October 19, 2021
Dear Miriam Families and Friends,
With the school year underway, now is the time to update you on the process of identifying the next leader of Miriam. Late last spring, the Search Committee convened to create a position prospectus that identified the key priorities and skill sets we expect to find in the ideal candidate for the position. Over the summer, the Gowan Group consultants assisting us with this search used this document to solicit and hold initial interviews with candidates from around the world. In mid-September, the Search Committee reviewed the dossiers of top candidates and selected seven candidates as semi-finalists.
The semi-finalist candidates interviewed with the Search Committee, the senior administrators and representative groups of current parents and faculty last week. From those interviews, the Search Committee has selected three finalists who will make in-person visits beginning next week. These visits will be very public, with opportunities for all constituencies of the organization to meet the candidates and ask questions. The Search Committee will identify the successful candidate and recommend that person to the Board for approval. The Board hopes to announce the Head of School and Learning Center-Elect before we break for the winter holidays. This person would intersect with the Miriam community at key points through the winter and spring and begin the position in earnest on July 1, 2022. Bill Florent will continue to serve as the Interim Executive Director until that time.
A couple of key reminders about this process and about the institutional initiatives implicit in the search:
● The structure of authority in independent schools is one of its key strengths. The Head of School and Learning Center (formerly the Executive Director, more on that later) is the sole employee of the Board. The Head of School and Learning Center is entrusted with overseeing all day-to-day operations of the entire Miriam organization. The Board’s work is to provide the Head of School and Learning Center with support and guidance toward more distant horizons.
● The Miriam Board is seeking an educator with executive experience for this position. This initiative is evident in the renaming of the position - from Executive Director to Head of School and Learning Center - and in the position prospectus. This focus did not arise from any perceived or real deficiency in Miriam’s educational program. Far from that, we are supremely confident in the educational program that Miriam’s outstanding educators have developed over time. Rather, we are seeking a leader with experience collaborating with and developing consensus among the educators directly serving children so that the entire institution becomes more tightly aligned in its vision and stronger thereby.
● With a school leader more closely connected to the educational program, parents of students at Miriam School and Miriam Academy can expect to have more frequent formal and informal connections to the Head of School and Learning Center.
The Search Committee welcomes your feedback throughout the process and has established an email address search@miriamstl.org. Please remember also that all community updates and search information can be found on the Head Search Information page on the Miriam website.
Sincerely,
