Click here to listen to this week’s JAM – The Founding Team.
The last few days I have participated along with Upper School Head Mike Peller in some of our first Zoom interviews with candidates for the role of Athletic Director. We have a really strong slate of candidates from all over the country and world for this position, including several experienced high school Athletic Directors and many with experience at the collegiate level. It is clear to us that amazing people are drawn to this exciting and challenging opportunity to help us design a competitive and comprehensive athletic program that will be a core piece of our program.
We have also posted the six, full-time founding faculty positions – math, science, English, history, Spanish, Director of Innovation & Design Labs – that will represent the heart of our teaching team. The resumes for these roles are also impressive, as we are seeing experienced and talented people from around the world drawn to this unique opportunity. Clearly, people recognize that this type of opportunity – serving as a founding member of a high school that builds upon the exceptional educational foundation of a longstanding JK-8 – does not come along very often.
One of the things we have been discussing as a hiring team is – what are we looking for in these founding candidates? While not an exhaustive list, we have all agreed that we are looking for people who are entrepreneurial and enjoy building and sustaining excellent programs. We are seeking an educator who thrives in small collaborative environments, who places equity and impact at the forefront of what they do, and who is committed to bridging and building inclusive communities. We are also looking for an educator who believes learning should be active and relational, and that high school students can have profound and lasting impacts on their local and global communities. Our ideal candidates recognize that you don’t have to wait until you graduate to do something real, meaningful, and important. And, perhaps most importantly, we are looking for people who hear our core values – be kind, be curious, take risks, be your best – and see themselves as both educators and people who are striving to live out those values each and every day.
I have always enjoyed hiring. I appreciate the opportunity to meet people, to hear their stories, to understand what motivates them, and to learn why they are drawn to Hillbrook at this particular moment in time. I also like the challenge of helping to design and deliver a hiring process that reflects the values of our school. In the same way that our mission calls on us to ensure that each student is known and valued as an individual, I expect our hiring process to leave people feeling seen, heard, and respected. Clearly, one of the challenges of hiring is that in the end you only hire one person for each position, meaning that the majority of people you meet and interview do not become part of your team. Despite that, my goal is that our hiring process leaves each person feeling good about the time they spent with us. In a few cases through the years, we have said no to someone during one search, but then circled back to the person a few years later to see if they remained interested. Several times we have ended up hiring that person, an indication, I think, that our hiring process, at least in those cases, worked.
The heart of the Hillbrook experience has always been and will continue to be the quality of our teachers. Are you or someone you know one of those amazing people who might be interested in exploring the possibility of being part of our founding team? Check out our website in the careers section for more information or, better yet, respond to this Jam and I’ll point you in the right direction.
As we launch these searches, I know that we are looking to bring in the people who will bring our vision and mission to life. As we have for 87 years, we will do it by creating a school where each student is known and valued, where students gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to thrive in school and in life, and where we measure success one student at a time.