Board guide
When to start a Head of School search
The calendar a board should work back from, and the signs that the time to start is now.
Timing shapes the candidate pool more than any other decision a board makes. Sitting Heads commit early and quietly, so a search that opens late is not choosing from a weaker field — it is choosing from whoever is still available in the spring, which is a different thing entirely.
A typical calendar for a July 1 start
| When | What the board is doing |
|---|---|
| Spring, 15 months out | Agree the process, the budget and who will lead. Appoint the firm. |
| Summer | Discovery: what the school actually needs from its next leader, in writing. |
| Early fall | Committee seated and trained. Position statement published. Outreach begins. |
| Late fall | Applications reviewed against the criteria. First-round interviews. |
| Midwinter | Semifinalist interviews, off campus and confidential. |
| Late winter | Finalist visits to campus. References completed before the visits, not after. |
| Early spring | Board votes. Offer, negotiation, announcement. |
| Spring to June | Transition: introductions, handover, first-year goals agreed. |
| July 1 | The new Head starts, already knowing the school. |
Work back from the start date
- Most Heads start on July 1. The strongest candidates commit by late fall or winter for the following summer.
- A full search usually takes six to nine months from committee formation to appointment, and the planning before it is not free either.
- A sitting Head will usually need to give their current school notice by the winter. A candidate who cannot leave cleanly will withdraw late, when it is most expensive.
- Build in the weeks the calendar will take from you: winter break, spring break, and the stretch around admissions decisions when nobody is free to interview.
- Finalist visits need two or three consecutive days that work for a candidate, their family, your committee and your campus. Those days are scarcer than boards expect.
Signs the board should begin now
- The Head has shared a departure or retirement date, even informally.
- The board is discussing leadership at some point without a plan or a timeline.
- A strategic plan, campaign or accreditation milestone will shape what the next Head must do.
- The Head's contract ends within two years and no conversation about renewal has happened.
- Senior administrators are asking about the school's direction, which usually means the community is too.
- A trustee has begun sounding out possible candidates informally. Once that starts, the search has started whether the board has decided or not.
Decide these before you launch, not during
- Who appoints: the committee recommends and the full board votes. Say so in writing at the start.
- Whether internal candidates are welcome, and how they will be told either way.
- What the board will pay, including the compensation range it can genuinely support, and what moves if the right person is at the top of it.
- What the school will say publicly, and when. A search that leaks before the board is ready costs the Head and the school more than an early announcement would have.
- Who speaks for the search: one named person, usually the board chair or committee chair.
- What the board will do if the pool is not right. Agreeing to extend is far easier before you are three months in and tired.
What a late start actually costs
- The strongest sitting Heads are gone first. A search opening in February is largely choosing among people who did not move in the autumn round.
- A compressed timeline shows. Candidates read a rushed process as a school that is unsettled, and the better ones have other options.
- Diligence gets squeezed last and matters most. References done after a committee has fallen for someone rarely change an outcome.
- A failed search costs a full year, the fee, and the community's patience. It is the single most expensive outcome available to a board.
If the timeline is already short
- Consider an interim Head rather than compressing a permanent search.
- Be candid with the community about the plan and the timeline; uncertainty is harder on schools than a clear interim year.
- An interim year is not a lost year. It is often when a board gets an honest read on what the school actually needs.
- Resist appointing the interim as the permanent Head without a search. It is rarely fair to them, and the community notices.
- If you do run a short search, shorten the sourcing and keep the diligence. Boards usually do the reverse.
Questions the board should answer out loud
- What must the next Head be able to do that the last one did not have to?
- What are we genuinely willing to change for the right person, and what is not on the table?
- Who in this community will be hardest to bring along, and who will tell us the truth about it?
- If our first choice declines, what do we do?
If the board is unsure whether it is early or late, it is usually later than it feels. The cost of starting a season early is a few months of planning; the cost of starting a season late is the pool itself.
IndySchool Consultancy · indyschoolconsultancy.com · tim@indyschoolconsultancy.com