HILLBROOK SCHOOL Los Gatos, California - FOUNDING HEAD OF UPPER SCHOOL - Carney Sandoe
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HILLBROOK SCHOOL
Los Gatos, California
FOUNDING HEAD OF UPPER SCHOOL
Start Date: July 2022
hillbrook.org
MISSION
Hillbrook provides an extraordinary educational experience that fosters a love of learning in
our students and helps them develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to achieve their
highest individual potential in school and in life. At Hillbrook, students are known, respected
and valued as individuals and every day is a journey of self-discovery, imaginative thinking,
creative problem solving, laughter and friendship.
VISION
Inspire students to achieve their dreams and reach beyond themselves to make a difference
in the world.
OVERVIEW
For more than 80 years, Hillbrook School has provided an extraordinary educational experience that
inspires children to achieve their dreams and reach beyond themselves to make a difference in the
world. From the beginning, Hillbrook has known that the most authentic and meaningful education
happens when student choice and engagement are at the center of the learning experience. The Village
of Friendly Relations, built by Hillbrook students and located at the heart of the JK-8 campus, serves
as a visible reminder of what children can imagine and create if given the right tools, guidance, and
opportunities.
Hillbrook believes that students deserve an educational experience in secondary school that builds upon
the exceptional foundation it provides for JK-8 students. The core differentiators of the current program
- the placement of choice and engagement at the center of the learning experience, an integrated, real-
world education that challenges students to reach beyond and make a difference in the world, and a
deep commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion - will translate seamlessly into a 9-12 environment,
allowing Hillbrook to extend its innovative approach to education into a market in need of a new model
of secondary school education.
The Hillbrook Upper School will be an extension of the JK-8 program, guided by Hillbrook’s existing
vision and mission.
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THE POSITION
Hillbrook seeks a mission-aligned high school expert to join the team and lead the exciting work of
founding a new division. Progressive, student-centered, inquiry-based educators who have dreamed
of designing and building a high school program will find a high-functioning, supportive leadership team
and community ready to support this project. Collaboration, persistence, and creativity are essential
dispositions, as well as experience with project management and team building.
Opportunities and Challenges include:
• Join a stable and vibrant school. The founding Upper School Head at Hillbrook will build upon
the successes of a JK-8 school that has navigated the pandemic with a strong and healthy culture,
robust enrollment, and palpable excitement about extending the Hillbrook Way into a new division.
This unique opportunity to design and establish a high school, hire faculty and staff, and create
engaging and relevant curriculum evolves from a clear vision of educational purpose and the urgent
need for “justice in action.” The school has invested the resources to develop and update business
plans to support the Upper School Head in laying the groundwork for a transformational high school.
• Enjoy the support of a strong leadership team. Members of the leadership team share a strong
work ethic, respect for a plurality of voices and experiences, a culture of honest discourse, care
and respect for one another, and a desire to continually improve. They support each other as
thought partners, mentors, sounding boards, and collaborators, and they appreciate the power
of laughter. Committed to collaboration, the Upper School Head will value authentic and rigorous
debate, welcome a diversity of perspectives, and support the working norms of the team.
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• Lead a Start-up in the Heart of Start-up Country. Partnering with a passionate and hardworking
group of innovative educators, the founding Upper School Head will balance the creative idealism of
envisioning a new approach to high school with the necessary pragmatism of timelines, processes
and budget. The Upper School Head will communicate vision and value as well as oversee the day-
to-day operations of the new division.
• Establish a New Campus. While the JK-8 campus is nestled in the idyllic hills of Los Gatos, the
new high school will be located in downtown San Jose. The founding Upper School Head will
help envision the classroom learning spaces as well as the city as a classroom. While supporting
the school community in navigating the various transitions associated with the urban campus, the
Upper School Head will develop and strengthen ties with downtown community-based organizations
and business to build upon the good neighbor partnerships formed by the Scott Center for Social
Entrepreneurship over the years. The Upper School Head will preserve and evolve Hillbrook’s
culture as the school extends its mission to a new division.
