Dear Seneca Academy Community,

As Seneca Academy students return to school, we want to report on the progress we have made
this summer in the search for our next Head of School. By the end of this month, the Search
Committee plans to have identified the candidates who will visit Seneca Academy as Finalists to
meet with our community.

Throughout the summer, our search partners at Carney, Sandoe & Associates (CS&A) have
engaged in dedicated and proactive outreach, conversation, and cultivation with prospective
candidates for the position of Head of School. Last week, the Search Committee passed two
milestones in the search: Implicit Bias Training provided by CS&A to promote an equitable
process and, on Friday, the receipt of a curated pool of candidate files.

From that pool of candidates—largely comprising heads and assistant heads of school and
division heads—the Search Committee will select a group of Semifinalists for confidential
interviews via Zoom and then Finalists for on-campus visits. In selecting Semifinalists, the
Search Committee will focus on individuals from that talented pool whose background and
experience align particularly well with Seneca Academy’s needs and aspirations.

We anticipate inviting Finalists to campus in October, when community members will have an
opportunity to meet them. Until that time, please note that the process remains a confidential one.
The Search Committee remains excited and optimistic that we will be able to recommend the
next Head of School to the full Board of Trustees in November, with a start date of July 1, 2025.

In welcoming you back to school, we want to offer our continued thanks for your partnership and
to encourage you to contact us with any comments or questions about the process at
senecasearch@senecaacademy.org.

Sincerely,
Lili Portilla Weingarten
Trustee and Search Committee Chair

Dear Seneca Academy Community,

As the 2023-2024 school year comes to a close, we are pleased to offer an update on Seneca Academy’s search for our next Head of School.

Perhaps most importantly, we want to report that the search is proceeding according to plan. With the Head of School position description—which owes much to your participation in our Carney, Sandoe & Associates search partner’s campus visit and the corresponding online community survey—now posted widely, senior consultant Peter Barrett continues his work with sources and potential candidates for the position.

Indeed, the process is well into the recruitment phase as we look for the best new leader for Seneca Academy. With recruitment continuing through the summer, the Search Committee looks forward to receiving candidate materials for review early in the new school year. We want to remind you that the process is a confidential one, to protect candidate privacy as well as the overall process itself, until candidates who have advanced to the Finalist stage visit the Seneca Academy campus later in the fall. At that time, candidates will meet with parents/guardians, faculty and staff, students, and Trustees so that we can learn more about them and they can learn more about us.

We also want to remind you that we have created a Head of School Search page on the Seneca Academy website, where we post search-related information, and an email address for you to contact us with any comments or questions about the process: senecasearch@senecaacademy.org.

We look forward to sharing another update early in the new school year and, for now, wish you the very best as you head into what we hope will be a great summer. In the interim, if you have any comments or questions, please do not hesitate to reach out at the email provided above.

With continued thanks for your partnership,
Lili Portilla Weingarten
Trustee and Search Committee Chair

Dear Seneca Academy Community,

We are pleased to provide an update on Seneca Academy’s search for our next Head of School, effective July 1, 2025. In particular, we want you to know that the position description has been posted on our Head of School Search webpage. The position description has also been posted on the website of our search partners, Carney, Sandoe & Associates, and shared across their extensive network, and we continue to identify additional platforms that will help us attract exceptional candidates.

Created by the Search Committee in conjunction with CS&A senior consultant Peter Barrett, the position description owes much to your participation in Peter’s visit to Seneca Academy last month and in the corresponding online community survey. Thank you for your support for this important process of selecting the next leader for Seneca Academy!

Given the importance of the findings from the community survey to the overall process, as well as our gratitude for your participation, we wanted to report back to you on the survey results. In all, 89 members of the Seneca Academy community responded to the survey, including 55 who identified their primary association as a parent of a current student and 19 who identified their primary association as a member of the faculty, staff, and administrators. (As you know, there is considerable overlap among the various constituencies, which also include Trustees, parents of former students, and alumni.)

