SSIS eNews

Head of School Search Committee Update — Interim Head Appointment of Ms. Ellen Stern, and 2013 Search

To the SSIS School Community:

Interim Head Appointment of Ms. Ellen D. Stern:

I hope all of you had a wonderful winter break, and enjoyed the time with family and friends.

The Board is pleased to announce that Ms. Ellen D. Stern has been appointed as the Interim Head for the 2012-2013 school year. A thorough search process started in December of 2011 through the winter holidays, and culminated in a visit to SSIS by Ms. Stern. The Search Committee recommended, and the Board unanimously decided, to extend an offer for the position of Interim Head of School for the 2012-2013 school year to Ms. Stern. We are excited to announce that Ms. Stern accepted our offer yesterday.

Ms. Stern has the highest recommendations from our consultant Mr. John Ritter at Search Associates, as well as those who have known and worked with her; Ms. Stern impressed the Search Committee on her recent visit to SSIS. Ms. Stern's depth and breadth of experience as both a Head of School and an Interim Head of School will ensure the wonderful progress and work that is underway at SSIS will continue to move forward during the next year.

Ms. Stern has 40 years of leadership in international and US independent schools, and has been a successful Interim Head for the past eight years. She has served as Interim Head at Cairo American College, the International School of Krakow, the American International School in Vienna, the American School of the Hague, and others. Prior to that, Ms. Stern was Head of School at the Anglo-American School of Moscow, Ecole Mondiale World School in India, and Springside School in Pennsylvania. Her impressive background includes serving on the Accreditation Committees for six U.S./International schools, serving on the Board of the Council of International Schools and the Central and Eastern European Schools Association.

To explain the process the Search Committee together with our consultants Search Associates have undertaken to appoint Ms. Stern:

• The normal process for an Interim Head Search is an abbreviated process for a long-term head search. The reason for an abbreviated process is because the interim candidate pool is a much smaller pool, and candidates in this pool are all well-qualified and experienced interim heads or former heads with proven track record.
• After an initial vetting process by Search Associates, a shortlist of candidates was presented to the Search Committee.
• The Search Committee then had Skype calls with the shortlist candidates to determine the leading candidate, and checked references.
• Ms. Stern was invited to visit SSIS to meet with the Search Committee, and various administration team members, which visit which resulted in her appointment as Interim Head of School for 2012-2013.

On behalf of the Board, I extend a heartfelt thank you to the dedicated members of the Search Committee for all of their hard work and the late nights required to finalize the appointment of our Interim Head.

2013 Head of School Search:

Appointment of Search Consultant:
After careful consideration, the Board is pleased to announce that Mr. John Magagna (Lead Consultant) and Mr. John Ritter (Supporting Consultant) of Search Associates have been appointed to assist SSIS in the recruitment and selection of our next Head of School for the school year starting 2013. Mr. Magagna and Mr. Ritter are amongst the most well qualified search consultants in the industry. Mr. Magagna is the Founder and Director at Search Associates, and specializes in Head of School searches for American/International schools, with over 280 successful Head searches completed, and over 17,000 teachers and administrators placed since 1990. Previously, Mr. Magagna was the Headmaster at Jakarta International School, Rutgers Preparatory School, and several others. Mr. Ritter has worked closely with SSIS in its previous searches to bring in Mr. Charles Barton and Ms. Ellen Stern, as well as facilitating several years of SSIS' strategic planning meetings. Mr. Ritter has extensive experience in Head of School and senior administrative position searches in the region and the world. We are fortunate to work with this excellent team.

Expected Timeline and Process:
The following timeline, developed in conjunction with Mr. Magagna and Mr. Ritter, provides an indication of the schedule we expect our search process to follow:

• Beginning in January: Consultants to contact and recruit highly capable potential candidates from international and independent school sectors.
• Mid-January onwards: Consultant receives applications, checks references and evaluates candidates. Any recommended early short-listed candidates will be forwarded to Search Committee for consideration and evaluation, Skype interviews, and reference checks. The Search Committee may elect to bring one or more outstanding candidates to SSIS for early finalist interviews.
• February 29: Closing date for applications.
• Early March: Consultant forwards final recommended short listed candidates to Search Committee, and Search Committee interviews remaining short-listed candidates by Skype.
• Mid-March: Finalists visit to SSIS for interviews with Search Committee. Candidates will also meet with groups of parents, staff and students, and become familiar with SSIS and its setting.
• End-March: Based on input from all parts of SSIS' community, and recommendations of the Search Committee, the Head of School selection by the Board will be finalized and announced.

As the competition for the best Heads of Schools is intense, and often Head candidates are aggressively courted by several schools, in the event an outstanding candidate is identified early in the search process, the Search Committee, together with the Board, may elect to act quickly and invite the candidate out for a visit to SSIS, and if the visit is successful, to make an appointment before the deadline of end-March.

We look forward to keeping you well informed and involved as we go through the various stages of our search.

If you have questions, please direct them to the Search Committee through contacting Ms. Le Thi Minh Hien, administrative assistant to the Head Search Committee. Ms. Hien's contact details are as follows: Email : This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Tel: 08-5413-0901, Ext. 31070

Coming up on the Tet Holidays, wishing all of you good health, happiness and prosperity in the coming new year of the Dragon!

Sincerely,
The Board of Directors