Executive Director Search

Dear ISACS Members,

Do you remember the challenging days of early 2020? That is when many of you first welcomed me as Acting Executive Director and, in July, as Executive Director of ISACS as we together faced the pandemic as well as the sad loss of my predecessor, Claudia Daggett. Over these past five years I have been deeply humbled and honored to work directly with many of you and tangentially through accreditation with each school. I am grateful for the amazing opportunities that working with you, the ISACS staff, and the Board of Trustees has afforded me. Indeed, serving as your ISACS Executive Director is the capstone of my long career in education. I am profoundly grateful.

It is therefore with great pause and consideration that I, in conjunction with the ISACS’ Board of Trustees, write to let you know that I will step away from my role with ISACS as of June 30, 2026.

Working alongside you, your schools, and your boards of trustees, I celebrate the diversity of our ISACS schools and the sincere and dedicated work each of you are committed to on behalf of students. From urban to rural settings, witnessing how the worthy work of preparing children to be students and future leaders is a privilege few people have the benefit of experiencing. I am one of those fortunate few. I continue to have such respect for each of our ISACS schools and am committed to learning and engaging with you over the next eighteen months.

Customary in our industry, this early transition announcement serves to allow plenty of time for a thorough leadership search and a productive transition process.

My hope is that you will have seen and experienced the professionalism and expertise of the ISACS staff and I strive to provide and improve at ISACS and that this will inspire you to help the Board consider who will next lead this outstanding association.

—Mary

Dear ISACS School Heads and Community Members,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am reaching out today to share the news that Mary Menacho, our Executive Director, has informed the Board and her staff of her decision to retire at the end of her current contract, which concludes in June 2026. I have been asked by the ISACS board to chair the Search Committee for our new ED, and it is in that capacity that I write to you now.

We are deeply grateful to Mary for her exceptional leadership of ISACS over the past five years, and we look forward to her continued guidance for the next year and a half. Many of us recall the deep sadness we all felt upon hearing the news of our former director Claudia Daggett's illness. Mary began her tenure at ISACS early to help us during that trying time, and she was instrumental in guiding and supporting our community through Claudia's passing.  We are fortunate to have an outstanding staff at ISACS, and Mary's leadership in those days uplifted them and helped them through an incredibly difficult period into an era of admirable and enviable collegiality and productivity.

While we were all focused on our own schools, Mary guided ISACS through the challenges posed by the pandemic to continue to ensure the enhanced on-line services and support we needed and then worked with the staff to re-ignite the excitement, energy and interaction that we have all come to expect and enjoy in our in-person conferences and programs.

ISACS oversees the accreditation of more than 240 schools, and Mary made it a commitment to visit as many of them as she possibly could, sharing her warmth with heads, teachers, administrators, parents and boards throughout the region. That hands-on approach has helped her to improve and streamline the accreditation process, to further develop our professional development offerings, and to lead us through the efforts, which culminated in the 2023 endorsement of the strategic plan, "Leading for Change," a plan that will continue to guide our efforts in the coming years. With the guidance of the plan, she has developed a trustee series that is now available nationally, strengthened the support for new heads of school, and provided governance training to dozens of ISACS schools.

We are grateful to Mary for sharing this news in advance and allowing us to initiate a comprehensive search for her successor. One of the primary responsibilities of any Board is to select, hire, and evaluate their Executive Director, and member schools can rest assured that we recognize the importance of this responsibility. The ISACS board has approved a search committee (see full list below) made up of current board members and engaged the search firm Educators Collaborative to work with us to prepare for a search that will yield an excellent Executive Director to succeed Mary in July 2026. I am honored to be asked to chair the search committee and you will be hearing from me and from Educators Collaborative in the coming weeks as we reach out to you for your input in refining the job description, the search timeline and the information for candidates.

In large part because of Mary's leadership, ISACS is in a strong position to attract another outstanding leader, and over the next eighteen months we will have ample time to thank Mary for her wonderful service to the organization.

Sincerely,

Andy Abbott
Vice-chair, ISACS Board
Chair, Search Committee