Principal Options For Coming Two Years Announced

To read the interim principal candidate statements, visit this page: https://theexonian.com/2018/04/26/online-exclusive-interim-principal-candidate-statements/

In preparation for Principal Lisa MacFarlane’s departure at the end of the school year, three candidates for Exeter’s interim principal were announced Monday. The finalists are PEA’s Director of Student Well-Being Christina Palmer, Head of the Doane Stuart School Pamela Clarke and former Academy trustee and alumnus William Rawson, according to an email sent by Trustee Claudine Gay, chair of the Interim Principal Advisory Committee.

The Board of Trustees and a faculty advisory committee have been leading the search since MacFarlane’s announcement in February. The interim principal will lead the Academy for up to two years while the Board of Trustees conducts a nationwide search for the 16th academy principal.

“I don’t feel I have a good sense of how they view the problems and issues that they’ll have to deal with now when they come on on July 1,” Golay said.

Head of the Trustees Tony Downer stated that the purpose of the interim principal role is “bringing closure to the journey we have been on over the past few years, addressing our past shortcomings and flaws in the realm of sexual misconduct and endeavoring to provide support and bring comfort to those who have experienced harm.”

History Instructor Michael Golay remarked that the interim principal position is “more important than the permanent appointment down the road” because “the problems that the interim is going to have to deal with are so important and so urgent that we need to make progress on them in order to get a strong set of candidates for the 16th principal position.”

He elaborated on the many responsibilities required of the candidate who fills the role. “The first thing is to listen,” he said. “The second thing is to institute some discipline in the management of the school and set a tone of respect for the school, for everybody in it and for our purpose here, which is to learn.”

Golay considers it important for the interim principal to significantly value academia. “I think the principal of the school should have a respect for our academic program and the strength of it,” he said. “I think that’s our franchise, and I think when we get away from that, we risk damaging the school.”

While the trustees have been at the forefront of the search, they attempted to incorporate community input by administering an anonymous survey to faculty, staff and administrators early on in the process.

An advisory committee composed of faculty members from various departments who, according to Gay’s email to faculty, “represent a diverse range of perspectives and Exeter experiences,” was also established in March. The committee spoke weekly until early April to devise a job description for the position, review feedback from the community survey and nominate current faculty and administrative members as possible candidates.

The trustees strove to involve student voices in the process by gathering a variety of input from Student Council members about their hopes for the interim principal. Many students emphasized that specific issues regarding race, mental health and sexual misconduct should be more adequately addressed in upcoming years.

Some requested that the interim principal be a current community member with a well-rounded understanding of the Academy, while others discussed the advantages of employing a fresh perspective. “It is a transition period, and it’s going to be hectic. I think the best option is getting someone who already knows the Exeter community well,” one student commented at the meeting. Another student offered a different view: “Someone who is not aware of the biases that are rampant here could probably give us the best summary of what we are doing well and what we are not.”

Downer said that the search has been a community-inclusive process, saying that “the community—faculty, staff and students—have had a very significant amount of influence thanks to their ample and thoughtful input.”

Golay felt that the committee hadn’t been forthcoming about the search process and left many faculty members out of the discussion. “We’ve had intermittent emails. We went weeks without hearing anything from the trustee head of the advisory committee. I haven’t heard anything from any of the members of the committee. And my guess is that most of my colleagues would say the same thing if you ask them: that the operation has not been, in any sense of the word, transparent,” he said.

Downer’s initial statement in February that the final decision would be made soon has also led many to question why the process took far longer than originally anticipated. “Nobody expected it to go on for three months,” Golay said.

Science Instructor and Advisory Committee Member Andrew McTammany said that the process has been multi-faceted and inevitably time-consuming. “Because we only met once a week, it was naturally a slow process. Not everything happened linearly,” he said. “There were many iterative processes—the formation of a list, seeing if people are even interested, the regeneration of a list and so on. It hasn’t been one clear-cut fight to the finish.”

Committee members anticipate that the decision will be finalized soon. “There’s an urgency because the interim principal would ideally be placed and learn about the job from our current principal before she leaves,” McTammany said.

