By EungJay Lee ’24
After a long summer break, the academic year 2023-2024 for The Frederick Gunn School finally began. All returning and new students welcomed each other and got ready for the new school year. On the first day back on campus, students were thrilled to see their old friends whom they missed over summer vacation. The meet and greet was filled with such excitement through kind interactions and pleasantries. But above all, students frequently asked this question: “Wait, who is this faculty?”
For this ‘23-’24 school year, nine new teachers joined the Gunn community: Mr. Bannon as a strength and conditioning coach in Athletics, Mr. Schatz and Mr. Jiang in the math department, Mr. Braithwaite and Dr. Durning in the history department, Ms. Parrish in the science department, Miss Dest for the assistant of the library, Mr. DePreter in the English department and outdoor leadership, and Mr. Rees for the Director of Entrepreneurship
The process for new faculty recruitment begins in late winter or early spring. In between spring and the end of the school year, current teachers have to let the school know that they are not coming back the following year. At this point, the process of new faculty recruitment starts. By connecting with various recruiting consultants and posting job opportunities on the school website, the recruitment team seeks to find new faculty who can fit into our community perfectly. All candidates have an initial interview with the Leadership Team through a Zoom meeting. If the school wants to know more about the specific candidate, the school will invite him or her to campus to take a campus tour with the current student tour guide and to observe classes and sports. Lastly, depending on their interests, candidates will have small group interviews with members from the Athletics, DOS, and Academics teams. After the candidates finish all tours and interviews, they wait for the potential job offer. After they receive the offer, they then start to prepare for school life by moving in during the summer and arriving at school around two weeks ahead of the student’s arrival.
“My favorite part during the recruitment process was the current student tour,” said the new library assistant Miss. Dest. Mrs.Lyon, who is the Dean of the Faculty and takes charge of the new faculty recruitment, also emphasized the student tour during the process. “Compared to other schools, the current student tour is a specialty of our school. Students can provide information with deeper insight into our community than our faculty can.” She also emphasized another characteristic of the new faculty recruitment process. “We recruit new faculty not just for replacing the teachers who left the school, but also for assisting our community with the current students and faculties to enhance our school.”