For those of you who would like to know more about the survey results, we have summarized them below. As Search Committee Chair, I want to reiterate our thanks to you for your contributions to the search process and to remind you that you can share any thoughts or questions with us at senecasearch@senecaacademy.org.

Sincerely,
Lili Portilla Weingarten
Trustee and Search Committee Chair

While there was, of course, some variation as to the relative importance across constituencies, the four qualities cited most frequently by survey respondents as to what they value most about Seneca Academy, beginning with the most frequently cited, were:

• Small class sizes and low student-teacher ratio
• The focus on skills such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity
• The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program
• Close student-teacher relationships

With respect to areas for improvement for the next Head of School, respondents identified six areas for consideration, with the last two areas receiving the same number of responses:

• Recruiting, retaining, and compensating high-quality faculty
• Attending to the emotional and developmental needs of each student
• Maintaining a safe learning environment
• Furthering academic program excellence
• Controlling tuition costs
• Balancing the goal of full enrollment with high admission standards

Respondents identified the four most important professional experiences for the next Head of School to have had as:

• Leadership/management experience in an independent school (by a wide margin)
• Recruitment, retention, support, and management of faculty and staff
• Expertise in curriculum and instruction
• Experience growing enrollment and/or revenue

Finally, respondents identified the most important personal characteristics or qualities for the next Head of School as:

• Approachable, accessible, collaborative (again, by a wide margin)
• Honest, trustworthy, transparent
• Leadership skills
• Engaging, inspiring, motivational
• Diplomacy, negotiation, and conflict-resolution skills; forward thinking/visionary; and intellectual curiosity and lifelong learner clustered just below those most-cited characteristics

Below are some representative comments with respect to the main challenges Seneca Academy needs to address in the next three to five years, with each capturing a single response:

• Continued academic excellence and a path to a stable enrollment curve that will provide the school with long-term financial stability
• Teacher talent acquisition and retention, attracting new families to the school, managing and controlling rising tuition costs
• Sustainability, growing revenue, developing an overall plan/vision for the future of the school
• Growth while maintaining vision

Respondents also offered other topics for the Search Committee to consider during the process. Representative responses, some edited for length, included:

• I’d definitely like the next head of school to focus on maintaining the uniquely warm, supportive, and welcoming environment Seneca has.
• Someone who truly loves children, knows them by name, knows their stories, and is firm but will be beloved by the kids is the right balance.
• Hiring someone who really understands the culture of Seneca Academy. It’s a small school, with a tight-knit group of families.
• Someone with strong leadership skills [who] can manage the day-to-day operations and lead the vision and strategy of the school. Someone who can model the social-emotional approach of the school.

Dear Seneca Academy Community:

We informed you last week of Michelle Parker’s intention to retire as Head of School at the conclusion of the 2024-2025 school year after nine years of gifted service. We would like to follow up today with information regarding the search process that will identify the next leader of Seneca Academy.

In particular, we are pleased to announce that Trustee Lili Portilla Weingarten will chair the Search Committee that will lead a national search for our next Head of School. While Lili joined the Board of Trustees this year, her association with Seneca Academy dates back to 2001, when her daughter enrolled here. A certified leadership coach, Lili has spent much of her career establishing collaborations and public-private partnerships at NIH. Similarly pleased to announce the Search Committee members, whose names you will find at the conclusion of this letter, we are grateful for their service to Seneca Academy in this critical role.

As you may recall from the April 4 letter, we have engaged Carney, Sandoe & Associates, an internationally recognized search and recruitment, consulting, and coaching firm, to partner with us in our Head of School search. Peter Barrett, a senior consultant with CS&A, will be on-campus on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 16 and 17, to engage our community in conversation about what makes Seneca special and to identify our leadership needs as we write our next chapter. The mix of individual and small-group meetings with members of the faculty, staff, and administration; parents; and Grades 4 and 5 students (over lunch) will enable Peter to understand more deeply the opportunities and challenges that await the next Head of School and the qualities and characteristics the community thinks are essential for that individual to be most effective. We are pleased to invite parents to join Peter on Wednesday, April 17, at 9:15 a.m. for just such a conversation. Peter will also meet with the Board of Trustees and Search Committee that evening.

