Head of School Appointment

August 16, 2021

Dear Members of the St. Patrick’s Community,

We are excited to announce that the Board of Trustees has appointed Jalene Spain Thomas as the fourth Head of School at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School, effective July 1, 2022, following a robust national search. Unanimously recommended by the Search Committee, Jalene received the enthusiastic, unanimous support of the Board of Trustees and, in turn, the Vestry of St. Patrick’s Parish, which ratified the appointment. She will succeed current Head of School Peter A. Barrett. 

A collaborative, energetic, and joyful leader, Jalene is a gifted, seasoned educator with a unique and inspiring passion for the education of young people. With a two-decade career in Washington-area Episcopal schools, she comes to us with an innate understanding of our fundamental values and our deep commitment to the development of the whole child. Jalene will be the first to tell you that education is truly her vocation, a fact that is reflected in her unwavering dedication to building a learning community in which every child is known, loved, and respected. 

As the current Director of Lower School at St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School (SSSAS), a coeducational Age 3 to Grade 12 Episcopal day school in Alexandria, Virginia, Jalene oversees an independent campus of 400 students and 70 faculty members. In her time at SSSAS, she has inspired innovation in curriculum, expanded enrollment in the early childhood years, and furthered the development of a cohesive academic and social experience for students and parents across grade levels. A lifelong learner and child-centered educator, Jalene brings her firsthand experience as a classroom teacher to her relationships with faculty and staff and fosters an environment of creativity and accountability in the pursuit of academic excellence. As a member of the school’s senior leadership team, she is an active participant in Board of Trustees meetings and works in close partnership with her peer directors for the Middle School and Upper School, which are on separate campuses.  Jalene has been integral to the school’s pandemic response, is actively involved with the current Campus Master Planning Committee, takes a leadership role in  their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging efforts, and is a member of the Racial Justice Steering Committee.

Jalene began her career in a Kindergarten classroom at Beauvoir, the National Cathedral Elementary School, where she spent 16 years. She ultimately became Assistant Head of School and served as Acting Head of School during a time of leadership transition. An active member of the broader Washington, D.C. educational community, Jalene is Vice President of the Governing Board of the Mid-Atlantic Episcopal Schools Association (MAESA), co-founded the Administrators of Color in the Washington Metropolitan Area, and recently served as Vice Chair of the Board of the Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys, where she worked alongside Peter Barrett. Throughout her many years serving Washington-area Episcopal schools, Jalene has long respected St. Patrick’s values and reputation. Jalene has an impressive resume, having attended Duke University for her undergraduate work in psychology and art history and earning a Masters in Private School Leadership from Teachers College at Columbia University, where she remains involved as a member of the Alumni Council.  

While these many accomplishments certainly distinguish Jalene, the Search Committee found particularly compelling her tremendous energy and warmth, the robustness of her pursuit of ongoing professional development as an educational leader, and the relationships she has built as a result. The enthusiastic support for Jalene from her professional colleagues and their confidence in her capacity and drive to rise to this next level were unwavering and universal. She is passionately driven to pursue the question, “How can children learn best?”—and, in turn, “How can schools meet this expectation?”  

The search process has been a labor of love for a school we love, a process that has allowed us to understand the Day School more deeply and to see it through the lens of others. We confirmed that the most treasured feature of St. Patrick’s are the people who subscribe to our values and strive to live them every day. The amazing St. Patrick’s community is made up of YOU and many others. 

We are grateful to all of you who provided input and feedback along the way, as your perspectives shaped our charge. Following surveys, group meetings, and one-on-ones, we created a strong position description and subsequently attracted an exceptional roster of highly qualified candidates from across the country. The reputation of St. Patrick’s as a leading Nursery to Grade 8 school, its team of talented faculty and staff, and its vibrant, committed community made the Head of School position a highly desirable opportunity. Thank you for pushing us and supporting us to fulfill our promise to find a visionary, student-centered educator deeply committed to academic excellence and development of the whole child. With a dedicated Search Committee and a sound process, we offered Jalene a coherent, collective vision with which she is firmly aligned. 

We were intent on finding an individual who could build, with confidence, upon Peter Barrett’s extraordinary 28 years of leadership at St. Patrick’s—someone to further strengthen the Day School as a unique community and someone dedicated to Episcopal values, inclusivity and belonging, and the development of character and responsible citizenship. We found these qualities in abundance in Jalene, a leader who will sustain and enhance our mission with strategic intention, thoughtfulness, and care. She is the embodiment of St. Patrick’s values and ethos, and we are thrilled to announce her appointment to our community. 

Respectfully,

Mia Bass, Board Chair
The Rev. Dr. Kurt Gerhard, Rector
Mashea Ashton, Trustee and Search Committee Co-Chair
Rebecca Kim, Trustee and Search Committee Co-Chair

Dear Members of the St. Patrick’s Community:

The summer is now fully underway, but the Search Committee continues to work to identify the next Head of School of St. Patrick’s.  We are pleased to provide you with a progress report today to share more information on the impressive pool of high-caliber candidates and how each was evaluated, the status of the search, and what you should expect this summer. 