• Reinforce and Deliver on the School’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The
founding Upper School Head will team up with the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship to
expand Hillbrook’s social impact curriculum to high school and will work to recruit and retain an adult
and student population that reflects the diversity of downtown San Jose.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
While we can’t show candidates something that doesn’t yet exist, we can anticipate some essential
questions.
What are Hillbrook’s core values and how will they serve as a foundation for the Upper School?
Faculty, staff, and students embody and enliven Hillbrook’s values: be kind, be curious, take risks, and
be your best. These core values foster joyful collaboration, innovation, and flexible thinking. Hillbrook’s
highly collaborative team celebrates and builds upon each other’s strengths, inspiring dedication and
a spirit of adventure and discovery. At Hillbrook, collaboration is not simply a buzzword, but something
that is core to how the school operates and what the community believes. Translating this positive
culture, including healthy communication norms, to a new division will be essential to the work of the
founding Upper School Head.
Core Values:
• Be kind. Children and adults on campus know that it matters how we treat each other. From
the moment students are greeted in the morning by name to the time they leave campus in the
afternoon, they are immersed in a culture that cares about and celebrates kindness.
• Be curious. We lead with questions. A sense of wonder and a spirit of discovery are nurtured,
as we place student choice and engagement at the center of the learning experience.
• Take risks. Whether telling a joke at Flag, trying a new activity for the first time or experiencing
ideas and cultures very different from their own, students are encouraged to push outside their
comfort zone and embrace the learning that happens when we take risks.
• Be your best. Each and every day, we challenge ourselves to be our best selves, knowing that
together we can realize our ambitious vision to make the world a better place.
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Communication Norms:
• Assume good will - We know that each person is committed to Hillbrook’s Vision and Mission
and that we all share the same goal - to help each child reach their highest potential in school
and in life.
• Come from your own experience - Each person has unique perspectives and experiences,
and we make our community stronger when we share those perspectives with others. As a
community, we value “I messages” and lived experiences, and do not expect people to represent
other people’s voices or ideas.
• Be more curious than certain - We believe that our community is made stronger when we
suspend judgment and strive to learn with and from each other. By practicing a growth mindset,
we model for each other that all of us, no matter what age or stage in life, can continue to grow
and learn.
• Hold yourself and others capable - As a school, we believe in each person’s ability to be
their best as we manage the complexity of living with each other in community. We avoid
avoidance, fight the urge to triangulate when faced with difficult problems, and lean into hard
conversations, knowing that addressing conflicts directly helps us grow stronger as individuals
and as a community.
Where will the Upper School be located?
The Upper School will be located in downtown San Jose, about 15 minutes from the Los Gatos
campus. San Jose is a city poised for rapid growth. With the successful completion of a BART station
and the proposed transportation center at Diridon Station, downtown San Jose will be a destination for
a broad range of families in the next 15 to 20 years. Located in one of the most lively and diverse cities
in the country, a downtown campus will deepen Hillbrook’s ties to the vibrant nonprofit community,
including organizations like Breakthrough Silicon Valley, and enable Hillbrook to attract students who
fully reflect the diversity of greater San Jose. An urban high school campus with ready access to
public transportation will enable Hillbrook to attract a student body that fully reflects the extraordinary
diversity of the Bay Area.
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What’s the vision for the academic program?
Building on the strengths of the Hillbrook JK-8 program, signature programs will include:
• Challenging, Passion-Driven Academics: Hillbrook’s curriculum will feature rich and challenging
coursework and advanced studies comparable to college-level work, without the restraints of an
AP framework. The education envisioned blends academic study and the excitement of learning
with the stimulation of a diverse campus community. Hillbrook Upper School would function as an
incubator for the potential of natural curiosity, encouraging each student’s ability to design a life path
for themselves filled with rich experiences and opportunities to create lasting change.
• Social Impact Programming: Building on the existing Reach Beyond Block and Reach Beyond
Week programs, Reach Beyond programming at the secondary school level unleashes near-
unlimited potential. Through a partnership with The Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship,
Hillbrook imagines real-world learning opportunities with intensive programming that extends
learning far beyond the confines of the classroom.