In conjunction with Peter’s site visit, we invite your participation in an online Community Survey that explores many of the same topics. Even if you are able to meet with Peter on Tuesday and Wednesday, we encourage you to participate in the Community Survey, which will help shape the Search Committee’s deliberations about the emerging search and contribute to their work on the Position Description. It is open now and will close at midnight on Monday, April 22.

Excited about launching the search for our next Head of School, we hope that you will take these opportunities to share your thoughts about the future of Seneca Academy. As we begin this process in earnest, we do so with heartfelt thanks for Michelle’s service to our community since 2016.

Sincerely,

John McKew, Chair, Board of Trustees

Lili Portilla Weingarten, Trustee and Chair, Search Committee

Dear Seneca Academy Community, 

Over its more than 40 years of history, Seneca Academy has thrived under exceptional leadership that has shaped and propelled its mission and expansion. It began with Jodi Thurmond’s visionary establishment of a community preschool, which gradually evolved to include elementary education. Subsequently, under Brooke Carroll’s stewardship, the curriculum progressed to attain certification as an IB Primary Years Program. Most recently, during Michelle Parker’s eight-year tenure, Seneca Academy has seen the curriculum and culture seamlessly meld into a cohesive village of collaborative, inquiry-based learners. These remarkable educators have played an instrumental role in advancing Seneca’s trajectory. 

I am writing today to express the Seneca Academy Board of Trustees’ deep gratitude for Michelle’s service to Seneca as she announces her retirement at the conclusion of the 2024-2025 school year, and to inform you of our next steps. On behalf of the Board, I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Michelle for her invaluable contributions to Seneca Academy. Michelle has worn numerous hats—from providing day-to-day counseling and teaching Spanish to serving as a grant writer and even as a maintenance supervisor. Her strategic acumen has been instrumental in developing the school’s strategic plan, enhancing the curriculum, and navigating the challenges of a global pandemic while ensuring uninterrupted operations. Michelle has thoughtfully established and nurtured a remarkable faculty, staff, and administration; a meticulously maintained school infrastructure; and a thriving community of eager learners. 

With Michelle’s announcement, the board will initiate a process to identify the next visionary educator to lead Seneca Academy to new heights. To this end, we have enlisted the expertise of Peter Barrett, a senior search consultant with Carney, Sandoe & Associates, an internationally recognized education search and recruitment, consulting, and coaching firm. With nearly three decades of leadership at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School in Washington, DC, and a longstanding affiliation with the Association of Independent Maryland & DC Schools (AIMS), Peter brings invaluable insight, connections, and resources to the process. His familiarity with the local educational landscape instills confidence that, together, we will swiftly pinpoint the next dynamic and impactful leader for our community.

In addition to securing the services of a search consultant, the Board is assembling a Search Committee tasked with leading this process on behalf of the Board and the Seneca community. Details regarding the composition of this Committee are forthcoming. As we embark on this collective journey, the Search Committee, the Board, and Peter are committed to providing the Seneca community with regular updates throughout the process. One of our immediate priorities will be for Peter to solicit input from the entire Community, in part through a two-day visit to Seneca in mid-April and through an online community survey to delineate the essential attributes for the next Head of School. Peter and the Search Committee will use this information to begin the important task of drafting a position description. I encourage everyone to seize the opportunity to contribute to shaping the future leadership of Seneca Academy by responding to the survey.  

Michelle will continue to serve as Seneca Academy’s Head of School until June 30, 2025. Through the efforts of the Search Committee and with Michelle’s guidance and input from the Seneca community, the Board plans to appoint a new Head of School by the end of this calendar year, primed to commence duties on July 1, 2025.

