ASSISTANT HEAD FOR FINANCE AND OPERATIONS

The Peddie School is a private, independent, coeducational boarding and day school for grades 9-12 and postgraduate located in Central New Jersey. Peddie invites applications, nominations, and inquiries as it embarks upon a search for an Assistant Head for Finance and Operations.  The successful candidate will demonstrate a deep commitment to independent schools and a genuine desire to engage actively in Peddie campus life.  

The Assistant Head will be an instrumental partner in addressing a number of key opportunities and challenges:

• Enrollment and Costs: Peddie operates from a sound position within the highly competitive independent school market. Working with the Head of School, School leadership, and the Board, the Assistant Head will help to identify ways to further distinguish Peddie and present options and implement strategies to identify additional sources of revenue, manage and control costs, and manage tuition rates.

• Commitment to and Support for DEI: Peddie is firmly committed to embracing DEI work as a continuous effort to learn and grow as a community. The School embraces the sustained and ongoing work of making the Peddie community inclusive, safe, and welcoming for all students and adults. The Assistant Head must embrace Peddie’s DEI initiatives and find the funding required for implementation of its goals.

• Long-Term Financial Sustainability: The Peddie School continues to benefit from the Annenberg Gift of $100 million received nearly a quarter of a century ago, and subsequent endowment gifts. Peddie has had the discipline to maintain and expand the real value of the endowment and campus. The Assistant Head, working with the Head of School and the Board of Trustees, must preserve the value of the endowment to assure that future generations of Peddie students inherit intergenerational equity at a minimum. The strategic plan calls for formalizing conservative rules for annual endowment spending with the goal of preserving the real value of the endowment. The Assistant Head must embrace and lead these initiatives with the school’s investment committee.

• Campus Plan and Physical Plant: As part of the strategic plan, the Assistant Head will work with campus leadership and the Board in continually updating a ten-year campus plan for physical plant priorities that complement the existing Campus Master Plan. The Assistant Head will negotiate and manage vendor contracts and relationships, oversee future campus construction projects, and serve as a chief strategist around building projects and the establishment of appropriate budget allocations to a reserve fund for campus improvements.

• Risk Management: The Assistant Head will ensure that processes are well coordinated across the institution, align with priorities, safeguard its assets, and minimize institutional risks and costs. Open, transparent communication and educating the campus community around risks is essential. The Assistant Head will also serve as the chief liaison with Peddie’s outside investment and legal counsel.