Second Update from the Search Committee

8/2/2024

Dear Laurel School Community,
We hope you are all having a wonderful summer! It’s amazing that the next school year is almost here, with our Upper School athletes already starting pre-season this week.

We continue to make great progress in our search for Laurel’s next Head of School and are excited to provide an update.

In mid-July, our consultants at Educators Collaborative, Pilar Cabeza de Vaca and Nat Conard, presented the Search Committee with the dossiers of an extremely impressive and diverse group of candidates to consider. Each of these candidates was well-aligned with the Leadership Profile that was developed using invaluable input from the Laurel community, and each was vetted by Pilar and Nat.

Reading the dossiers, in which candidates from across the country (and beyond!) shared their enthusiasm for leading our incredible school, reaffirmed how truly special Laurel is. There were dozens of mentions of our international reputation for academic excellence and innovative curriculum and our unique assets like the Butler Campus and Laurel’s Center for Research on Girls. It also was inspiring to see how many candidates referenced amazing Laurel alumnae, parents, faculty and staff they’ve come to know, whose embodiment of Laurel’s mission and values and love of the school have left a powerful and enduring impression. Thank you all for being ambassadors for Laurel every day, in your communities!

The Search Committee and our consultants met for several hours on Saturday, July 20 to review these dossiers and assess the candidates’ many strengths. After robust discussion, the committee unanimously selected a group of ten candidates to advance to the semi-finalist stage—a higher number than we had earlier anticipated, and a reflection of the strength and depth of the pool of candidates presented.

As we described in our update at the end of the school year, the Search Committee will now conduct confidential virtual interviews with those ten candidates this month and will then select finalist candidates, each of whom will spend structured time at Laurel in early September. At that time, each candidate will have several meetings, including with faculty and staff, students, parents and alumnae. Your feedback from these meetings will be an important part of the selection process; thank you, in advance, for investing time meeting with the finalists.

As a reminder, and while the dates are subject to change based on the finalists’ availability, please hold the following September dates for Laurel community meetings with each of the finalists:

- Early evening September 4, 2024
- Early evening September 9, 2024
- Early evening September 12, 2024

We understand our community is excited and curious about who the semi-finalists are; however, out of respect for the candidates and the need to conduct the search with integrity, it remains essential to maintain confidentiality at this point in the process.

We look forward to the opportunity to share more information and to continue to engage all of you in this important and exciting milestone for Laurel.

Warmly,