High-Caliber Candidates Guided by your input on critical leadership attributes and priorities, search consultant Spencer Stuart identified a pool of prospective candidates that included individuals with a broad range of experiences, including sitting Heads of School, Assistant/Associate Heads, Division Heads, and other school leaders.  Candidates hailed from independent schools across the country, with St. Patrick’s strong reputation stretching coast to coast.  The pool was not just broad in its experience, but also brought diversity of gender and racial and ethnic backgrounds, being almost evenly split between female and male candidates and nearly half identifying as people of color.  

A Comprehensive Rubric As the Search Committee began to evaluate candidates, members relied on a standardized rubric based on the full breadth of categories outlined in the Head of School Position Specification, namely: 

• A strong progression of leadership experience, including the ability to manage and collaborate with a team of scale and breadth and to successfully implement organizational change in the pursuit of academic excellence.
• An ability to develop authentic relationships with the range of stakeholders in our community and, in particular, through the use of strong communication skills.
• An ability to recruit and retain the kind of exceptional faculty and staff who have become the hallmark of the St. Patrick’s program.
• A demonstrated alignment with St. Patrick’s values and its Episcopal identity.
• An understanding of the Nursery-Grade 8 independent school model and the important roles of enrollment management and outplacement. 
• A track record of impact in advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion in one’s school community.
• A capacity for successful financial management and fundraising, demonstrated through either direct school experience or other professional opportunities.

Status of the Search After meeting virtually with many qualified candidates and applying the rubric described above, the Search Committee identified a select number of impressive candidates who were recently invited to visit St. Patrick’s.  We were pleased that improving pandemic conditions allowed us to at last engage candidates in-person. To protect the privacy of these individuals, the candidates met with representatives from the community, including school leadership, members of the faculty and staff, and parents of both current students and alumni.  We are deeply grateful for the invaluable feedback provided by these representatives.

From the beginning, our focus has been on identifying a leader who meets our high standards and satisfies the clear priorities laid out by this community—namely, a visionary servant-leader who prioritizes academic excellence and development of the whole child, while embracing an inclusive and caring community of students, families, and faculty and staff.  We remain ever focused and committed to this goal.

As the summer progresses, the Search Committee will enter a quiet phase where you may expect less-frequent updates, but we remain committed to this critical work for the community and are dedicated in our pursuit of a strong leader for St. Patrick’s. 

Our work continues toward the goal of naming a new Head of School by the fall, with service beginning in July of 2022.  We are grateful for your continued support and commitment to St. Patrick’s.  As always, the dedicated email address stpatrickshead@spencerstuart.com is available for your thoughts and comments. 

With gratitude,

Mashea Ashton                                         Rebecca Kim 

Co-Chair, Search Committee            Co-Chair, Search Committee

St. Patrick's - Head of School Search Committee Update

St. Patrick's - Head of School Search Committee Update

St. Patrick's - Head of School Search Community Survey - January 29, 2021

January 14, 2021

Dear Members of the St. Patrick’s Community:

As the search for St. Patrick’s next Head of School gets underway, we would like to share with you more information on the first important step in the process.  Working with our executive search firm, Spencer Stuart, we will begin to gather feedback from you, our community, on what qualities and experiences are most important for the next Head of School. We hope that you will take the opportunity to participate.  Your input is critical to the process!

Dedicated Email

Spencer Stuart has created a confidential email address, stpatrickshead@spencerstuart.com, that we welcome you to use to provide feedback and thoughts on the search.  This email will be available throughout the entire process. 

Community Survey 

A community-wide survey will soon be available for you to make your voice heard in the search.  We hope that everyone in the St. Patrick’s community—current parents, parents of alumni, alumni, and faculty and staff—will all offer their valuable input! 

Listening Sessions

In the coming weeks, we will hold listening sessions with a broad spectrum of stakeholders in our community, including faculty and staff, parents, and students.  These sessions will provide a forum for many members of our community to share their perspectives with our search consultants. We will seek input from our alumni, parents of alumni, and grandparents via the electronic survey and dedicated email address described above.

For each discussion, the questions we pose will be the same:

• What is distinctive about St. Patrick’s?
• What are the opportunities and challenges facing the next Head of School?
• What experiences, background, characteristics, and attributes would you encourage the Search Committee to seek in the next Head of School?
• What advice do you have for the Search Committee?

On behalf of the Search Committee, thank you for supporting St. Patrick’s in this important work. Your insights will greatly help guide our work in the weeks and months ahead. You may visit our Head of School Search page on our website for community updates.

With gratitude,

Mia Bass, Chair               Rebecca Kim, Chair       

Board of Trustees           Head of School Search Committee