Alta Vista School Head of School , July 2019 www.altavista.school MISSION Alta Vista School prepares students to thrive as creative thinkers, innovators, and catalysts of positive change in the world.

The Position Founded in San Francisco in 2010 as an inquiry-based STEAM program, Alta Vista School graduated its first class last June. Alta Vista is in an exciting period of transition—from tenacious start-up to stable educational institution serving approximately 300 students across two campuses. Students in Junior Kindergarten through Grade 4 attend the School’s Portola neighborhood campus while Grades 5 through 8 make their home on the new Mission campus. True to its mission, Alta Vista School is deeply committed to preparing its students to thrive as creative thinkers, innovators, and catalysts for positive change in the world.

Alta Vista seeks a dynamic leader who will further develop and enhance this wonderful school following the retirement of Ed Walters, the School’s founding Head, in June. Ed envisioned a bold future for Alta Vista and the School now requires a leader who will guide an innovative faculty and a parent body who have selected this school because of its compelling vision.

The School Alta Vista School delivers on its promise of a dynamic STEAM+ curriculum, educating students at every grade level in science, technology, engineering, art, and math as well as in literacy, social studies, and enrichment classes that include Spanish, P.E., drama, music, and garden. Alta Vista’s unique curriculum draws upon a range of sources including California State Standards, Common Core, Next Generation Science, and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Social and emotional development is interwoven into the daily curriculum, with the aim of fostering a schoolwide community where all members treat one another with respect and approach conflict resolution through restorative practices.

The Search Group | CS&A 1 www.carneysandoe.com Educational Philosophy With an emphasis on science, math, engineering, and the arts, Alta Vista School encourages students to go beyond a strong academic foundation to pursue their passions as well as engage their community and environment.

Faculty, administrators, and families alike share the belief that experiential, hands-on activities provide optimal opportunities to engage students in meaningful learning. With a student-teacher ratio of 8:1, Alta Vista educators benefit from small class sizes and are intentional in their instruction. Teachers serve as guides for students as they explore, observe, predict, measure, and analyze for themselves in an inquiry-based journey of discovery and knowledge-making.

Likewise, AVS teachers are serious about play. Modelling learning as a joyful experience, faculty design educational experiences that are play-based, believing that children develop intellectually when they experience learning as fun and authentic.

Perhaps most important to the AVS approach to education, however, is a foundation rooted in the scientific method and a belief that science and technology can be leveraged to benefit all. At AVS, students learn to embrace technology and to apply principles of design-thinking as powerful tools for innovation. Technology is thoughtfully integrated into the classroom with Google Chromebooks, SMART Boards, Elmos, video cameras, digital cameras, and more.

The Search Group |CS&A 2 www.carneysandoe.com Whole Child Focus Alta Vista School understands that its obligations to students extend beyond the intellectual. At AVS, students are encouraged to explore and develop their talents and interests as well as develop an independent sense of self. The educational program integrates social emotional learning across all grades, emphasizing self-advocacy, responsibility, accountability, and individual choice. The goal is for students to build resilience and self-reliance in their academic pursuits and beyond, as well as to become inclusive and responsible individuals who demonstrate respect toward themselves and others.

Alta Vista asks students to be kind and respectful, to act responsibly in their communities, and to take pride in all their actions. This includes individual responsibility, cooperation with peers, and tools for effective and peaceful conflict resolution. To accomplish this, Alta Vista has created MindUP™: a social-emotional curriculum rooted in cognitive neuroscience that teaches students about how our brains work (anatomy and function) and how they can positively influence their own brain development. An important part of the curriculum is learning to be a contributing community member at Alta Vista and beyond.

FAST FACTS • Founded: 2010 • MS Campus: 15,000 sq. ft. • Location: San Francisco, CA • Total Enrolled: 277 • Type: Co-educational day • Total Faculty: 61 • Grades Served: JK-8 • Teacher-Student Ratio: 8:1 • LS Campus: 25,000 sq. ft.

