When the head steps aside

Ah, December — ’tis the season for pine needles, mulled cider, giddy students, end-of-year fundraising appeals … and news of leadership changes.

Expect roughly 1 in 7 U.S. independent schools to introduce a new head this academic year, with planned departures commonly announced between November and February. The pace of turnover, which has been consistent for a decade, suggests that, sooner or later, this trend will reach your school, too.

How the school community receives news of a head’s departure depends, in large part, on how it is communicated.

Yet, to avoid leaks, the communications director may be allowed only a little time to draft materials, to get them approved by all the stakeholders, and to load them into the proper systems.

The good news is, leadership transition is a crisis scenario that can be anticipated. After all, everyone will step aside from their job at some point.

The key to success, as with much else about good communications, is planning ahead and starting early.

Get some face time

The first step to take has nothing to do with a keyboard or printouts. Rather, the communications director should work to form direct, personal connections with both the head and the board chair.

The more comfortable they become with you, the more they see you as a key contributor to school success, the more trust you can develop: All of these will pay off in stronger messaging at a critical moment.

Get to know these leaders — and allow them to know you — at least a little bit. (The connection doesn’t have to be deep.) Holiday parties, for example, are a great opportunity to chat, learn about one another, and begin to build rapport. From there, develop the relationship as often as you can.

Find your way

If your school will be changing heads for a second time in recent years, an announcement model should already be in your department records. Revisit it.

For most communicators, though, this project will be new. It’s a big moment in a school’s history, but discerning a path forward can be hard.

The director can begin by defining the desired outcome. Develop a short list of goals that establish what the work should deliver, such as:

Sustain confidence and trust: Change is scary and can lead people to second-guess what they thought they knew. Parents and faculty/staff alike will move very quickly from the news to what they think it means and wondering, Why is the head leaving, and why now? The announcement can reassure that, while leadership is changing, the school, its mission, and its value to students remain unchanged.
Build community buy-in: Parents, faculty/staff, and donors must be assured that the best candidates possible will apply for this job. People may want to play some part in the succession process. Make use of that desire — say, through inviting them to join a focus group. Such participation feeds positive word-of-mouth.
Look to the future: Honoring the outgoing head’s tenure and achievements is appropriate, but don’t linger too long. This is not a eulogy. Rather, the message should focus on where the school goes next.
Maintain control of the message: Communicators know that rumors will fill a vacuum. Board members may not, and their instinct may be to say as little as possible after the initial announcement. Regular updates on the search, however, will earn more community trust than silence can.

Craft the work product

Once your goals are set, it’s time to collect and create materials:

Letters from the head and board chair: Whether you are ghost-writing, fine-tuning, or just creating PDFs, these documents are customary in the announcement rollout.
A new mailing list: The announcement should be emailed to everyone in the school. But it also should reach people not on existing lists — for example, former board members during the head’s tenure, professional connections, and school neighbors. U.S. Mail may be necessary for the news to reach some recipients.
A web page dedicated to the head search: This will give people a dedicated place online to look for developments over the spring. Think about how prominent it should be in your web hierarchy. By the end of the search, this page will have lots of information, but at first, it will likely be only bare bones.
Talking points: This may take the form of informal guidance for trustees and/or senior administrators. Or it may become a polished FAQ that folds into the search page. Either way, the aim is to set and amplify the narrative around this moment of transition.
A current headshot and biography of the head: You probably have versions of these, whether for student recruitment or professional situations. But are they up-to-date?
Information about the school’s previous transitions: Knowing what has been done before can prepare you to answer questions from the board chair and/or search committee.
A news release: This will depend on your particular news market, but leadership change atop a school is notable and worth introducing to the larger community. Here, too, is a chance to create the initial narrative about the departure.

Through this work, protect the confidence you’ve been given: To the extent possible, the communications director should plan on doing each of these jobs personally. No one wants news of the departure to leak ahead of time.

Check out the Joneses

In building the search web page, it can help to look at other schools facing a handover. You may see elements for your own communications or a design choice you hadn’t thought about.

We’re early in announcement season, but here are a few schools who’ve publicly announced or just completed a head search:

When you see ideas you like, take screenshots and download PDFs for reference. Don’t bother with bookmarks, since schools tend to take down search pages as quickly as possible.

Line up some backup

This rundown barely scratches the surface of what is a lengthy and complex communications project.

Announcing a head’s departure starts the clock on what, in the best case, will run six to seven months before a successor is introduced. And the calendar of leadership transition events can ultimately last 18 to 24 months.

Keeping track of the many moving pieces for all that time will dominate a communications director’s priority list. The work will consume other communicators’ attention, too.

Fine Point Communications can help. Our veteran team is experienced with handovers. This prepares us to advise the director and other on-campus personnel on what to expect, and we are prepared to produce superior transition messaging. Bringing us in can also free up employees to keep their focus on daily communications demands.

Reach out to start a conversation about transition communications, whether your school is about to announce a change or you just want to learn more on the subject.

What’s new at Fine Point Communications

As 2024 concludes, we are celebrating some achievements:

A record number of schools (14) engaged us this year for help, boosting our overall client list to 20 schools.
We presented our first webinar and took part in our first podcast.
We gave presentations at three independent school conferences (AMCSUS, ICGS and NAES).
We sponsored four such conferences (CASE-NAIS, The Heads Network, ICGS and NAES) alongside some of the biggest names in our industry.
We returned to independent operations in April, then observed our fourth anniversary in November.

As you can see, 2024 has been our best year yet, and we are excited to build on this momentum in 2025!

The success is due, of course, to Fine Point’s clients, friends, professional connections and other supporters. Their trust in us is both humbling and inspiring.

Refill subscribers are part of this circle, too. We are very grateful for your loyal readership.

If these newsletters help you each month, tell your colleagues! We would love to expand our audience in the coming year.