Board guide

When to hire an Interim Head of School

What an interim year is for, when it is the right call, and how to set one up so it works.

An interim appointment is a decision to spend a year well, not a way of postponing a decision. Boards that treat it as the first thing get a stronger permanent search at the end of it; boards that treat it as the second thing arrive at the same problem twelve months later, with less goodwill.

When an interim is the right call

The Head is leaving at short notice and a permanent search would have to be compressed into a season that cannot hold it.
The school does not yet know what it needs. After a long tenure, a difficult departure or a change in strategy, the honest answer is often that the board cannot describe the next Head well enough to recruit one.
Something needs repairing before a strong candidate would say yes: finances, governance, a damaged relationship with faculty, an accreditation finding.
The timing is simply wrong. A search launched in February for a July start is choosing from whoever is left.
A capable internal successor exists but is a year or two from ready, and the board wants to develop them honestly rather than appoint early and hope.

When it is the wrong call

The board is avoiding a decision it has the information to make. An interim year does not make a divided board agree.
The intention is to appoint a favoured internal candidate without a search, using the interim period as cover. Communities see this clearly and resent it.
The school is stable, the timing works and a strong field is available. An unnecessary interim year costs momentum.
The board cannot fund both an interim year and a proper search. Running out of money halfway is worse than either choice made cleanly.

The two kinds of interim, and what each is good for

	Internal acting Head	External interim Head
Knows the school	Immediately	Weeks of learning
Best when	Continuity matters and the issues are known	Hard things need doing that an insider cannot do
Risk	Cannot act against the culture they came from	May move faster than the community can absorb
Afterwards	Returns to a role they have outgrown, or leaves	Leaves as planned, which is the point
Candidacy	Will usually want to be considered	Normally agrees not to be, in writing

What the year is actually for

Getting an honest account of the school: finances, enrollment, staffing, culture, and the things nobody said out loud during the last tenure.
Fixing what would deter a strong candidate, and being able to show it was fixed.
Giving the board a defensible description of what the next Head must be able to do.
Steadying the community. An interim year handled calmly tells candidates the board is competent.
It is not for launching a strategic plan, a campaign or a reorganisation. Those belong to the person who will live with them.

Choosing the interim

Look for someone who has done the job before, ideally more than once, and who is content that this one ends.
Judgment under pressure matters more than fit with the culture. An interim is there for a year, not a decade.
Ask what they would do in the first month if they found something serious. The answer tells you how they will handle the thing you have not discovered yet.
Check references on how they left, not only on how they performed. A good interim hands over cleanly.
Be wary of a recently retired Head of this school. Affection for the place is not the same as the distance the year needs.

Settle the terms before the announcement

The end date, in writing, and what happens if the search runs long.
The scope of authority: what the interim may decide alone, what needs the chair, and what needs the board.
Whether they may be a candidate for the permanent role. Decide this at the start and say so publicly; revisiting it later is where interim years go wrong.
What they are expected to deliver: usually stability, an honest assessment and a clean handover, and rarely more.
How they will be evaluated, and by whom.
Compensation, housing and the practical terms, agreed in full before any announcement is made.

Running the year well

Announce the interim and the search timeline together. A community told only half of the plan fills in the rest.
Give the interim the same support and access a permanent Head would have. An interim treated as a caretaker becomes one.
Keep the search committee's work separate from the interim's management of the school.
Protect the interim from the board. Trustees often feel freer to intervene with someone temporary, and it undermines the year.
Ask for a written assessment near the end. It is the most useful document the board will have when it writes the permanent position statement.

The handover

Overlap deliberately: a few days together, with a written handover, is worth more than a long farewell.
Make sure the interim's honest assessment reaches the incoming Head, not only the board.
Thank the interim publicly and specifically. Faculty watch how the school treats someone who is leaving by arrangement.
If the interim is staying in the community, agree what their involvement will be. A predecessor who lingers is as hard for a new Head after an interim year as after a long tenure.

The test of an interim year is not whether the school got through it. It is whether the board can describe its next Head more precisely in June than it could the previous September.

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When an interim is the right call

The Head is leaving at short notice and a permanent search would have to be compressed into a season that cannot hold it.

The school does not yet know what it needs. After a long tenure, a difficult departure or a change in strategy, the honest answer is often that the board cannot describe the next Head well enough to recruit one.

Something needs repairing before a strong candidate would say yes: finances, governance, a damaged relationship with faculty, an accreditation finding.

The timing is simply wrong. A search launched in February for a July start is choosing from whoever is left.

A capable internal successor exists but is a year or two from ready, and the board wants to develop them honestly rather than appoint early and hope.

When it is the wrong call

The board is avoiding a decision it has the information to make. An interim year does not make a divided board agree.

The intention is to appoint a favoured internal candidate without a search, using the interim period as cover. Communities see this clearly and resent it.

The school is stable, the timing works and a strong field is available. An unnecessary interim year costs momentum.

The board cannot fund both an interim year and a proper search. Running out of money halfway is worse than either choice made cleanly.

The two kinds of interim, and what each is good for

	Internal acting Head	External interim Head
Knows the school	Immediately	Weeks of learning
Best when	Continuity matters and the issues are known	Hard things need doing that an insider cannot do
Risk	Cannot act against the culture they came from	May move faster than the community can absorb
Afterwards	Returns to a role they have outgrown, or leaves	Leaves as planned, which is the point
Candidacy	Will usually want to be considered	Normally agrees not to be, in writing

What the year is actually for

Getting an honest account of the school: finances, enrollment, staffing, culture, and the things nobody said out loud during the last tenure.

Fixing what would deter a strong candidate, and being able to show it was fixed.

Giving the board a defensible description of what the next Head must be able to do.

Steadying the community. An interim year handled calmly tells candidates the board is competent.

It is not for launching a strategic plan, a campaign or a reorganisation. Those belong to the person who will live with them.

Choosing the interim

Look for someone who has done the job before, ideally more than once, and who is content that this one ends.

Judgment under pressure matters more than fit with the culture. An interim is there for a year, not a decade.

Ask what they would do in the first month if they found something serious. The answer tells you how they will handle the thing you have not discovered yet.

Check references on how they left, not only on how they performed. A good interim hands over cleanly.

Be wary of a recently retired Head of this school. Affection for the place is not the same as the distance the year needs.

Settle the terms before the announcement

The end date, in writing, and what happens if the search runs long.

The scope of authority: what the interim may decide alone, what needs the chair, and what needs the board.

Whether they may be a candidate for the permanent role. Decide this at the start and say so publicly; revisiting it later is where interim years go wrong.

What they are expected to deliver: usually stability, an honest assessment and a clean handover, and rarely more.

How they will be evaluated, and by whom.

Compensation, housing and the practical terms, agreed in full before any announcement is made.

Running the year well

Announce the interim and the search timeline together. A community told only half of the plan fills in the rest.

Give the interim the same support and access a permanent Head would have. An interim treated as a caretaker becomes one.

Keep the search committee's work separate from the interim's management of the school.

Protect the interim from the board. Trustees often feel freer to intervene with someone temporary, and it undermines the year.

Ask for a written assessment near the end. It is the most useful document the board will have when it writes the permanent position statement.

The handover

Overlap deliberately: a few days together, with a written handover, is worth more than a long farewell.

Make sure the interim's honest assessment reaches the incoming Head, not only the board.

Thank the interim publicly and specifically. Faculty watch how the school treats someone who is leaving by arrangement.

If the interim is staying in the community, agree what their involvement will be. A predecessor who lingers is as hard for a new Head after an interim year as after a long tenure.