Update from the Head of School Search Committee

Dear Members of the Marymount Community,

We would like to provide you with a brief update on our Head of School search, led by search professionals Mathew Heersche and Risa Oganesoff-Heersche.

The Position Profile that Mathew and Risa have prepared in collaboration with the Head of School Search Committee has been distributed nationally, as well as throughout the Marymount community. The Profile speaks to what makes Marymount High School so special, and outlines the opportunities for our next Head of School.

Mathew and Risa have been reaching out to educational professionals, utilizing a variety of resources to recruit promising individuals who most closely align with what we are looking for in our next leader. To date, the response to this opportunity has been very positive, and Mathew and Risa are already working with a strong pool of candidates. Their efforts will continue over the course of the summer and will involve extensive evaluation of those individuals who have expressed interest in this opportunity, including multiple conversations, video interviews and preliminary reference checking. Ultimately, they will present a group of top prospects to the Search Committee before the beginning of the new school year. The Search Committee will review the candidates and determine whom to invite for in-person semi finalist interviews. This select group will be interviewed only by the Search Committee to preserve the candidates’ confidentiality until the end of the semi-finalist stage. At the conclusion of the semi-finalist interviews, the Search Committee will deliberate and select finalists.

Finalists will be announced and introduced to the school community in an appropriate manner in the fall. Each will spend time with various stakeholders in one-on-one meetings, small groups, and at larger events. The overall purpose of the finalist visits is to allow our community to get a sense of the individual and, just as importantly, to allow each finalist to get a sense of us. We must keep in mind that finalists are also discerning whether they see themselves as part of our community. The Search Committee and search professionals will further evaluate candidates, conduct extensive reference and background checks and collect community feedback to determine whom they will recommend to the board for final review and approval.

The summer will be relatively quiet for the Search Committee as Mathew and Risa go about their work. They will keep me and Marymount Board of Trustees Chair, Michele Cooley-Strickland, appropriately informed about their work on a regular basis over the next months. It will become busy for us in September and October as we move into the semi-finalist and finalist phases. Our calendar calls for the selection of the next Head of School to be completed by the end of October 2024. There will then be an organized transition process culminating with the new Head commencing work in July 2025.

We know that this is a very attractive opportunity because Marymount is operating from a position of strength. We have a strong community, grounded in our RSHM identity and guided by our core values, and we are fortunate to have stable leadership and committed faculty, staff and administrators who are truly dedicated to our students. We are also financially secure and continue to focus on moving forward strategically.

We will keep all members of our school community informed as we proceed.

Sincerely,
Rita Tuzon
Former Board Chair (2021-2023)
Trustee Emerita
Search Committee Chair