Head of School Search

March 3, 2023

Dear Thacher Community,

 

On behalf of the entire Search Committee, we extend our sincere appreciation to the more than 450 of you who shared your perspectives with us and Spencer Stuart via our online community survey and in-person meetings with students, faculty, and staff. These efforts were designed to provide the entire community with an opportunity to share thoughts regarding Thacher and the attributes you hope to see in our next Head of School. It also provided a chance for individuals to highlight opportunities and challenges they see for the next leader.

 

The comments and feedback we received were instrumental to the development of our Opportunity Statement—a detailed overview of the responsibilities, experience, capabilities, and characteristics we seek in our next Head of School. We are pleased to share that document here and it has also been posted on the Thacher Head of School Search webpage.

 

With the Opportunity Statement complete, the Search Committee and the Spencer Stuart team are moving ahead with identifying candidates. We look forward to sharing more information as the process develops. We expect to announce our next Head of School, who we anticipate will begin in July of 2024, by the fall of 2023.

 

On behalf of the Board, we are pleased to announce that Jeff Hooper has agreed to continue serving as Interim Head of School through the 2023-2024 school year. We are tremendously grateful to Jeff for his thoughtful, steady leadership and unwavering commitment to the School and its students, both over the last year and throughout his more than 20-year tenure as a teacher, administrator, and coach, a role he will continue this fall on the football field. Our deep gratitude also extends to Jeff’s wife Kara who, in addition to overseeing all events at the Head’s home—including the cherished community tradition of Open House—is the founder of O-Higher Ed, an organization that helps students of the Ojai Valley access higher education. Kara also serves as the Librarian at the Monica Ros School and contributes significant time to supporting and coordinating student support of a number of community organizations throughout the Ojai Valley. This is an especially exciting year for the Hooper family, including sons Hayden ’23 and Hiram ’25, as they will celebrate Hayden’s graduation from Thacher in a few short months.

 

We look forward to your continued engagement throughout this process and will update you again when there is more to share. As a reminder, information on our full committee and consultants is posted on the Head of School search webpage, and you can share your thoughts with us anytime via email at thacherHOS@spencerstuart.com.

 

Warmly,