive search with CSA having joined the firm in 2000 and serving as its President since 2004. He has conducted searches for some of the finest schools in the country, and his expertise in both executive search and independent school governance and pedagogy is exceptional. Sherry Coleman, Senior Search Consultant with CSA, will join Devereaux on the search team. Since 2011 Sherry has worked on Head of School searches with CSA. She brings an added focus on diversity recruitment and is well known nationally for her equity and inclusion work. In 2013 she was the recipient of the NAIS 2013 Diversity Leadership Award. We are thrilled that she is also representing Greenhill on this search.

As announced previously, the Board of Trustees has assembled a Search Committee whose members will work closely with our consultants from CSA throughout this process. It will be the responsibility of the Search Committee to screen and evaluate candidates and to make recommendations to the Board of Trustees, which will make a final decision on the successful candidate. Our expectation is that this process will lead to an announcement of our next Head of School by fall or early winter of 2017.

We intend for this process to be as inclusive as possible, and our goal is to offer our entire community multiple opportunities to share thoughts and aspirations along the way. Devereaux and Sherry will visit the campus later this winter and are looking forward to meeting as many individuals in our community as possible, including parents, students, faculty, and alumni. More specific details about their visits and the general process will be distributed after the holiday break.

Additionally, we will be sending an online survey to all constituents to make sure you have a chance to provide specific written input. Please watch for an email next month with a link to the survey to provide your thoughts on the future of Greenhill. After the site visit has been completed and the survey results have been compiled, the CSA team will create a position statement to share with Head of School candidates.

Nevertheless, while we will endeavor to remain as communicative and transparent as possible, we recognize that we most likely will also need to honor requests to work confidentially with candidates to ensure that we are able to recruit and interview the most talented leaders in the country. Additionally, we have been advised both by our consultants and others that we should maintain a nimble and fluid approach in this search, given the extremely competitive landscape of leadership recruitment.

In the meantime, if you would like to submit feedback to members of the Search Committee, please contact us at search@greenhill.org. Also, please look for updates on our Greenhill website at www.greenhill.org/headofschoolsearch.

We are extremely pleased with the appointment of Carney Sandoe and Associates, and we are deeply grateful to the Search Committee and the entire Greenhill community for all of the ongoing support and enthusiasm as we navigate this exciting transition.