Dear Academy of the Sacred Heart Community,
We are writing to update you on the search process now under way for the next Head of School for the Academy of the Sacred Heart. With this update, you will learn about the following:
- Selection of a search consulting firm
- Search consulting firm’s visit to the Academy at the end of this month
- Overview of the phases of the search process
After establishing a Search Committee, our first action was to identify and engage a search consulting firm to assist us in this all-important task. After careful evaluation, we selected Educational Directions of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, a nationally known and highly regarded independent school consulting firm, to work with us. Educational Directions has carried out a significant number of leadership searches for all types of quality independent schools throughout the country for the last 30 years. The search will be led by Matthew Heersche and Risa Oganesoff Heersche, who bring to our search deep experience and commitment as educational leaders in Catholic education and as search professionals. Educational Directions has also worked with other schools in the Sacred Heart Network. For more information about the firm and our search professionals, we invite you to visit the Educational Directions website.
The Head of School search process will be an open and inclusive one. Matthew and Risa have already met with the Search Committee to begin this process. An important next step is for them to visit the school and to meet with our stakeholders — students, faculty and staff, parents, alumni, administrators and board members — to learn more about the Academy and our community. This visit will take place September 30 and October 1, 2021. We will be sharing more information and details regarding Matthew and Risa’s visit in the coming days.
The search process is thoughtfully conducted over a period of months and begins with identifying top prospects. Educational Directions will be reaching out nationwide and locally to individual Catholic educational leaders, executive directors of educational organizations, a variety of Catholic educational leadership programs and regional school associations, to notify them of the opportunity to lead the Academy. Over the next few months, the search consulting firm will be identifying and screening top-level candidates, a subset of whom will be selected for interview by the Search Committee. From that group will come three finalists. There will opportunities for Academy community members to meet the finalists early in 2022.
Our calendar calls for identification of the next Head of School for the Academy of the Sacred Heart to be completed by the end of February 2022. There will be an organized transition process culminating in the new Head of School commencing work in July 2022.
Please continue to watch for updates from the Search Committee by way of email. In addition, a Head of School Search webpage will be forthcoming. There, you will find information about the status of the search, the Search Committee, Educational Directions, prior communications related to the search and other updates to help the Academy community to stay informed during this process.
We look forward to the search process and are grateful for your prayers and support as the search progresses.
For the Search Committee,
Mark Roden
Chair, Head of School Search Committee
Laura Mullen Haroian ’76
Lyn Osiek RSCJ, ’58
Desiree Peri Klakovich
Nat Willburn