The Search Group | CS&A 3 www.carneysandoe.com Lower School Program The Lower School at Alta Vista serves students from Junior Kindergarten through Grade 4. Small class sizes are a hallmark of the AVS program. The school currently has one JK class and two classes per grade in K-4, each of which is capped at 16 students and led by two lead teachers with additional support from specialists.

The STEAM focus begins at the earliest ages at Alta Vista. All Lower School students learn science, math, literacy, and social studies as well as art, drama, music, garden, physical education, and Spanish. Students receive Chromebooks in Grade 2, when they also begin their digital citizenship curriculum through which they learn safe and appropriate technology usage.

Alta Vista’s inquiry-based model of teaching means that the curriculum is ever-evolving and adapting to students’ needs and interests. Each week, to keep parents informed of what their child is learning, Lower School teachers post their lesson plans, programs, and homework assignments online, offering a dynamic and real-time look into what is happening in their classrooms. Three progress reports per year offer detailed narratives about how each child is learning.

Students at Alta Vista’s Lower School also have the opportunity to further the discovery and exploration of their interests through BookEnds—an afterschool program offering dynamic, interdisciplinary enrichment classes each afternoon from 3:30 until 6pm. Class offerings run in three 12-week sessions throughout the year and are led by AVS faculty or outside facilitators. BookEnds offerings have included Ceramics, Nature Crafts, Robotics Club, TLC Club, Crazy for Canines, Yoga and Mindfulness, Sports Mash, News Crew, Fort Making, Running Club, Drama Club, Set Design, STEAM Challenge Island, among others.

The Search Group |CS&A 4 www.carneysandoe.com Middle School Program Alta Vista’s Middle School program places students in the driver’s seat of their studies, empowering them to navigate their own pathway to graduation. Each grade level enrolls up to 40 students, and class sizes range between 10-18 students. The academic year is broken into two semesters. Course length varies between semester-long (history, science, computer science, and electives) and year-long courses (math, English, Spanish, and PE). Students receive new, individualized schedules each semester. The Middle School’s complete academic program with full course descriptions is available online. Progress reports are given four times a year and include both academic grades and detailed narratives.

Alta Vista Middle School’s core values are responsibility, character development, integrity, and freedom. The social emotional curriculum students begin in younger grades builds into a middle school curriculum that promotes confidence and independence, with an emphasis on analytical and problem-solving skills across a variety of contexts. The aim is to create a foundation that serves students well in their academic pursuits beyond AVS and throughout their lives.

Student Life and Extracurricular Offerings Alta Vista’s community is an incredibly vibrant one. The School hosts bi-weekly campus-wide community meetings that parents are welcome to attend. The commitment to STEAM learning extends into the School’s extracurricular programming as well, with several school-wide engineering challenges and over a dozen drama and musical performances throughout the year. Students in all grades are encouraged to participate in science fairs and expos, as well as current event presentations to develop their public speaking skills. Music lessons and Mandarin Club are also offered in the Lower School.

Sports programs in the Middle School are led by a professional coach/athletic director and include , futsal and . Alta Vista is a member of SFIAL (San Francisco Independent Athletic League). Lower School sports are parent-organized and typically include basketball and soccer. Four times per year, AVS also hosts overnight camping trips that typically draw between 50 and 150 participants per trip.

The Search Group | CS&A 5 www.carneysandoe.com Alta Vista’s unique year-round academic calendar includes breaks in fall, winter, and spring, during which the School offers full- day Adventures Camps run by staff from the Reikes Center, a nearby community-based arts, fitness and nature program. Families have the opportunity to enroll their children in the Reikes Center’s fantastic athletic, fitness, creativity and nature awareness program, or alternatively, in the Renegade Girls Tinkering Club’s co-ed S.T.E.A.M. Camp. Mini-Adventures Camp is also offered on Parent-Teacher Conference days in October and March. Run by AVS’ own specialists, these days are exciting opportunities for fun-filled days in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Physical Campus The Alta Vista School occupies two campuses in San Francisco, located approximately three miles apart. The Lower School campus, located on Somerset Street in the Portola District, features spacious sunlit classrooms, a library, art and tinker studio, gym, and performance stage. There is ample room for vibrant and varied BookEnds programming as well. Children in the Lower School enjoy extensive outdoor space for running around with a playground, rock climbing wall, and organic garden. The campus is also in close proximity to McLaren Park—San Francisco’s third largest park—and Palega Park, as well as a neighborhood library that opened in 2009.