Palmer, who joined the Academy this year, serves as a direct resource for students in all matters of safety and well-being, particularly in regards to issues of sexual misconduct. Before her Academy post, Palmer was the Director of Guidance and Clinical Services in the Brookline, Massachusetts, public school district and attended to the needs of almost 8,000 students.

According to her candidate statement for the Director of Student Well-Being position, Palmer’s profession has granted her competency in “social and emotional learning, restorative justice, cultural competency, gender identity, mental health, civil rights compliance and risk management.” She declined to comment on her candidacy at this time.

Clarke, who is currently the head of the Doane Stuart School in New York, has served as principal of four academic institutions across the country. She taught for many years at the Groton School, where she served as chair of its curriculum committee and participated in its transition to a coeducational institution.

As a trustee of the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS), she has worked with students and adults to explore gender identity and various issues of inclusivity. She teaches a weekend seminar through The Head’s Network to encourage female faculty across the nation to be leaders in independent schools.

For Clarke, the role of an interim principal is to uphold tradition, while also implementing necessary institutional changes. “Schools are organic; they evolve over time. If an institution remains static, it will falter. Traditions often help to provide continuity. An interim principal wants to preserve the best of the culture and help to improve those areas that need attention,” she said.

She also believes she embodies many important leadership qualities, stating, “I love schools. I’m a good listener, I consider myself fair, I care a great deal about equity and social justice, I’m told I’m funny. I am relatively well organized, I work best under pressure and I am lucky to have a lot of energy.” She added that she has “a lot of experience, including 28 years as Head of School.”

Clarke elaborated on her vision for the Academy. “I don’t pretend to know all the issues. I care about the environment of a school; that it builds a culture of respect, of student safety, that all members of the community feel accepted and welcomed,” she said. “I want the school to thrive; I believe Exeter can be a leader among independent boarding schools not only in the academic, arts and athletic arena but perhaps most importantly in the quality of the community.”

Mental health and community healing issues are high on Clarke’s list of topics she hopes to address. “Young people who choose to go to boarding schools deserve both the freedom to make choices and the care to help prevent or at least deal constructively with setbacks. The right environment is part of mental health,” she said.

She added, “We could work to heal relationships with members of the greater Exeter community who may have been harmed in the past, perhaps involving alumni in the process. The Exeter Community is very large; how we stay in touch and how we communicate is very important.”

Rawson, Exeter class of 1971, is a recently retired partner at an environmental law firm in Washington, D.C. He was on the Stanford Law School Board of Visitors and served as director of the Stanford University Alumni Association. He was a former trustee of the Academy and is a current trustee of E.L. Hayes Public Charter School. Rawson declined to comment on his candidacy at this time.

History Instructor John Herney, who knew Rawson during his time as a student, spoke to his great level of familiarity and involvement with the Academy. “He’s been a student, a parent, a faculty member, a trustee. That’s quite a combination. Clearly somebody like that would know the school very well,” Herney said. “Very few people, I would guess, know the Academy from as many different perspectives as Mr. Rawson.”

Herney elaborated on Rawson’s leadership qualities, describing him as both a good thinker and listener. “I know him to be a person who has very good judgment, who reaches those judgments by listening carefully. He understands the collaborative nature of decision making,” Herney said.

Downer remarked that the candidate pool represents a great variety of experience and accomplishments. “All three have traveled very different paths within the education sector so that they form a slate with three very good, and very different, alternatives,” he said.

Golay stated that the candidates chosen have less familiarity with the Academy’s administrative duties than he had initially anticipated. “I was a little surprised by the three names. I expected to find people on the list who had a longer and deeper and more intimate connection with the school,” he said.

While the advisory committee will no longer be participating in the search process, all faculty members have been asked to provide feedback on candidate statements distributed through an online survey by Monday, May 7. Each statement addresses the candidate’s ideas on the Academy’s future of strategic planning, student safety and community building.

Some, including Golay, did voice a desire for more transparency, explaining that the statements do not paint a sufficient portrait of the candidates. “I don’t feel I have a good sense of how they view the problems and issues that they’ll have to deal with now when they come on on July 1,” Golay said.

The final decision will be announced next month based on faculty input and insight gained through interviews with the candidates.