• Springhurst Elementary Principal Search Status Updates

    July 11, 2023

    The Dobbs Ferry School District is pleased to announce it has selected Dr. Tashia Brown as its new Springhurst Elementary School Principal. Dr. Brown was appointed by the Board of Education at the July 11, 2023 meeting, and she will take over the reins at Springhurst starting July 12, 2023.

    “I could tell by the rigor of the selection process that the district takes the position of elementary school principal very seriously. It is a privilege to have been selected to serve in a district where the values and sense of purpose are so closely aligned with my own. I am excited to begin building on the foundation of all of the good work that has preceded me and working collaboratively with faculty, staff, parents, and the community at large to plan the next steps forward,” said Dr. Brown.

    The search process for the principal position began with an initial review of 155 applications. That pool was narrowed down to three candidates who were interviewed by five separate committees which included students, parents, community members, teachers, teaching assistants, building secretaries, administrators, and the Board of Education. Subsequently, Dr. Brown emerged as the top finalist and was asked to complete two performance presentations to a faculty and staff committee and to the Board of Education. Throughout the process, Dr. Brown demonstrated that she not only met, but exceeded the essential elements of the Principal Profile that was created by a building level team and reviewed by parents and the executive administrative team.

    Dr. Brown previously served as an Elementary Assistant Principal in the Ellenville School District, as Elementary Assistant Principal and Elementary Principal in the White Plains School District and most recently as Elementary Principal in the Scarsdale School District. Her teaching experience includes seven years as an early elementary school teacher.

    She earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from the University of Vermont; Certification for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) from the State University of New York at New Paltz; a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from New York University; a Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Columbia University; and a Doctoral Degree in Educational Leadership, Administration, and Policy from Fordham University.

    “We are thrilled to share the news with you about the appointment of Dr. Brown to serve as our next Springhurst Elementary School Principal. The quality of her experience, the strength of her references, and her performance throughout each step of the search process gave us great confidence in submitting our recommendation to the Board of Education. We are grateful to all our students, faculty, staff, parents, community members, and administrators who participated in the process,” said Superintendent Ken Slentz.

    July 7, 2023

    At the July 11, 2023 meeting of the Board of Education, administration will recommend the appointment of Dr. Tashia Brown to serve as the next principal of Springhurst Elementary School! Dr. Brown's consistent performance throughout the search process and the strength of her references proved that she met, and in most cases exceeded, the criteria set forth in the Principal Profile. With seventeen years of  experience in elementary school administration, we have every confidence Dr. Brown will serve the children, faculty, staff, and families of Springhurst exceedingly well.

    This page will be updated again after the July 11 Board meeting. 

    June 28, 2023

    As we prepared for our Round 2 interviews that took place on Monday, June 26, one of our two candidates informed us that they were withdrawing from the search. As a result, we moved forward with our one remaining candidate for whom we had received very positive feedback from the screening and Round 1 interviews. Based on the candidate's presentation, subsequent feedback from committee members and administrators present, and the information that has been gathered throughout the process thus far, we invited the candidate back for the final performance task step in the process, which is a presentation to and an interview with the Board of Education. This will take place this Thursday, June 29 at 11:30 a.m. Once this step is complete, we will then review all of the information collected from the process including references and with the assistance of the Profile Committee and Executive Administrative Committee, will make a determination as to whether we will make a recommendation to the Board of Education for an appointment at the July 11 meeting. More to come after this portion of the process is complete. 

    June 23, 2023

    On Wednesday, June 21, three semi-finalist candidates for the principal position were interviewed by our student, faculty and staff, administrative, and parent committees. After discussing each of the candidates and tabulating the results, two candidates have been invited to participate in a second round interview which will consist of a performance task to be presented to the faculty and staff committee. As noted on the revised timeline, this will take place on Monday, June 26. Based on feedback received from Round 2, we will determine which candidates will be invited back to interview with the Board of Education. This interview will take place on Thursday, June 29. Based on the feedback from the Board, a review of all of the feedback gathered from previous rounds of interviews, and information gathered from our reference checks, the Profile and Executive Administrative committees will meet to discuss a potential recommendation of a candidate for appointment by the Board of Education at the July 11 meeting. More to come next week after Round 2 interviews. 

    June 13, 2023

    The screening interviews have been completed and the administrative team identified three individuals whom we believe are strong candidates for the position. These candidates will be sent to the four committees for a round one interview, which will be organized by the respective Committee Stewards. As described in the document on the left side of this page, each Steward is a member of the administrative team that, in addition to the Profile Committee, has assisted in guiding the process thus far. The Profile Committee met again this morning to discuss the candidates, the timeline and whether we could shorten the process for an earlier appointment of the successful candidate, and whether we would update the Principal Profile based on parent feedback on the survey, or if we would use that feedback in formulating questions for the candidates. More to come next week after Round 1interviews. 

    June 9, 2023

    The posting for the position has now closed and we received 155 applications. The administrative team reviewed the applications and selected twenty-two for application review. From this group, fourteen candidates - all current principals in other districts - were selected for screening interviews. These interviews will be held during the week of June 12 and will focus on how each candidate meets the criteria established in the Principal Profile. From the fourteen, our intention is to narrow the group to 5+/- candidates for committee interviews. The Profile Committee will be meeting on Wednesday, June 13 to review the timeline, review the selected candidates for interviews, and draft key questions that each committee should ask. Check back later in the week for more information!

