Success Stories

The team of Art Charles, John Chandler, and Deb Welch were simply outstanding in support of our searches. As we sought to hire two principals, the CS&A team were always available, responsive, and thoughtful in their approaches, work, and recommendations. COVID required new approaches and creative thinking, and I appreciated the team's leadership and flexibility to personalize the search for our school. I was also grateful for their patience and dedication in ensuring a complete process, fully considering the candidates' needs and our school's needs. Hiring a school leader can have a real impact on a school, and the CS&A team will not hesitate to make the extra effort to support schools with the hiring process.

Dear Art, Ralph, David, and Deb,

We wanted to express our sincere gratitude to you for your support in our head of school search process. We knew it would not be an easy task with the extremely tight timeframe we were facing but you were able to pull through and present to us a very strong line up of final candidates that were all unique and strong in their own regard. This in turn made our decision difficult, but you were always available to support our needs and give sound advice.

Safe Passage/Camino Seguro, a PK-Grade 9 school in Guatemala City, recently had the opportunity to partner with Art Charles, John Chandler, and Theodora Konetsovska of Carney, Sandoe & Associates as we launched a search for a new executive director. Given the timing (a bit late in the season), the specific demands of the job (education combined with international social service), the geography (Guatemala), and our need for a bilingual English-Spanish speaker, we knew that our search would present challenges. Despite them all, however, Art, John, and Theodora delivered a strong and highly experienced candidate pool and expertly supported us through the entire search process. Their candidate dossiers were incredibly detailed and thoughtful, allowing our search committee to hone quickly in on those candidates of particular interest. Their invaluable support through the reference-checking process, supported again by incredibly insightful and well-prepared reports, was also a key factor in our success. The calm professionalism each of these talented consultants evinced during check-in calls always reassured us that we would achieve our goals.

Having now signed an outstanding next executive director for our organization, we are deeply grateful to Art, John, and Theodora, whose depth and range of experiences and knowledge provided us with the expertise and support we needed to move confidently through our process. Having partnered with Carney, Sandoe & Associates for countless faculty searches over the past 35 years, I can say that their retained search service is outstanding and that Art, John, and Theodora, on the international side, are experienced, thoughtful, talented, diligent, caring, and responsive professionals who go above and beyond to ensure a successful outcome for their clients.

One of the first, and perhaps wisest, decisions our head of school search committee undertook early this year was to engage Carney, Sandoe & Associates who assigned a wonderfully gifted team of Bob Fricker and Lisa Parsons to assist us with our search. They took the time to get to know the unique culture and characteristics that define us and delivered a talented pool of highly qualified candidates for our consideration. After an extensive search and screening process, we have appointed a fantastic head. Our colleagues from Carney Sandoe remain engaged with the preparation and transition process to ensure she gets off to the best start possible.

Our 12 member search committee, which was comprised of trustees and faculty, found Lisa and Bob to be seasoned professionals with a deep understanding of independent schools and how to meet our needs. They were also a lot of fun to work with. We felt the manner in which they helped us successfully navigate our search process, particularly during this most challenging year, worth sharing with you.

Beginning last spring, and through the winter, we had the privilege at Cathedral of working with Brandon Jacobs and Beth Dietz for our principal search. While I am certain this is the case in all schools, we believe Cathedral has a super important and unique mission, and it was critical for us to find the right leader. Thanks to Brandon and Beth, we secured a principal that we are beyond excited about. Working with both Brandon and Beth felt like working with a team, or members of our own staff. I cannot offer high enough compliments, and truly feel grateful for their guidance and leadership throughout the process.

It has been an absolute pleasure working with Cathy Shelburne and Sara Shulman, and I could not have wished for a better outcome, particularly during a time when it felt like all of our peer schools were also looking for a Director of Advancement.

Thanks so much for all your work with us and all your support. It was wonderful to have such a strong pool from which to choose.

I just wanted to send you a brief final note of gratitude. Conducting conversations and facilitating dialogue is what you do for a living but, for me as a witness, it takes on special significance. Your expertise, professionalism, and experience help different people (with different perspectives) find a common table around which all can gather and communicate. Thank you for your time, patience, and especially your dedication to the process. Your attention and professional acuity serve as life-giving sources to those of us who view this transition as not just important but urgent. We are grateful for your viewing STA not simply as another project but, as you said so well, an opportunity to find s/he who will best carry the Catholic mission forward.

I really enjoyed the process and couldn't be happier with the outcome. Needless to say, I thought you two and (CS&A in general) were outstanding in every respect.

Bob Windham and Bill Christ did an excellent job for Trinity School of Midland last year in conducting the head of school search. They represented the School well, identified and helped recruit several strong candidates, and gave good advice to the Search Committee all throughout the process.