LFA Head of School Finalist Visits

Dear Members of the Lake Forest Academy Family,

Over the past several days, the search team conducted personal interviews with each of the Head of School semifinalists. Please join me in thanking the search team for their time and effort in this long, complex and critically important process.

After careful consideration and discussion, the team has designated three candidates as finalists who will visit our community on campus. On Sunday, May 6, the first candidate will arrive for an evening reception followed by dinner. The next day – May 7 – will be dedicated to touring the campus and meetings with faculty, staff, parents, alumni and board members. Two of those meetings – one for faculty and staff, and the other for parents and alumni – will take place in The Cressey Center for the Arts and will be livestreamed to our community (and recorded) via YouTube so that anyone unable to attend in person may still observe the candidate. Each of the remaining two candidates will follow the same scheduling template on May 8-9 and May 9-10, respectively.

I know we are in agreement as a community there is no more important strategic initiative affecting the future of our school than this process of appointing a successor to John Strudwick. These next few weeks will afford many of us the opportunity to participate in welcoming these candidates to our community and acquainting them with our culture. You may also be asked to provide feedback concerning your assessment of one or more candidates' performances as they move though their visits.

Let me ask all of you the following. First, let us look to the future and this transition with optimism and confidence that it affords us the opportunity to achieve even more and better success than we have enjoyed these past 17 years. Second, let us trust that the search team and the board will do their absolute best to recommend and appoint a leader who will help make that objective come true. Third, let our mission speak for the values and the identity we know that we have and live – character, scholarship, citizenship, responsibility. And finally, let us diligently seek a head of school who is worthy of the challenge and the opportunity that our school community offers.

We hope that the search team will make its recommendation in mid-May and that the Board will convene to consider it before the end of May. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out any time.

With best regards.

Very truly yours,