On November 17, the Head of School Search Committee and the Board of Trustees announced that next year’s Interim Head of Lick-Wilmerding will be Katie Titus, temporarily resolving a long search for a new Head of School.
Titus was most recently the head of Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania and before that the Interim Head of St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire. She began her career as a math teacher. She is a powerful analytical thinker, creative problem solver and a pragmatic idealist. Titus was chosen out of three finalists to be Interim Head of LWHS.
“When I engaged with her, I trusted her and I felt inspired to work with her on problems, straightforward or complex,” wrote Andrew Kleindolph, Technical Arts Department Chair, on why he supported Titus for this position.
Throughout her career, Titus has emphasized the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion
within her communities. She has coached basketball teams and enjoys attending school-wide events.
When describing her reaction to Titus following an interview, English teacher and Search Committee member Monica West said she felt like Titus was “someone who is honest and authentic and transparent. There’s someone who listens. There’s someone who leads with honesty. There’s someone who’s authentic in her interactions with students and faculty.”
The HOS Search Committee was led by Cameron Yuen-Shore ’05 and Lara Witter, President of the Board of Trustees and parent of two LWHS graduates.
photos courtesy of Lick-Wilmerding High School
Last year, when current Head of School Eric Temple announced he was leaving LWHS, FacStaff and board members, including Yuen-Shore and Witter, were chosen as members of the Head of School Search Committee.
LWHS FacStaff nominated fellow employees to join the Head of School Search Committee. Three were selected: Kleindolph, and Christine Godinez Jaclson, Director of The Center for Civic Engagement.
“There must be something we’re doing that people felt like they trusted us. They thought that we were able to think broadly about the community,” said Kleindolph.
The Search Committee chose a well known faculty recruitment firm, Carney Sandoe & Associates, to run the search.
In 2020, the Head of School Search Committee launched their plan to find a replacement for Temple.
At first, the search seemed to be going well, with the two finalists holding Q&As with students, FacStaff and parents. On
September 28, LWHS was struck with a curveball — both finalists pulled out due to personal reasons. Percy Abrams chose to stay at his current school, while the other finalist, Rachel Skiffer, accepted a job offer to be the Head of School at Head Royce.
Kleindolph said Carney-Sandoe did not inform the committee that Skiffer was considering the job at Head Royce until the finalist phase. Kleindolph thinks that it would have been beneficial to know earlier that Skiffer was interested in other jobs.
Kleindolph said, “I think we started this process feeling like Lick is such a great institution that if we offer it to someone, there’s just no way they’re going to turn it down.”
This led to pushing the candidates hard and asking them tough questions. “I’m not sure we did as good a job selling the position to the original candidates as we did with the interim candidates,” said Kleindolph.
When questioning candidates, community members did not hold back on talking about the school’s internal issues. Kleindolph wondered whether this open bearing of challenges led the candidates to question whether LWHS was the right fit for them.
In the original search, there were going to be three finalists, but one backed out for personal reasons as soon as they were informed they would be a finalist. The committee did not add another third finalist because they had already eliminated other candidates. Kleindolph explained that the committee was confident that one of the two finalists would accept the job so there was no need to find a third.
When the finalists pulled out, there was not enough time to do another full Head of School search. The decision was quickly made to start a search for an Interim Head of School.
photo courtesy of Mercersberg Academy
The interim finalists also faced questioning from FacStaff and parents. There was no opportunity for students to meet the people who could be their Head of School next year because “everything was on a super abbreviated timeline,” said Yuen-Shore.
“In having two searches, we are paying more, though it is not two times more. For the first search — which includes the interim search — we are paying for the time invested. For the second search for a permanent HOS, we expect to pay the percentage of the Head of School’s first year’s compensation,” explained Witter. Normally the percentage of first year compensation is a third. The fees are coming out of LWHS’ operating budget.
The position of interim head is for one year. The main goal of the interim is to hold everything together, not to make drastic changes. “I think there’s a huge opportunity to address some key issues and be a good listener,” said Brian Driscoll, LWHS Director of Development.
Titus is excited to join the LWHS community. In an introductory letter to the LWHS community, she wrote, “I am deeply honored to join the Lick family for next year. I look forward to working closely with the Board to craft a seamless transition, while we engage in the important task of honoring the legacy of Eric’s leadership and the unique history of the school in order to begin to lay the foundation for the celebratory transition to your permanent head. Lick is an amazing school and I was struck by the warmth and engagement I experienced through the process.”
