Dear SOAR Family and Community Members,

I am writing to share with you that our principal, Kate, has decided to retire at the end of this school year. Kate has been in the field of education for 30 years and is now stepping away to focus on her health and wellbeing.   

We on the Board of Directors at SOAR are grateful for all that Kate has done to lead the school through COVID and get us back on the path to excellence and high achievement for all our students.  These last four years have been the most challenging ever experienced in public education and, as we know, some of the effects are still lingering.  

Kate has helped SOAR navigate these challenges and begin to thrive again.  Students are making strong academic progress, the vast majority of our talented and diverse staff want to return next year along with the majority of our students and families, and the State Legislature is intending to increase school funding.  We have weathered the storm and are on the threshold of a bright future.  We are in a strong position to find an outstanding new school Principal.

As you may know, hiring and supervising the school leader is the most important responsibility of a charter school’s Board of Directors.  From the moment Kate shared the news with us, we have been working to put in place a process that will help us find that outstanding new Principal for SOAR.  

We will be using the expertise of Elevate Momentum (EM), an organizational development and recruitment firm to support the hiring process.  We have worked with EM since 2018 and we know each other well.   They have extensive experience in running best practice searches and we look forward to this partnership. 

Sarah Glover, who began her career in education as a DPS teacher and instructional coach, and served on the SOAR Board for seven years, including as Chair of the Board, will be our direct contact at EM.  She will be collaborating with the current Board to ensure an effective, inclusive and rapid process.  The final decision will be made by the Board with input from all our stakeholders.

We will be posting the job on March 20th and plan to select the new Principal before the end of the school year.  The deadline for applications is April 15th and we will begin interacting with candidates as quickly as we can after that.  

There will be multiple opportunities for input from staff, families and other community members starting with a formal survey.  On March 22 staff and families will receive an email with a link to that survey which will help us prioritize the qualities that are most important to the community as we select candidates. Insights from the survey will be used to refine interview questions and will inform the design of the in-person event in May. The survey will be open until Friday, April 5th.

More details about other opportunities for participation in the process will be provided via email as we get closer to the actual work of the selection process. 

At each of these points your input will be collected to inform the Board’s decision on who will be our new Principal.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to us at SOAR.Board.of.Directors@gmail.com

On behalf of the Board, I wish you a restorative weekend.

Sincerely,

Rona Wilensky

Board President