• The Hub: High School Edition: The Hub will be the place where engineering and the arts come
together, providing a real-world learning opportunity unlike any other school in San Jose.
• Hybrid Model for 11th and 12th Graders: Applying the lessons learned during the challenges of
the pandemic, Hillbrook High School will include hybrid learning models, where classes have both
in-person and distance learning blocks tailored for upperclassmen.
How big will the Upper School be, and has Hillbrook done its homework on feasibility?
Hillbrook envisions a fully enrolled high school of 260 to 300 students: 65 to 75 per grade - large enough
to offer rich and varied programs but small enough to foster community and ensure that every student
is known and cared for. The Hillbrook leadership team and Board have thoroughly studied the feasibility
of adding a high school. The San Jose metro area has an unusually limited supply of independent
high school opportunities in an area that’s an economic powerhouse and home to many high-income
families. More than 3,700 independent high school seats would have to be added in the San Jose metro
area to reach the same scope of opportunity available to high income families as in nearby San Mateo
County, and the number of private high school students in the region where current Hillbrook students
live is projected to increase by more than 1,700 over next 10 years.
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When will the Upper School open and what kind of runway does the founding Upper School
Head have to prepare to welcome the first class?
The Upper School Head will join the Hillbrook team in the summer of 2022 and will have a year to
plan, hire, and prepare to meet the first class of 9th graders in the fall of 2023. A year of planning and
collaboration will include making key initial hires to the high school team, developing a marketing and
communications strategy to extend the opportunity to students beyond Hillbrook, developing curriculum
and special programs, preparing the physical space, and translating the strong Hillbrook culture into
the new division.
How will Hillbrook support diversity, equity, and inclusion in the new division?
The Upper School will extend Hillbrook’s commitment to becoming an intentionally diverse community
that reflects the broader Silicon Valley region. With a proposed location in downtown San Jose, there
will be even greater opportunity to attract and matriculate a more socioeconomically diverse student
population in grades 9-12, including students who live in the neighborhood. In the current school,
nearly 50 percent of the students identify as students of color. Hillbrook knows that diversity, equity
and inclusion efforts will be ongoing, and embraces the challenges and possibilities that the new high
school may bring. This is an opportunity for the community to engage more deeply and further embody
its values in this area.
The Bay Area is an expensive place to live. What is the compensation model?
Hillbrook prides itself on being a destination workplace for educators. The Upper School Head can
expect a salary benchmarked to the upper quartile of independent school compensation in the Bay
Area. Hillbrook also offers 50% tuition remission, flexible tuition, support for relocation, and generous
benefits.
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DESIRED QUALITIES AND QUALIFICATIONS
• Experience developing an innovative and successful high school curriculum, an understanding of
existing research and best practices, and what constitutes standards of excellence in programming;
• Passionate believer in and advocate for progressive, student-centered approach to high school
education with an ability to articulate persuasively its advantages;
• Strong interpersonal and communications skills;
• Entrepreneurial risk-taker able to meet the day-to-day demands and opportunities of a start-up;
• A track record of building a diverse and inclusive organization;
• Significant and successful classroom teaching experience and demonstrated success as an effective
instructional leader and manager;
• Grounded and fluent in cultural competency, equity, and inclusion work;
• Soft front, strong back. Confident decision maker and strong communicator of why;
• Inclusive of faculty and student voice;
• Wisdom from lived experience and a willingness to listen;
• Strength in building and maintaining connections and community between colleagues, divisions,
parents, and students;
• Thorough and demonstrated understanding of and love for working with students with great energy,
warmth, and humor;
• Able to manage a range of personalities with strong EQ and emotional bandwidth;
• Comfort with ambiguity and a sense of humor.
CARNEYSANDOE.COM 9TO APPLY
Interested candidates may contact the consultants 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 position;
• Current résumé;
• List of five references with name, phone number, and email address of each (references will be
contacted later in the process and only with candidate permission) to:
Chaya Keefe
Search Consultant
chaya.keefe@carneysandoe.com
Karen Whitaker
Senior Consultant
karen.whitaker@carneysandoe.com
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