24 January 2020
Dear Members of the MKA Community,
As I shared in my letter to the community of January 10, the Board of Trustees has formed a Search Committee and retained a leading executive search firm, Spencer Stuart, to assist in the search for a new Head of School. Spencer Stuart and the Search Committee are tasked with identifying and evaluating the candidates, and it will then be the Search Committee's responsibility to recommend the appointment of the next Head of School to the Board of Trustees.
The primary role of the Board of Trustees is to ensure MKA's long-term financial success and sustainability. Therefore, our current and most important responsibility is the hiring of MKA's next Head of School. It is an honor for each of us to serve the MKA community during such an important juncture in the history of MKA, and it is our promise to be as transparent as possible throughout this process. Information about the search will be made available on a dedicated page on our website at www.mka.org/headsearch.
Confidentiality is essential for a search that is respectful of the candidates. The vast majority of high-performing candidates place a priority on their privacy, and thus, they would not consider being a candidate if their names were publicized at any interim stage of the search. To ensure that the highest caliber candidate pool is available for the Search Committee's consideration, we must respect the confidential nature of this process, and we appreciate your understanding.
Community input is the essence of a successful search. While the Board is ultimately responsible for choosing the next Head of School, the opinions and insights of the faculty, staff, parents, students, and alumni are critical to the success of the process. Spencer Stuart will spend February 25 and 26 on our campuses, meeting with a wide variety of constituents including parents, Trustees, alumni, faculty and staff, administrators, students, and other stakeholders in our community. The purpose of these meetings will be to learn about MKA, gather information about short and long-term priorities, and hear what qualities our community believes the next Head of School should possess. In the next few weeks, you will receive information about how to sign up to participate in the February 25 and 26 sessions. In addition, the Search Committee will offer an online survey so that all stakeholders can contribute to the search of our school's next leader. These conversations and the survey responses will inform the criteria that will shape the position profile.
At the conclusion of the search process, the Search Committee will make a final recommendation to the Board of Trustees, and then the Board will vote on the appointment of the recommended candidate as Head of School. We hope to announce the next Head of School in the fall of 2020.
Kathleen M. Logan Montclair Kimberley Academy 201 Valley Road • Montclair, NJ 07042 • 973-746-9800. |