The last week of September marks the end of a very long process. After ten months, the Head of School search team, comprised of trustees, faculty, and a life trustee, will sit down for their final meeting. In that room they will decide on a candidate or candidates to recommend to the Board of Trustees for the final decision of who LFA’s next Head of School will be.

Starting last November with the choice of a search advisor, the search team has solicited the opinions of faculty and students on what qualities the next head of school should have.

“Search advisors joke by saying that every search committee they work with is looking for God on a good day. You want someone who is a visionary, inspirational, who is a natural leader, a consensus builder,” said Mr. Mike Schell, the chairman of the board of trustees and chair of the search team.

“We want an educator,  someone who can appreciate the arts, coaching, and can appreciate boarding life,” adds Mr. Chris Dozois.

Dozois along with Dr. Kerry Cedergren are both on the search team to give insight on the day to day activities of the school as faculty members and parents.

The process hasn’t been perfect. In April the search team was about to invite three candidates to campus when they hit a bump.

“We decided that if we extended the search and hired a new advisor then we would have a better pool of candidates…that was a bit of a bump in the road. We had to restart the process and take a lot more time to finish the process…but I think it will prove worth it,” said Schell.  

In an email to the LFA community, the Head of School Search team wrote to address the rescheduling of the finalist visits, “Whether our current pool is augmented by this extension or not, we believe it will further validate the ultimate result. In all events, we assure you we are proceeding with the utmost confidence and enthusiasm for the process and the prospective result.”

The final four have made their visits to LFA, speaking to teachers, parents, and students. Those who had the chance to meet the candidates were given the opportunity to fill out an evaluation. The evaluations were then summarized and reported to the search team.

“We try to make sure that the candidates are seen by a lot of people. That everyone gets a pretty close look at them…hopefully that gives us a pretty good picture of who each candidate is,” said Schell.

As the LFA community eagerly awaits the announcement that will decide the future of LFA, feelings are mixed.

“People are excited and anxious. Dr. Strudwick has been the Head of School for most of the faculty’s careers…Change is exciting and scary,” commented Dozois.