Head of School Search

• Announcement from Head of School Corinne Güngör of her departure at the end of the 2025-26 academic year.
• Letter from Board of Trustees Chair Yeganeh (Yegi) Hayeri (September 24)
• Initial meetings with faculty and staff, and parents.

• Letter from Board Chair Yegi Hayeri and Search Committee Chair Irene Mortensen (October 1)
• Site visit from Educators Collaborative (October 7)
• Educators Collaborative meeting via Zoom with FASP parents (October 9)
• Community Survey (open until October 23)
• Leadership Profile available from Educators Collaborative (Applications due November 15, 2025)

• Applications due (November 15, 2025)
• Search committee begins reviewing candidate applications

With guidance from our consultants at Educators Collaborative, the Head of School Search Committee engaged with a global pool of educators throughout the fall, reviewed a strong set of dossiers, and completed semi-finalist interviews this month. Finalist visits will begin in January 2026.

Finalists engaged with the FASP community during visits on:

• Finalist 1: January 8 & 9 (Parent meeting, 8:30 am on January 9)
• Finalist 2: January 12 & 13  (Parent meeting, 8:30 am on January 13)

The Educators Collaborative (EC) consultants will gather community input starting in early fall to develop a Leadership Profile for the next Head of School. Educators Collaborative is an internationally-known search consulting firm, specializing in finding Heads and senior leaders for independent schools. Carole Everett and George Sanderson have been engaged to assist with the FASP search. This involves conversations with the Search Committee, Board of Trustees, faculty, parents, and alumni, as well as a community survey and document review. Simultaneously, EC will publicize the opportunity and begin candidate outreach.

The second, confidential phase takes place in late fall. EC consultants will recruit and conduct initial vetting of candidates through interviews and reference checks. Interested candidates must contact Carole and George before a soon-to-be-established deadline for proper consideration.

The final phase is scheduled for winter 2025/2026. The Search Committee will review candidates presented by EC, conduct confidential interviews, and select finalists. The committee will manage successful on-campus finalist visits, during which community members will meet candidates and provide feedback to the Search Committee via the consultants. This feedback is crucial for the final recommendation to the Board of Trustees.

The goal is to announce the new Head of School in spring 2026 with a start date of July 1, 2026.

The Search Committee oversees the entire search process and is charged with selecting a candidate for Head of School to recommend to the French American School of Princeton Board of Trustees, which bears the ultimate responsibility for appointing the Head of School. Members of the Committee will review candidate files, select and interview semifinalists and finalists, and make reference calls.

A sub-group of the Board of Trustees conducted broad research on international search firms. They reviewed proposals and conducted initial and follow-up interviews. Following reference checks, the group unanimously voted to select Educators Collaborative. The French American School of Princeton has conducted several successful searches with EC in the past.
 
Educators Collaborative is an internationally-known search consulting firm, specializing in finding Heads and senior leaders for independent schools. Carole Everett and George Sanderson have been engaged to assist with the search. Carole and George have both had many years of experience in independent school leadership, and collectively they have assisted numerous schools with Head and senior administrator searches. They are also familiar with the French American School of Princeton, bilingual and multicultural private schools, and the Princeton-area independent school environment.
 
Carole and George will provide guidance to the Search Committee on format, logistics, procedures, and best practices in the search process. In addition, they will recruit and interview candidates, check references, and support the Search Committee throughout the interview process. Educators Collaborative will also provide transition support to the new Head of School and the Board of Trustees after the new Head of School has been hired and throughout the new Head’s first year.
 

The search for the new Head of School for the French American School of Princeton is international in scope. Candidates from throughout the United States and abroad will be considered, and nominations are welcome. The consultants also devote considerable effort to recruiting candidates who might not be actively seeking a new position. Many candidates will not want it known at their current institutions that they are considering a change, and for this reason, we must maintain strict confidentiality about individual candidates right up until the finalist stage of the process.

All candidates, both internal and external, who are interested in the opportunity to be the next Head of School are encouraged to apply. To every extent possible, the Search Committee will attempt to create a level playing field, ensuring that the eventual nominee as Head-elect is assessed in the context of the entire field of candidates. In addition, the confidentiality of internal candidates is as important as that of candidates from outside the school.

Candidates will be assessed in light of the skills and characteristics identified by the community and described in the Leadership Profile in the Information for Candidates report. Those skills and characteristics will be drawn from the survey responses and listening sessions conducted by the Educators Collaborative consultants. With the assistance of the consultants, the Search Committee will go through a series of steps to acquaint themselves with the pool of candidates before narrowing that group down to a group of semi-finalists who will be confidentially interviewed, and then to a smaller group of finalists (likely three or four). The Search Committee’s evaluation of the finalist candidates will be informed by input from members of the community who will meet with the candidates during their on-campus visits.

The Board has charged the Search Committee with conducting a comprehensive, national and international search for a new Head of School. The Board of Trustees will refer all inquiries related to the search to the Chair of the Search Committee, Irene Mortensen, and Educators Collaborative. As the process draws to completion, the Board will review the recommendation of the Search Committee, formally resolve to offer the position to a candidate, bear responsibility for negotiating any terms of employment, and ultimately appoint the new Head of School. The Head of School is the only employee that is hired by and reports directly to the Board of Trustees, and, as a result, choosing a new Head of School is one of the Board’s most important responsibilities.

The Board of Trustees at French American School of Princeton is committed to making the search an inclusive process and is providing opportunities for community input at various times throughout the process. When the search consultants from Educators Collaborative, Carole Everett and George Sanderson, visit the campus in early October, they will conduct listening sessions to learn more about FASP’s strengths, the opportunities facing the school over the next several years, and the traits, skills, and experience desired in the next Head of School. Members of the community will be invited to participate in those sessions.

Following the visit, members of the school community will be invited to share their thoughts about the school and the search through a confidential online survey administered by Educators Collaborative.  Finally, as the search nears its conclusion in late winter, members of the school community will have an opportunity to meet the finalist candidates and provide feedback on their impressions of each.
 

No. Some components of the process must remain confidential for the candidates, as they are likely currently employed. Names will not be known publicly until the finalist stage when they are on campus.

Yes, fluency in French will be a requirement for the role.

Interested candidates should contact Carole Everett (ceverett@educatorscollaborative.com) and/or George Sanderson (gsanderson@educatorscollaborative.com) from Educators Collaborative directly. They will maintain confidentiality for all recommended candidates. We also invite members of the community to make referrals of appropriate candidates. You may directly contact Carol or George to share names and contact information of potential candidates, and they will reach out to them.

To reach out directly to the chair of our Search Committee as well as the Educators Collaborative representatives, please email headsearch@ecoleprinceton.org.