Dear Austin Waldorf Community,
It is hard to believe Michaelmas is behind us, lantern walks are in full swing, and winter sports are about to begin. We are energized by the buzz of activity on campus and the joyful sounds of learning children across our campus and we are grateful to Mark Gerhardstein for taking on the role of Interim Head of School. This letter will share our plans for filling the role with the next permanent Head of School.
The Board has been busy making plans to have a new Head of School in place and ready to start next Summer (2024). To that end, we have formed a Search Committee to research and vet candidates and make a recommendation to the Board. The Search Committee consists of a diverse and inclusive mix of individuals from across our community:
- Tina DeSaussure: Co-Chair and College of Teachers (G2)
- Bryan Carruthers: Co-chair / Board
- Kathy Rogers: College (G4)
- Hans Staats: College (HS)
- Joshua Wisenhunt: College (HS)
- Katie Moran: Board & College
- Michael Johnson: Board
- Micah Nicolo: Board
- Raghda Daftedar: Board
- Jayme Bomben: Board
In addition, our Interim Head of School Mark Gerhardstein and our College Co-Chair Carol Toole are working with the committee as advisors on various aspects of the efforts. We are grateful to each of the individuals and their willingness to serve.
After considering whether the School should engage an external search firm or lead the search process without engaging outside support, we concluded that our school would benefit from having a nationally recognized search firm engaged. After evaluating a comprehensive list of consultants, we have retained Carney, Sandoe & Associates (CS&A) to partner with us on the search. CS&A is a national firm recognized as a leader in search work for independent schools.
Our lead consultant from CS&A is Skip Kotkins, who has worked with many Waldorf Schools on search assignments, including Austin Waldorf. His familiarity with our school’s experience and leadership needs, coupled with his experience working with Waldorf schools nationally, will give him the context to support us in identifying candidates that meet our expectations and to help us find the right HOS for our future.
The first step in the process is to create a position description that reflects our community’s hopes for the future of our school and what personal characteristics we desire in our next Head. We want to hear from you. Please take a few moments to fill out the our online survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AustinWaldorfSurvey.
The survey is open now and will close on Thursday, November 16, so please do not delay. In addition, Skip will have hold Zoom calls across with our Board, College, faculty, Parent Ssociety members, and our Administrative team to add additional detail and color.
While your input now is very important in helping craft the position description, you will also play an important role toward the end of the process when our final candidates visit our school. At that time, you will be invited to forums where you can meet the candidates, ask them questions, and provide your impressions as important input to the Search Committee as they deliberate among candidates. Those visits will take place after the first of the new year, and we hope to complete the process by February 2024.
If you would like to recommend candidates, or otherwise get in contact with the search Search Committee, please send us a message to: searchcommittee@austinwaldorf.org with “HOS Search Committee” in the title of the email.
Thanks in advance for your important role and participation in this process. We are excited about the bright future for Austin Waldorf and are confident that we will find the right leader, and that together, we can take the school to our exciting future.
Warm regards,
Bryan Carruthers
President, Board of Trustees
Austin Waldorf School