December 5, 2022

We’re coming up on that time of year again, of resignations for the end of the school year, hiring fairs, and issuance of letters of appointment for the next academic year. One of the paradoxical facts of independent school life is that while there is greater freedom in the curriculum than in the public system, the specific fabric of a school is created by people and personalities over time and that creates its own opportunities and limitations. Independent schools really aren’t about the latest and greatest trends in education. And whatever a school leader might think about the school culture — whether it is student-centered (or not), whether it supports flexible mindsets (or not) — it is the air we breathe. It is what students and families perceive when they tour our schools during admissions season. It’s what makes your school, your school. So the pandemic Great Resignation with faculty and administrative turnover has brought a wave of change. 

Culture is impacted profoundly by the departures of faculty and mid-level administrators, particularly experienced contributors who are so steeped in the school’s culture that they might even have a hard time articulating what that culture is when…