Just north in the Mission District is the new Middle School campus, which has enough classroom space to accommodate up to 50 students per grade (200 at capacity). Fifth through eighth graders at the Mission campus can gather, study, and socialize in a student-designed commons area. In line with the School’s strong STEAM focus, the Middle School campus also features a sunlit, 1,200-square-foot art and engineering lab, black box theater, theater-tech room, and music and practice room, as well as an indoor gym with a mini basketball/volleyball court.

HIGH SCHOOL ACCEPTANCES The following schools have offered acceptances to AVS graduates: • Analy High School • Mt. Eden High School • The Bay School of San Francisco • Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory • City Arts & Tech High School • San Domenico School • Drew School • SOTA (School of the Arts) • Galileo Academy of Science and Tech. • St Ignatius College Preparatory • Jefferson High School • Stuart Hall High School • Jewish Comm. High School of the Bay • Terra Nova High School • Lick-Wilmerding High School • San Francisco University High School • Abraham Lincoln High School • Urban School of San Francisco • Lowell High School • Western Reserve Academy

The Search Group |CS&A 6 www.carneysandoe.com About San Francisco Many characteristics define San Francisco in the American consciousness: the elegant Golden Gate Bridge and bustling Fisherman’s Wharf, seasonal fog and basking seals, Victorian row houses and rumbling cable cars, Alcatraz Island in the bay and redwood forests just to the north. While it is small in physical area—a tight seven-by-seven-mile grid of narrow streets at the tip of a peninsula—San Francisco’s impact on the country’s economic, technological, social, and political landscapes is immense.

Though devastated by an earthquake and fire in 1906, San Francisco fully rebounded in the 20th century, becoming a hub for progressive social movements, high tech, and global commerce. Today, San Francisco ranks high on lists of the country’s most livable cities. Comprised of 36 official neighborhoods, the city is in fact made up of many more colorful boroughs including the famous Chinatown and Haight Ashbury districts. The unique metropolis offers a little bit of everything. A thriving economy, vibrant and open-minded cultural scene, and exceptionally mild climate attract a diverse mix of people to the city—entrepreneurs and environmentalists; artists and engineers; foodies and families; and anyone drawn to an active, outdoorsy lifestyle. While traffic and parking in the city can be daunting, San Francisco boasts one of the nation’s most sophisticated public transit systems. The city’s compact layout and pleasant weather make it pedestrian-friendly in most months as well.

Attractions for visitors and residents alike include Golden Gate Park, San Francisco Zoo, Mission Dolores Park, and of course the Embarcadero, an extensive waterfront area that includes Fisherman’s Wharf. The music and arts scene is diverse, with classical offerings at the San Francisco Symphony, Opera, and Ballet, as well as jazz, rock, and folk concerts at the Civic Center and new SFJAZZ venue. The city celebrates its diversity in cultural celebrations such as Chinese New Year, Fleet Week, and Gay Pride Week; the city is also a popular site for a variety of festivals, including the Cherry Blossom Festival, Fringe Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Union Street Art Festival, and Haight Ashbury Street Fair. Residents also tend to be avid fans of the Giants (MLB), Golden State Warriors (NBA), and the 49ers (NFL).

The Search Group | CS&A 7 www.carneysandoe.com Opportunities & Challenges The next Head of School at Alta Vista School will:

Champion STEAM and Communicate a Bold Educational Vision Founded as a STEAM school with a team-teaching model, AVS has developed a program that some describe as “the AVS way.” The next Head of School, passionate about STEAM and inquiry- based learning, will clarify what differentiates Alta Vista from other schools, unite the community around that clear vision, and empower division directors and faculty to further enhance and align the curriculum to that vision.