    June 1, 2023

    We are continuing to monitor the applications for this position and have begun the initial review of the 137 applications that we have received. Thus far, we are encouraged by what we are seeing! Next week the administrative steering committee will fully review the folders of those candidates determined to be qualified and we will end the week with calls for screening interviews that will take place during the week of June 12. Also, as Dr. Drake transitions out of the District, Dr. Darrell Stinchcomb, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction, and Equity, will serve as Interim Principal from the summer months. Dr. Stinchcomb served as Elementary Principal in Eastchester and in White Plains prior to his arrival at Dobbs Ferry and is well-versed in the work that is required. Finally, we anticipate updating our timeline next week as we have been able to shorten certain phases of the process. Once this is completed, we will post the revised timeline and update you all via this page.   

    May 25, 2023

    Today we sent out the following note to families:

    Dear Springhurst Families: As many of you may have seen from the Search Status Updates and the Projected Timeline on our website, we continue to make progress on our Springhurst Principal Search process. The Principal Profile has been developed and reviewed with the Springhurst faculty and staff. We are now seeking your feedback. Please review the Profile on our website and then respond via the Google Survey by Wednesday, May 31, 2023 by 5:00 p.m. This survey is anonymous, however, as a security feature we will ask you to provide an email address to gain access to the survey. To translate the survey into languages other than English, please take the following steps:

    1. Click on the link for the form.
    2. Right-click anywhere on the form and several options will appear. 
    3. Click "Translate" or "Translate to". Another box will appear in the upper right corner. 
    4. If the language you want to translate to is not listed, click on the three vertical dots and select "Choose another language". 
    5. Click on the dropdown menu, choose the desired language and click on the "translate" button. 
    6. Proceed to fill out the form.
     
    Once results are collected, we will then determine if we need to make any changes to the Profile before moving on to next steps. Any revisions will be posted to the webpage noted above. Thanks very much for your assistance with this important work!
     
    Regarding the K-5 schedule for next year, we continue to make progress on refining our model in response to feedback. We will keep you updated on our progress. 
     
    Thanks very much. 
     
    Ken 
     

    *************************************************************************************************************

    Buenas tardes,

    Encuentre el correo electrónico adjunto del superintendente Ken Slentz:
     
    Estimadas familias de Springhurst: Como muchos de ustedes pueden haber visto en las Actualizaciones del estado de la búsqueda y el Cronograma proyectado en nuestro sitio web, continuamos progresando en nuestro proceso de Búsqueda del director de Springhurst. El Perfil del Director ha sido desarrollado y revisado con la facultad y el personal de Springhurst. Ahora estamos buscando sus comentarios. Revise el perfil en nuestro sitio web y luego responda a través de Google Survey antes del miércoles 31 de mayo de 2023 a las 5:00 p.m. Esta encuesta es anónima; sin embargo, como medida de seguridad, le pediremos que proporcione una dirección de correo electrónico para acceder a la encuesta. Para traducir la encuesta a otros idiomas además del inglés, siga los siguientes pasos:

           1. Haga clic en el enlace para el formulario.
           2. Haga clic derecho en cualquier parte del formulario y aparecerán varias opciones.
           3. Haz clic en "Traducir" o "Traducir a". Aparecerá otro cuadro en la esquina superior derecha.
           4. Si el idioma al que desea traducir no aparece en la lista, haga clic en los tres puntos verticales y seleccione "Elegir otro idioma".
           5. Haga clic en el menú desplegable, elija el idioma deseado y haga clic en el botón "traducir".
           6. Proceda a llenar el formulario.

    Una vez que se recopilan los resultados, determinaremos si necesitamos realizar algún cambio en el perfil antes de continuar con los siguientes pasos. Cualquier revisión se publicará en la página web mencionada anteriormente. ¡Muchas gracias por su ayuda con este importante trabajo!

    Con respecto al calendario K-5 para el próximo año, continuamos avanzando en el perfeccionamiento de nuestro modelo en respuesta a los comentarios. Te mantendremos informado sobre nuestro progreso.

    Muchas gracias.

    Ken

    May 23, 2023

    This week we anticipate sending out a parent survey regarding the Principal Profile - the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that we are seeking in our next building leader - and to see if there are any key points that we may have missed. We also are finalizing our parent/community interview committee with volunteers and individuals whom we have reached out to so as to ensure that we have a broad representation on the committee. We have confirmed with a number of you already and are grateful for your willingness to assist us in this work. The Profile Committee continues to review the timeline to look for options where we might gain some days in an effort to allow the successful candidate to start sooner than September 1. We will post a revised timeline shortly. 

    May 17, 2023

    The Principal Profile Committee is presenting the DRAFT Profile to the Springhurst Faculty and staff this afternoon and will request feedback in line with the dates on the Projected Timeline. Administration continues to review the many applications received thus far (110 as of this writing) and is reviewing the timeline to see if we can shorten the duration in certain areas so as to allow the successful candidate to start sooner than September 1. Parents who have volunteered to be on the parent interview committee will be contacted next week. 

    May 12, 2023

    We are continuing to make progress in the areas noted on our search timeline with our Principal Profile Committee meeting in the early hours of the day to develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions that we expect of our next building leader. We will share that document with you for feedback as noted on the timeline. Our next step will then be to assemble interview committees, one of which will be made up of parents and community members. If you are interested in serving on this committee, please review the timeline to see what the time commitment is, and then let me know at slentzk@dfsd.org if you are interested in serving in this capacity. 

    May 5, 2023

    A methodical search process has begun for Springhurst Elementary School’s next Principal. We have already received a lot of interest from staff and parents willing to serve on the various committees. The Principal Profile Committee which is comprised of faculty and staff will play a very important role in determining what attributes we are looking for in potential candidates, and setting expectations. Shorty, we will be asking parents for your feedback on the Principal Profile, as well as your interest in serving on the interview committee. A tentative search timeline and other related information can be found on the new Springhurst Principal Search Webpage. Please check back regularly for updates.