In Novem­ber 2020, Heidi Johnson announced her inten­tion to retire as head of The Waverly School at the end of the 2020 – 2021 school year. Heidi has been our long-serving Head of School, and we are tremen­dously grate­ful for all that she has accom­plished during her 25 years of service to Waverly. A national search is now under­way to find Waverly’s next Head of School. Consis­tent with NAIS best prac­tices, the Board of Trustees has assem­bled a Head of School Search Commit­tee and retained Carney, Sandoe & Asso­ciates, a highly regarded inter­na­tional search firm, to work with the Search Commit­tee. This page will be updated as the Head of School search progresses.

We welcome your sugges­tions and ques­tions. For all inquiries regard­ing the Head of School search please contact us at headofschoolsearch@​thewaverlyschool.​org. In addi­tion, please take a look at these Frequently Asked Ques­tions concern­ing the search process.

Infor­ma­tion about the Head of School Search for candi­dates from our search firm Carney, Sandoe & Asso­ciates: Head of School Posi­tion Profile (PDF).

April 14, 2021

Dear Waverly community,

We are writing on behalf of the Search Commit­tee to share the Perma­nent Head of School posi­tion profile with you. Like our Interim Head of School posi­tion profile, this docu­ment serves as a tool in the recruit­ment process, offer­ing poten­tial candi­dates a glimpse into our school commu­nity and culture.

Over the next few months, we will not have substan­tive news to announce as our consul­tants, Jennifer and Bob, work to recruit, inter­view, and vet the strongest candi­dates for the perma­nent Head of School posi­tion. We expect that they will present the Search Commit­tee with candi­dates for the perma­nent posi­tion in mid-July from which we will select a group of semi-final­ist inter­views in August. Please remem­ber that the Search Committee’s work, inter­views, and inter­ac­tions with poten­tial candi­dates is done on a confi­den­tial basis to protect the candi­dates until the final­ist stage for the permanent position.

The Search Commit­tee, in consul­ta­tion with Bob and Jennifer, will then select the final­ists who will meet with our commu­nity in Septem­ber. Unlike the search process for the Interim Head, we hope that our final­ist meet­ings will be in-person.

After vetting all the feed­back, the Search Commit­tee will make recom­men­da­tions to the Board of Trustees. We would hope to be in a posi­tion to announce the next perma­nent Head of School by October. The time­line outlined above is also summa­rized here on the school’s Head of School search webpage.

As always, if you have any ques­tions or comments for the Search Commit­tee, we invite you to reach out via email at headofschoolsearch@​thewaverlyschool.​org. Thank you all for the input and partic­i­pa­tion to date.

Warmly,

Nadine Tanio and Serita Young
Head of School Search Committee Co-Chairs

• Maria Brown (Parent of Aaliyah ​’26 & Natalie ​’24/​Elementary School Teacher)
• Leo Glazé (Middle School Teacher/​MS Basketball Coach)
• Jason Gottlieb (Parent of Sam ​’20, Patrick ​’16, & Eamonn ​’15/​Assistant Head of School at Elementary School)
• Greg Harri­son (Parent of Eiji ​’23 & Kazuo ​’21/​High School Teacher)
• Debbie Lennon (Parent of Megan ​’11/​Trustee)
• Wendy Lopata (Parent of Murray ​’25 & Nolan ​’22/​Trustee)
• Noah Mayer (Parent of Lucy ​’28, Charlie ​’30, & Frankie ​’33/​Board of Trustees Chair): Non-Voting, Ex-Officio
• Vijay Natraj (Parent of Siddarth ​’33 & Avan­tika ​’31/​Trustee)
• Jeanny Tafoya (Preschool Direc­tor & Teacher)
• Nadine Tanio (Parent of Isaac ​’21/​Trustee): Search Committee Co-Chair
• Joanne Toll (Parent of Jamie ​’22/​Trustee)
• Serita Young (Parent of Aaron ​’29 & Riley ​’28/​Board of Trustees Vice Chair): Search Committee Co-Chair

April 12, 2021

Dear Waverly family and friends,

We are pleased to announce to you today that on the unan­i­mous recom­men­da­tion of our Search Commit­tee, the Board of Trustees has selected John Huber as our Interim Head of School for the 2021 – 22 school year. John will begin his tenure on July 1, 2020.

John brings over 15 years’ expe­ri­ence as a Head of School at progres­sive insti­tu­tions and over 25 years of expe­ri­ence as an educa­tor in inde­pen­dent schools. John has over­seen all aspects of inde­pen­dent school oper­a­tions, includ­ing the devel­op­ment of acad­e­mic and co-curric­u­lar programs and hiring and eval­u­at­ing staff. John is a leader on diver­sity, equity, inclu­sion, and justice (“DEIJ”) and is fully commit­ted to our ongoing efforts to expand and inte­grate DEIJ across all of our poli­cies and prac­tices. Over 94% of our commu­nity who met John during his meet­ings across all stake­hold­ers also agreed that John would fit right in to Waverly’s school culture. His exten­sive admin­is­tra­tive expe­ri­ence and lead­er­ship skills make John the right person to lead Waverly during our tran­si­tional year as we continue to search for our next long-term Head of School. 

We extend our deep grat­i­tude to our entire commu­nity for your thought­ful input through­out this process. We are espe­cially grate­ful to our fellow Search Commit­tee members. Their dedi­ca­tion and count­less hours in accom­plish­ing this appoint­ment in a condensed time period is extraordinary.

As you know the Search Committee’s work is ongoing as we now turn our full atten­tion to our perma­nent Head of School search. Our work will enter a ​“quiet phase” as we begin confi­den­tially review­ing and inter­view­ing candi­dates for the perma­nent posi­tion. We will endeavor to adhere to our Search Time­line through­out, and you may always refer to our FAQ or write to us at headofschoolsearch@​thewaverlyschool.​org with any questions. 

In accept­ing his new posi­tion John has asked us to share the attached letter with our commu­nity. We are fully confi­dent that John will be able to rely on our entire commu­nity, includ­ing our faculty, admin­is­tra­tors, staff, and parents to facil­i­tate a smooth tran­si­tion and to help him, our students, teach­ers, staff, and commu­nity succeed in the coming year. 

Please join us in welcom­ing John to The Waverly School!

Sincerely,

Noah Mayer
Chair, Board of Trustees

Nadine Tanio and Serita Young
Co-Chairs, Search Committee

Please click on the links below for commu­ni­ca­tions to the Waverly commu­nity that share infor­ma­tion about where we currently are in the search process as well as what is ahead.

April 14, 2021 — Perma­nent Head of School Search Update (PDF) & Head of School Posi­tion Profile (PDF)

April 12, 2021 — Interim Head of School Appoint­ment Announce­ment (PDF) & Letter from Incom­ing Interim Head of School (PDF)

March 10, 2021 — Interim Head of School Search Update (PDF)

Febru­ary 11, 2021 — Search Update (PDF) & Interim Posi­tion Profile (PDF)

January 26, 2021 — Search Update (PDF) & Attach­ment (PDF)

Decem­ber 21, 2020 — Search Process Announce­ment (PDF)

Decem­ber 17, 2020 — Search Commit­tee Announce­ment (PDF)

Novem­ber 18, 2020 — Board Chair Update and Announce­ment of Engage­ment of Carney, Sandoe & Asso­ciates (PDF)

Novem­ber 18, 2020 — Retire­ment Announce­ment (PDF)

Down­load a PDF of the search process time­line here.