Guide the Operational Growth of the School In its infancy, Alta Vista focused resources on faculty and curriculum. With growth and expansion to two campuses, the School needs more sophisticated operational systems. The next Head will develop the School’s capacities in fundraising, marketing, communications, and facilities management, including optimal use of both campus sites.

Support a Faculty Culture of Creativity and Collaboration while Putting Essential Polices and Procedures in Place The passionate AVS faculty has worked to capacity as the School has grown, taking on many administrative tasks and pitching in whenever help is needed. They now need structures and procedures in place that will allow them to focus more fully on their work with the students and the curriculum. The next Head of School will honor the autonomy that fosters creativity while clarifying systems and procedures.

Foster Transparency and Build Trust The next Head of School will build more transparent decision-making processes and support distributed leadership so that all constituents understand and support the mission and priorities of the School.

Prioritize Faculty Retention and Professional Development The next Head of School will evaluate faculty work load, clarify the scope of responsibilities, and support collaboration. He or she will elevate professional development as an institutional priority to ensure faculty rejuvenation and professional growth.

Integrate AVS into the Bay Area Independent School Community Bay Area independent schools regularly collaborate through workshops, dialogue groups, and other professional relationships. The next Head of School will integrate AVS into this resource- rich community and encourage dialogue with other schools. He or she will establish relationships with local high schools and introduce them to Alta Vista, especially schools that are a good match for AVS eighth graders.

Partner with a Passionate and Committed Board Founding Board members and new trustees are eager to partner with the next Head of School and support the work ahead. The next Head will collaborate with the energetic, talented Board members who chose the School because they want innovative educational experiences for their children.

The Search Group |CS&A 8 www.carneysandoe.com Desired Qualities & Qualifications The Board and the AVS community are interested in all candidates who can embrace and champion Alta Vista’s STEAM and inquiry-based program while leading the School to its next phase of institutional maturation. Successful candidates will have a strong academic background and skills that include most or all of the following:

Articulate Ambassador The Head of School will champion STEAM and inquiry-based curricula and speak knowledgeably and passionately about how AVS enriches the lives of students and prepares them for an increasingly complex world. The next Head will play a critical role in outreach in admissions, secondary school placement, and to the greater Bay Area community.

Strategic Thinker The Head of School will guide planning around issues such as the long-term identity of the School as a leader in STEAM education and how to differentiate AVS from other Bay Area schools. The Head will tackle such issues as how to support diversity and inclusion, what facilities are needed to accommodate the kinds of programs the School aspires to deliver, and how to recruit and retain excellent teachers and administrators.

Team Builder The Head of School will inspire a sense of mission by communicating a shared vision of the School’s future and clearly delegating responsibilities in order to realize that vision. Collaborative, communicative, curious about and appreciative of each community member’s contributions, the Head of School will be approachable, engaged, and comfortable making and communicating clear decisions.

Revenue Generator and Budget Steward The Head of School will foster a culture of philanthropy, be committed to asking for financial support, steward the School’s resources wisely, and ensure financial support of strategic priorities.

The Search Group | CS&A 9 www.carneysandoe.com How to Apply Interested candidates can contact the consultant for additional information and a discussion of the position. To be considered, applicants will need to submit (electronically as separate PDF documents) the following materials:

• Cover letter expressing interest in the Head of School position; • Current résumé; • Statement of educational philosophy and leadership practice; • List of five references with name, phone number, and e-mail address of each (references will be contacted later in the process and only with candidate permission)

To:

Karen Whitaker Bob Fricker Practice Group Leader, Search Consultant Domestic Head of Schools Practice Direct Line: 415.383.7298 Direct Line: 510-508-6616 [email protected] [email protected]

Carney, Sandoe & Associates 200 High Street, Suite 610 Boston MA 02110 phone: 617-542-0260 | fax: 617-542-9400 www.carneysandoe.com

SEARCH CALENDAR December 15, 2018 Applications Due January 21, 2019 Search Update January 26-27, 2019 Semi-Finalist Interviews Mid-February 2019 Finalist Visits

The Search Group |CS&A 10 www.carneysandoe.com