Skip to main content

Hiring Season

Heads of School know that January/February is the absolute pinnacle of the high paced reality of running a school. So many things come together at once: admission decisions, contracts for employees, snow days, and hiring jump to mind. I have always felt that bringing new talent to campus is likely the most important role of a Head of School. Without question finding people with the right skill set and temperament to make classrooms come alive is essential to the future of the school and the experience of your children.

Yet we also know hiring is an imperfect science. It is a blend of art and science when one tries to understand not just skills but ultimately the nebulous notion of “match” with the institution. It is one of the most enrapturing parts of my job – trying to formulate questions that will somehow unravel the mystery of hiring one candidate at a time. At the end of it all, there is always a blend of personal emotional intelligence (e.g. relationship-building) that seems most essential, but a depth of background and content knowledge that is almost equally important. Trying to assess attitude, work ethic, and resilience are all part of the puzzle as well.


While it is clearly one of my favorite aspects of my work, it can be the most challenging. The Head of School Office seemingly grinds to a halt this time of year as we turn our attention to finding the best educators in the country. However, after eight years in this seat I have found hiring can also be the most humbling. There is no reference, background check, or question that can fully predict success in a new environment. There is always a leap of faith on both sides in the end, and this is part of what makes it so fascinating. Given we are deep into this world as of this writing, I wait to see who might be new to the Hilltop next year.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Piercing the Bubble

This week we were so fortunate to have former NH Senator Kelly Ayotte address grades 7 – 11 in our theater about Civil Discourse in a time of Political Polarization. Senator Ayotte spoke to the need to take the high road in tough conversations and put an incredible primacy on building relationships with people who hold different opinions. She was able to speak to some of her own successes in working across the aisle to develop legislation to address the opioid crisis in New Hampshire as one powerful example of how this can be possible. Additionally, Senator Ayotte offered a strong reminder to our students of the need for more women in positions of leadership within our government, citing that she had only been the 53rd woman to serve in the US senate during her tenure. With a down-to-earth style and but an appropriately impassioned call to action, she challenged our students to become the leaders that they could be. Her call to action and example of service were powerful reminder...
Post a Comment
Read more

Arts Underground

One of Berwick’s great strengths is its arts culture, and I have always felt that there is both a public and private face of this culture. The public face includes our amazing concerts, our ambitious productions, and the various art shows we produce throughout the year. The private face tends to include things like private lessons, coffeehouses, assembly performances, murals painted on walls, and unexpected artistic expressions that emerge on campus throughout the year. One of the great traditions I will miss at Berwick will be the annual recital week in April. So many of our students hone their craft on private music lessons throughout the year in the hopes of having a public performance at this time. Simultaneously, we have a week of performances in the theater and in Chip Harding’s coffeehouse lair – the space he likes to refer to as his “smoldering ruins,” referring to the carnage left there after every Middle School electric guitar class. This year, for my second and final time, I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Curriculum 2020 in Action

Last week I took my oldest daughter to Global Ex , and she told me she wished she had a chance to build something now rather than waiting for seventh grade. As she dropped marbles in various contraptions, she asked for deep explanations as to how all of the moving parts worked together. Perhaps more than any other indicator, her comment told me that our interdisciplinary revamp of our traditional science fair is working. Global Ex is now a long-term project that combines seventh grade World Cultures and Science, forcing students to collaborate, do research, consider social change, and quite simply - to build stuff. There was huge evidence of work that had been done in our fabrication studio, not to mention the coding, circuitry, and presentation skills all on display. Continuing with a long-standing tradition at this school, Berwick students were asked to put on a public display of what they had learned. Earlier last week, I engaged a group of parents in a brainstorming session ...
Post a Comment
Read more