The Search for Midland's Next Head of School

It is the responsibility of the Board to hire, support, and evaluate its sole employee, the Head of School. The Board will provide input at the beginning of the search, will meet with finalists, and review, then act on, the recommendation from the Search Committee. The Board’s primary role is to advance the mission of Midland School and ensure the long-term viability and health of the school.

The Search Committee will oversee the entire search process, review candidate files, make reference calls, select and interview semifinalists and finalists, and recommend to the Board of Trustees the candidate they believe should be hired as the next Head of School.

Because the Board holds the responsibility of hiring the Head of School, we selected individuals on the Board with a breadth and depth of relationships with the school. Members are charged with holding the future of the school and its mission at the forefront, and it is our hope that collectively a wide range of perspectives and experiences will inform our discussions.

Educators Collaborative is a nationally-known search consulting firm, specializing in finding heads and senior leaders for independent schools. Nat Conard has been engaged to assist with the search. Nat has had many years of experience in independent school leadership, and has assisted many schools with head and senior administrator searches.

Nat will provide guidance to the Search Committee on process, logistics, procedures, and best practices in the search process. In addition, he will recruit and interview candidates, check references, and support the Search Committee throughout the interview process. Educators Collaborative will also provide transition support to the new Head of School after that person has been hired and throughout the new Head’s first year.

The Board of Trustees is committed to making the search an inclusive process and is providing opportunities for community input at various times throughout the process. The first opportunity is when members of the school community will be invited to share their thoughts about the School and the search through a confidential online survey administered by Educators Collaborative in October. Then, when Nat Conard visits campus later in October, he will conduct listening sessions to learn more about Midland’s strengths, the opportunities facing the school over the next several years, and the traits, skills, and experience desired in the next Head of School. Members of the community, including the faculty and staff, alumni, parents, and students, will be invited to participate in these sessions.

Finally, as the search nears its conclusion, members of the school community will have an opportunity to meet the finalist candidates and provide feedback on their impressions of each.

Absolutely! Community input in this process is very important.  The search committee will vet the initial pool of candidates and identify a group of semifinalists who will be interviewed in a confidential setting. This is done primarily to ensure that those potential candidates who have not yet informed their current schools of their possible interest in a career move will not be compromised by expressing interest in this position.  The finalists—usually three to four—will be invited to campus and have an opportunity to meet with members of the Midland community through a variety of venues and forums.

The search committee, in partnership with our consultants, is developing a position statement (Information for Candidates) that articulates the opportunities and challenges that await the new Head of School as well as the professional skills and personal characteristics we believe are most desirable and relevant to successfully lead Midland School. These will certainly include demonstrated leadership experience, excellent communication skills, proven abilities in financial management and fundraising, and a passion for the Midland mission.

All candidates, both internal and external, who are interested in the opportunity to be the next Head of Midland School are encouraged to apply. To every extent possible, the Search Committee will attempt to create a level playing field, ensuring that the eventual nominee as Head-elect is assessed in the context of the entire field of candidates. In addition, the confidentiality of internal candidates is as important as that of candidates from outside the school.

One way to think about the search process is that it essentially consists of three phases.

In the first phase, the Educators Collaborative consultant gets to know the school through conversations with the Search Committee, the Board of Trustees, the administration and faculty, parents, alumni, and students; through a community survey; and through reviewing data and documents provided by the school. This enables him to develop a leadership profile for the next Head of Midland. Simultaneously, Educators Collaborative publicizes the leadership opportunity and begins their outreach to prospective candidates. This phase will take place during the fall.

The second phase takes place almost exclusively behind the scenes and is highly confidential, as Nat Conard recruits and does the initial vetting of candidates through interviews and reference checks. While any qualified candidate will be considered up until the completion of the search, interested candidates will be asked to contact Nat before a deadline that will be established soon, so that their candidacies can be appropriately vetted. This phase will most likely go on throughout the fall and early winter.

In the final phase, the Search Committee becomes very engaged, learning more about candidates whom Nat has put forward for consideration, conducting preliminary confidential interviews, selecting the finalists, and assuring that the finalists’ visits to the school are successful. During the finalists’ visits, members of the community will meet with each of the candidates and provide detailed feedback through the search consultants to the Search Committee for consideration in determining which individual will be recommended to the Board of Trustees for approval. The work of the Search Committee concludes when it presents its nomination of the candidate of choice to the Board of Trustees. This phase will take place once a strong pool of potential candidates has been identified. It will most likely be in early- to mid-winter.

Interested candidates should contact Nat Conard (nconard@educatorscollaborative.com) of Educators Collaborative directly. They will maintain confidentiality for all recommended candidates. We also invite members of the community to make referrals of appropriate candidates. Please contact Nat to share names and contact information of potential candidates, and he will reach out directly to them.

The search for the new Head of School for Midland is national and even international in scope. Candidates from across the country (and abroad) will be considered, and nominations are welcome. Nat will also devote considerable effort to recruiting candidates who might not be actively seeking a new position. Many candidates will not want it known at their current institutions that they are considering a change, and for this reason we must maintain strict confidentiality about individual candidates right up until the finalist stage of the process.

The person selected by the Board of Trustees will officially become Midland School’s Head of School on July 1, 2027.  Until that time, Dan Susman will continue to lead the School. We anticipate that there will be opportunities late in the 2026-27 school year when the Head-Elect will be on campus and have a chance to learn more about the school, but it is a high probability that the selected individual will have ongoing professional responsibilities elsewhere.