The hatchet man never stays to bury the bodies.

Photo caption: Mr Maloberti had one talent.

UPDATE/CORRECTION: Our previous headlined used the word ‘resigns’. The story remains the same.

In shocking news, Gregg Maloberti has issued an email to Canadian International School Parents (CDNIS) announcing he will not pursue a second term as Head of School.

The letter was accompanied by a letter from Godwin Hwa, Chairman, outlining the search firms and recruitment committee members. Stakeholders will be consulted from April 21-23, 2016.

In his letter, Mr Hwa cited the influence of the upcoming CIS accreditation visit and the IBO 3 Programme Evaluation visit to take place in 2017-2018 school year, which suggests the search would need to provide a Head of School who could overcome deficiencies highlighted in the previous visit (detailed here).

Obama got a second term

Mr Maloberti’s short term has been rocked with teacher, parent, student and alumni unrest, student flight, lengthy Labour Tribunal battles arising from mass layoffs and damaging media coverage from local papers to the front page of Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. The school was banned from using the world’s leading teacher recruitment service on account of its treatment of staff. All this was in spite of his receiving a salary the Hong Kong Economic Journal characterised as “ US$430,000 — more than that of US President Barack Obama — while his predecessor had been paid US$300,000 a year.”

Mr Maloberti came to CDNIS from a school in New Jersey where the current Chair, Mr Hwa, sent his children while Mr Maloberti was the Head of Admissions. His background was as an admissions officer with no IB qualifications.

Full text of the emails below.

Monday, April 11, 2016



To the CDNIS Community,



I am writing to share with the community that I have chosen not to pursue a second term as Head of School. With the Governance Reform effort concluded and the renewal of the Vision, Mission and Strategic Plan of the School to be completed shortly, CDNIS is now in a strong position to attract new leadership.



The Board of Governors and I are working collaboratively to ensure that there is a smooth leadership transition. Further details of the search process are shared in the letter below from Godwin Hwa, Chairman of the Board of Governors.



I want to thank the community for your continued support.



Sincerely,



Dr. Gregg Maloberti

Head of School



CDNIS



Monday, April 11, 2016



Dear CDNIS Community,



I am writing to inform you that our Head of School, Dr. Gregg Maloberti, will not be seeking a renewal of his contract after it expires in June 2017. On behalf of the Board of Governors, I would like to thank Gregg for his dedicated service to the school during a very challenging transitional period.



In light of the CIS accreditation visit and the IBO 3 Programme Evaluation expected to occur in the 2017-18 school year, the Board of Governors has begun the process of searching for an Interim Head of School. The Interim Head of School’s term will be for a two-year appointment for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years and will ensure that there is a smooth leadership transition and that the Interim Head has sufficient time and support to help the school prepare for these important events in 2017-18. After an Interim Head of School has been appointed, the Board will then begin the search for a permanent Head of School to take office in August of 2018.



To assist us in the recruitment process, the Board has selected Triangle Associates and Heads Up Educational Consulting as our School’s search partner for both the Interim Head of School and the later search for our permanent Head of School. Dr. Marc Frankel and Judy Schechtman of Triangle Associates are internationally renowned experts in independent school governance and head of school searches. They have worked closely with CDNIS over a number of years and are intimately familiar with our school, its culture and its needs. Pat Bassett, a partner of Heads Up Educational Consulting, was the former President of the National Association of Independent Schools for 12 years and is one of the most experienced people in the private, independent school world. The Board of Governors, working together with Triangle Associates and Heads Up, is committed to ensuring that the process for hiring our new school leadership is methodical, consultative, and communicated to our community.



As part of our first steps, the Board has formed a Search Committee. The Search Committee’s responsibilities include identifying a set of criteria that incorporates input from our school constituencies collected by Triangle Associates, interviewing the potential candidates, keeping the community updated on the search process, checking candidate references, and presenting a short-list of highly qualified candidates to the Board of Governors for final review and selection. Reflective of the cross section of our stakeholders, the individuals on the Search Committee are:



Board of Governors

Cora Chan

Isabella Ho

Tami Lippit

Evan Thorpe



Member

Kwan-In Li



Senior Administrators

Wil Chan

Tim Kaiser

Penny Pan



Faculty

Susan Heinrich

Christina Wu

Chris Young



Parents

Leonis Cheng

Reema Khanna

Jaclyn Ngan

In order to help us develop a thorough understanding of our leadership requirements, we want to hear from our community and have asked Triangle Associates to conduct on-site listening sessions with our various constituencies on April 21-23; for those unable to attend, an online survey capturing community input will also be administered by Triangle Associates and Heads Up Educational Consulting. Community members will also have a chance to meet the finalists for the Interim Head of School and provide feedback when the candidates visit CDNIS in May.

For more information about the search including the current schedule and frequently asked questions (“FAQs”), please refer to the Triangle/Heads Up website at http://www.educationleadershipsearch.com/search/CDNIS/.

Plans about the search for a permanent Head of School will be communicated after the Interim Head of School has been selected.

On behalf of the Board of Governors, I want to thank our dedicated faculty and staff for their commitment and hard work in maintaining the educational environment for our students during these challenging years. Even during our most difficult moments, our hallways have always been full of eager, happy students. We would also like to thank our community of parents and alumni for the support you have provided through the years.

Should you have any questions or comments regarding the search, please feel free to email at the following address: [email protected].

Sincerely,

Godwin Hwa

Chair, CDNIS Board of Governors