In the independent school world, the level of scrutiny increases as you move from teacher to senior level administrator and finally peaks when you aspire to be a head of school. As a teacher, parents of students in your classes, advisory and homeroom will be interested in who you are, but as a division head that group will expand to anyone who has a child in a grade within your particular division. When you enter a head of school search, the interested parties will include every parent in the school as well as faculty, trustees, and even alumni or former parents.
You need to be prepared for this high level of scrutiny along with a thorough background check including criminal, financial, and degree verification (Note: even a traffic ticket may show up on a background check!). Furthermore, we at Educational Directions always ask head of school finalist candidates for 12 references that the Search Committee can call, but keep in mind that people in the school community will reach out to anyone they may know in your current school and even in your former schools.
A social media presence can be an incredibly positive aspect and extremely helpful to your application. However, depending on nuance and connotation, a social media post can also be construed as negative and derail your candidacy. Something that is funny to one person or group may be offensive to another. People are sensitive about racial comments and even the most innocent joke or remark can backfire. Likewise, we recommend that candidates avoid political statements or preferences since there will be Republicans, Democrats and Independents within your school community.
As you prepare to enter a head of school search we suggest that you Google yourself and see what comes up. In most cases you will find nothing negative but on the other hand you may discover something damaging or even someone else who has the same name but a sketchy background to go with it.
Listed below are some social media sites you will want to scrub clean, and if you are not sure about a post or photo then have some other people check it out.
- Snapchat
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Tinder
- Bumble
