OT-Preschool Director Search Committee

[tinytink]

HI All,

I just wanted to get your feedback on questions that one might ask a potential Preschool Director. I have been asked to serve on the search committee for a new preschool director for my dd's current preschool. THe current director is retiring. Where do I start? What type of questions should we ask the canidates? Thanks for your feedback.

 

[emma'smom]

What is your educational philosophy?
What do you see as the role of the teacher? The parent?
What do you know about NAEYC? Are you active in NAEYC?
What experience do you have working with and documenting the Early Learning Content Standards? How do you see these standards blending with your education philsophy?
What do you see as the preschools relationship with the kindergartens? What efforts will you make to reach out and/or work with the kindergarten teachers to assure that the students are prepared?
Ideas for admissions/enrollment/recruitment?
Ideas for working with other preschools in area?

 

[mjantz]

Off the top of my head:

-Experience?
-How would you handle the firing of an employee/ the removal of a child from a classroom?
-Rank these 3 in order of priority: parents, staff, children. (I personally think for a director it should be children, staff, parents) You can ask for the reasons behind their rankings if you want.

If I think of more I'll let you know.

 

[barkley]

your current director could be a tremendous resource to tap for questions because she's aware of the needs and demands of the job as well as the existing staff, parents and children.

look to the duties you want the new director to handle and formulate questions based on those. i also think since a preschool director is responsible for writing memos, personnel reviews and for reviewing material her staff will provide parents that an ON THE SPOT demonstration of writing skills can be very valuable (people can produce incredible resumes, cover letters and the like with the help of computer programs and outside help, having a spontatious writing componant can detect issues/problems not otherwise apparant until it's sometimes too late).

if the director is responsible for supervision then i think questions exploring that person's understanding and knowledge of personnel practices is imperitive. a situational question that has implications of fmla or ada are important, knowledge of your state's employment laws-and specificialy laws governing lic. daycare and health and safety are vital. knowledge of requirements pertaining to mandatory reporting to social services and the issues of staff/parent/student confidentiality are essential.

finaly, if your school has a diverse student body then exploring if a candidate reccognizes the differences in the way some cultures interact with academic professionals is important. depending on the culture, the manner in which a teaching professional approaches a parent with a question or concern can be interpreted wholly different than the professional intends and can cause a total break down in the necessary flow of information.

 

[tinytink]

your current director could be a tremendous resource to tap for questions because she's aware of the needs and demands of the job as well as the existing staff, parents and children.

look to the duties you want the new director to handle and formulate questions based on those. i also think since a preschool director is responsible for writing memos, personnel reviews and for reviewing material her staff will provide parents that an ON THE SPOT demonstration of writing skills can be very valuable (people can produce incredible resumes, cover letters and the like with the help of computer programs and outside help, having a spontatious writing componant can detect issues/problems not otherwise apparant until it's sometimes too late).

if the director is responsible for supervision then i think questions exploring that person's understanding and knowledge of personnel practices is imperitive. a situational question that has implications of fmla or ada are important, knowledge of your state's employment laws-and specificialy laws governing lic. daycare and health and safety are vital. knowledge of requirements pertaining to mandatory reporting to social services and the issues of staff/parent/student confidentiality are essential.

finaly, if your school has a diverse student body then exploring if a candidate reccognizes the differences in the way some cultures interact with academic professionals is important. depending on the culture, the manner in which a teaching professional approaches a parent with a question or concern can be interpreted wholly different than the professional intends and can cause a total break down in the necessary flow of information.

Thanks for the input. Anyone else?

 

[famofsix]

Why do you want to be a preschool Director? What assets do you bring to the job and why?


A friend of mine said that when she was interviewing elementary teachers she rarely had any candidates express that they like working with children. Seems pretty basic though

 

[barkley]

Why do you want to be a preschool Director? What assets do you bring to the job and why?


A friend of mine said that when she was interviewing elementary teachers she rarely had any candidates express that they like working with children. Seems pretty basic though

not nesc. basic and with some people who apply to be preschool directors they absolutly have no desire to nor do they believe it's part of their job to work one on one with the children. i was realy amazed at the person they hired to be the preschool director for the place my kids had gone to (i still have friends that work there)-she was NOT a 'kid person'. sure enough her view of being director was strictly administrative and supervisory-to the extent that if one of her staff had to leave ill, rather than going into a classroom and covering herself (very common and cost effective for a preschool or daycare) she would be calling in someone from home or paying overtime because 'i don't work directly with the children'

 

[tomthebarncat]

I had a friend who was interviewing childrens psychologists and the question that repeatedly stumped every candidate was: "what childrens games do you play?" she was floored that so called childrens mental health professionals did not play childrens games nor could they even name a popular childrens game. I did, when she told me this story, I love to play candyland or go fish. She then said "hired" jokingly as I am a medical social worker not a child psychologist, so I could not take her up on her very generous offer. I asked her what the point of this question was? to weed people out or see if they like children or what?? she told me it was to see if they really liked being around kids all day and to assess how well they would interact with them. It took her 6 months and several postings of the job to find the right candidate, who I understand is a big kid herself who works very well with children. Good luck!!