As we embark on this transition, please join me in thanking Michelle for her remarkable service to the Seneca community. Having had the distinct privilege of collaborating with Michelle during my tenure on the Board, I will always appreciate her empathetic approach, unwavering passion, and relentless drive to propel Seneca Academy forward. As mentioned, stay tuned for follow-up communication regarding the online survey and the Search Committee.

Thank you,

John McKew

Chair of Seneca Academy Board of Trustees

Dear Seneca Village,

After much soul searching, I have let the Seneca Academy Board of Trustees know that I will be stepping down as head of school at the end of the 2024-2025 school year. Although this has been — and continues to be — my dream job, my husband will be retiring this May and we feel like the time is right for me to also begin to cut back on my professional responsibilities. 

Nine years ago I fell in love with Seneca Academy! Serving as its Head of School has, by far, been the biggest privilege and joy in my professional life! Very few people are able to honestly say that they love their job. I consider myself to be one of those lucky few. I share my work days with an incredibly talented group of professionals, whose company I genuinely enjoy, dedication I admire, and intellect I respect. I love witnessing the magic that happens in our classrooms as our students explore, wonder, and grow. I love playing with our kids, comforting them when they are sad or hurt, and celebrating their many accomplishments, both big and small. Just as much, I love the partnership that I have had with all of you in building a village that is “just right” for your children and for you. Together we have nurtured a warm, caring, and inclusive community to not only inspire and support our kids, but to also be there for you in your journey as parents. Along the way, I have made amazing friends, who I know I will continue to cherish for many years to come. 

As my husband and I look ahead to the next part of our journey together, I find that I have to choose between my professional passions and my personal hopes and dreams. My husband and I love to travel and we look forward to being able to do that while we are still young and healthy enough to be able to share adventures together. We also have a second home in Delray Beach that we look forward to being able to use more than on school holidays. Perhaps most importantly, we have three grown children who live in three different cities and are beginning to start families of their own, and we are excited to be able to spend more time with them. 

Given the time constraints of the academic calendar, it is tough to be able to pursue these dreams while managing the very full-time role of a Head of School. With that said, I am not ready to completely retire. Although my plans for the last phase of my professional life are not fully formed, they will likely include re-engaging part-time in my private practice as a clinical psychologist as well as consulting to schools and families. What is absolutely certain is that I will continue to be a friend of Seneca and will remain a devoted supporter of the school and this village. 

As has been the case with the two Heads who preceded me, we have accomplished a lot together during my tenure. Each of us was the “just right” person to shepherd the school during that part of its journey. During my tenure, we have not only weathered a pandemic, but we have also strengthened our commitment to and implementation of the IB PYP, fully integrated Singapore Math, significantly improved our phonics-based literacy program as well as our social emotional curriculum, fine-tuned our student support protocols, and enhanced our library holdings and educational materials. In addition, we have significantly improved our business model, which has enabled us to offer more competitive salaries and inspiring professional development opportunities so that, in turn, we could attract and retain a talented team. In this last year, we have also taken big steps towards right-sizing our administrative team and solidifying our building. As I think about leaving, I feel confident that Seneca Academy is in a strong place: we have an incredibly strong Board of Trustees; an amazing administrative and teaching team; a strong, developmentally appropriate, and inspiring program; and a committed and supportive community. 

I know that the school is well-positioned to say good-bye to me, welcome a new Head, and begin the strategic work of imagining the next 5-10 years. In a separate email, you will hear from our Board Chair, John McKew, about the plans for finding a new Head of School who will be “just right” for the next leg of the school’s journey. I hope that you each take up the offer to be part of this process. When I was hired, my time talking to parents, alumni, faculty, and students was such a big part of my falling in love and fully embracing the essence of this school. Be confident that this process will lead us to a new head of school who will also love, cherish, and nurture our school as much as the last three have. 

In the meantime, I will continue to stay focused on ensuring that the rest of this year, as well as the next one, is as wonderful and inspiring as they can be. Most certainly, I will continue to cherish each and every day as part of the Seneca Academy village with you, with the students, and with my team!

As always — in friendship,

Michelle Parker

Head of School