A Window into USN and Hiring

by Vince Durnan

We’re busy hosting finalists in our search for a new Head of High School. The process to reach this point spanned months. Here’s what we did:
 
The average length of service for USN faculty members exceeds 15 years. As a result, there are years when we might not hire anyone in a given grade range or program area, a fact that helps build continuity and collegiality. When those openings do occur, we hope they offer plenty of lead time (as with retirements) and we sense the significance of the opportunity. In the case of broad administrative roles, those sentiments are even more widely shared. So last May, when our friend Steve Robins announced his retirement to the HS faculty, he was giving us the gift of time. I resolved to be worthy of that generosity.
 
That meant that I could put a position announcement together in July and begin circulating word of the opening to colleagues nationwide. A few search firms specialize in providing a candidate pool for independent schools, and a couple of those specialize in reaching out to candidates from historically underrepresented backgrounds in independent schools. Add to that institutions of higher education, member groups of various kinds for schools, and our own professional network contacts, and you get a sense of the distribution list for our announcement.
 
Then I went to our HS faculty and staff to ask for recommendations for our formal search committee, a group responsible for steering a process to build and correspond with a candidate pool. That’s a very common practice in schools like ours (and in colleges), especially with an administrative opening. The seven people I asked after getting those recommendations said yes, joined by our HR manager, Girls’ AD, and Director of Diversity and Community Life. That group started meeting weekly in August and has kept on that schedule right up to today.
 
That group authored a lengthy and impressive position description to share with potential candidates, asked colleagues for attributes they’d most hope to see in the candidates themselves, and reviewed each file as it came our way to be stored in a digital trove that now numbers more than 100. The committee members began flagging especially impressive files about a month ago and kept checking in with one another week by week, ultimately picking a dozen people for extensive phone interviews, from which our four finalists were chosen for a campus visit. It’s worth reporting that everyone we asked about a phone interview and everyone we invited to campus said yes, even as we know that there are several high-profile plum HS Head searches happening around the country. That part of the process proved really affirming.
 
Why are they saying yes? There’s no single answer but a few themes recur. USN’s visibility and buzz extend far beyond Nashville, in a way that frankly surprised me a little. People who know a lot about independent schools know us—even if some people in our city may not. Secondly, Vanderbilt is a draw—candidates are curious and interested in potential collaborative efforts with our next door neighbor, not to mention other colleges here in the Athens of the South. And Nashville is a plus as a destination, with so many magazines touting our trajectory as a boomtown.
 
To complete the picture, I should mention that our home state, by contrast, is not really a draw at the moment. The dissonance between what potential colleagues read about Nashville and what they see in the popular press about Tennessee leaves many wondering about what it would really mean to live here. Recent coverage about a less than welcoming stance regarding people from far away is most certainly not helping dispel perceptions about a more insular mindset here, but it has not been a deal buster yet. And a visit to town, to campus, does wonders to spark enthusiasm.
 
Once a candidate comes to USN, we open the process as fully as time permits, students and families included, to show us at our best as a school community. Ultimately I shoulder, quite willingly, the responsibility for synthesizing all the sentiment about all the candidates in light of all the possibilities that exist for our future as educational leaders. I’m grateful for our process and for our people and for the breadth of viewpoints that combine to guarantee a full picture and a good outcome. But maybe most of all I’m grateful that USN has a compelling story to share.
 
In the spirit of transparency,
Vince
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University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.