The Qatar Offer

How did it all happen? In July of 2011, I attended a charter school conference at Goddard College in Vermont to do two things.  One to witness good friend and fellow teacher at NWPHS, Peter Wieczorek, graduate and to speak on the promise of charter schools as alternative to traditional education models.  While in attendance I heard about a great school looking for a Head of School.  The school was located in the Bahamas and students from across the USA spent a semester studying Marine Biology.  Peter actually encouraged me to apply for the post.  Needless to say, I applied and didn’t even get a call back.

Fast forward to August.  For the past 20 years I have been working with some of the most at-risk students in the USA.  I have seen great successes and great tragedies. In my current position as Director of Northwest Passage High School in Coon Rapids, MN, I was privileged to lead and develop one of the most innovative high school in America.  I assembled some of the most creative and passionate staff that I ever worked with, and we took on the most challenging students and delivered personalized learning to every student.

For those of you who don’t know, the last four years at NWPHS I have been commuting on Thursdays and Monday to school leaving my wife, Angie to raise the kids alone in Cornucopia, WI.  She has done an amazing job, but we have reached our limit.  The kids are at an age where they need their dad.  Recognizing that, we began looking for a way to bring the family together. 

One of the options was pursuing a career teaching in an international school.  Angie’s sister, Carrie, has taught in Taiwan for 13 years.  In fact when Angie was getting her teaching license, she student taught at Carrie’s school.  Seven or eight years ago we had put together our files to attend the University of Northern Iowa’s International Teaching Fair.  So the idea of moving abroad was nothing new, more like it was a concept that was delayed.

In August, we joined Search Associates and assembled the required materials to complete our international job file.  Search then uploaded our file to their database and we picked an associate to guide us through the process.  Then the application process began.  I began to apply for administrative positions world wide.  I had several interviews with schools in Africa and China.  I also had a lot of rejections.

Then in October I received an email from Robert Trent, the Director of the Qatar Leadership Academy.  He spotted my resume on Search and noticed my experiential, Outward Bound, and NOLS experience.  That began the whirlwind dialog on Skype, the trip to Qatar before Thanksgiving, and the acceptance of a very nice job offer, which I accepted.