MatchHub · Interim Leadership
Interim leadership placement for Montessori schools.
When a school needs steady, experienced leadership during a transition, whether abrupt or planned, we place vetted Montessori leaders who know how to walk into a complicated situation and hold it together.
When Schools Call Us
Six situations where interim leadership makes the difference.
Abrupt or emergency departure
Your head leaves suddenly: resignation, termination, or health. Staff morale drops fast. Families want answers. You need steady, experienced leadership in place within days, not months.
Mid-accreditation loss of leadership
The visiting team arrives in four months. Records are incomplete, staff is unsettled, and the board is scrambling. An interim with accreditation experience can hold the process together.
Culture erosion and fidelity drift
Years of permissive or avoidant leadership have left the school confused about what it is. Guides are inconsistent. Families are asking questions. You need someone who can restore coherence without blowing everything up.
Board governance overreach
The board has been operating like management. A permanent head search will take time, and the next head needs to inherit a school where governance is clear. An experienced interim can reset those boundaries.
Planned leadership transition
Your head is retiring or moving on. You want the search done right, but you can't leave the school without leadership for six months. An interim holds the school while you find the right permanent fit.
Founding head stepping back
Founding leadership transitions are their own category. The school's identity is often wrapped up in one person. An interim can help the organization discover what it is without its founder, and build systems that don't depend on heroics.
What Makes This Different
Not a directory. A placement.
Most schools going through a leadership transition don't have time to post a job, sort applications, and negotiate terms. They need someone ready, someone who already understands what Montessori schools are and what can go wrong in them.
We maintain a working network of interim leaders who have been in school leadership, understand board governance, and have experience navigating the specific kinds of crises that Montessori schools face. When a school calls, we match rather than shuffle.
Start the ConversationA curated pool, not a directory
Every interim leader in our network has been in conversation with Hannah directly. We know their experience, their approach, and the situations they're actually equipped to handle.
Matched to your specific situation
Not every interim is right for every school. We match based on scenario type, level, credential, region, and culture, not just availability.
Leaders who know Montessori governance
Our interim leaders have managed boards, run accreditation visits, navigated staff separations, and led community communication through hard moments. They understand the unique dynamics of Montessori school culture.
Hannah manages the placement
This isn't a job board. We work directly with schools to understand the situation, identify the right match, and stay in contact through the engagement.
Our Interim Leader Network
Career leaders. Not career candidates.
The leaders in our network are not between jobs and hoping for a short-term role. They are experienced Montessori leaders who have made an intentional choice to do interim work, because they are good at transitions, and because they want to contribute to schools that need it.
They have sat in the chair you need filled. They know what it means to manage a board that doesn't understand governance, to rebuild a staff that has lost trust, and to communicate clearly with a parent community in a moment of uncertainty.
What Our Leaders Bring
- Current or former Heads of School and Assistant Heads
- AMI, AMS, and MACTE-credentialed leaders
- Experience across Primary, Elementary, Adolescent, and all-school leadership
- Backgrounds in Independent, Public, Charter, and Community Montessori
- Demonstrated experience with board governance and accreditation
- Engagements ranging from 3 months to 1 year, on-site and hybrid
Are you an experienced Montessori leader interested in interim work?
Submit Your ProfileFractional & Shared Leadership
Not every school needs a full-time head.
Interim placement covers a gap while you search. A fractional arrangement is a different use of the same offering: ongoing part-time leadership for a school that does not need, or cannot yet fund, a full-time head. Same vetted leaders and same placement process, structured as a standing commitment rather than crisis coverage.
Fractional head of school
One experienced Montessori leader, a set number of days each month, on an ongoing basis. Common for small schools, single-classroom programs, and new schools still growing into the role. The school gets real headship attention without carrying a full-time salary.
Shared head of school
One leader serving two or three small schools on a coordinated schedule, with the cost split across them. This works best where the schools are close enough geographically to make the travel realistic and aligned enough philosophically to agree on practice.
When it fits
- ·Enrollment does not yet support a full-time head of school salary
- ·A founding leader is stepping back but the school still needs continuity
- ·The board wants seasoned leadership while it builds toward a permanent hire
- ·Two or three nearby schools each need part of a head, not all of one
Talk through what your school actually needs.
Fractional and shared arrangements are built around the school, not sold off a shelf. Start with a conversation about your enrollment, your budget, and the leadership hours the school genuinely requires.
Book a ConsultationHow It Works
From your call to a leader in place.
01
You reach out
Tell us what's happening: the situation, the timeline, what the school needs.
02
We assess the fit
Hannah reviews the school context and identifies leaders from our network who match the specific scenario.
03
Introduction and terms
We facilitate an introduction between the school and the interim. Engagement length, scope, and compensation are determined together.
04
Leader in place
The interim begins. We stay in contact with both the school and the leader through the engagement.
Your school needs stable leadership now.
Reach out directly. Hannah will respond within one business day.