St. Andrew’s is hiring a COO,chief operating officer, apparently for the first time. Does anybody have a guess as to why that is? Do most boarding schools have COOs ?
Different schools use different job titles for similar functions (e.g. technically, the Headmaster at PEA is called the Principal Instructor), but every school will have somebody who is in charge of finance and/or operations. I’m not sure I’d read too much into this, unless @SevenDad or @Charger78 has any specific insight into the situation at SAS.
A COO will likely deal with day to day operations like finances etc leaving the CEO (head of school, principal instructor, or whatever) to deal with strategic initiatives and fundraising. Fundraising likely taking up lots of time.
We have a CFO.
Talk among some parents on campus this afternoon centered around the possibility that building projects at various stages of development could be the reason for the new hire. The school has had a longtime business manager/cpa whose title is Chief Financial and Operations Officer and she does not appear to be leaving. There is a current search to replace the Director of Advancement, who left last fall, 2015. In my experience, most schools have had only the two offices, for business and advancement, with corresponding heads. The trustees of course have an investment committee. It could be that the operations officer will have oversight for ensuring all of these moving parts/offices work together. Certainly, the background of the newly appointed Operations Officer at SAS is heavily in budget management for the state of Delaware. More official information is probably forthcoming in the months ahead.