Benilde-St. Margaret’s is hiring new staff members for two new positions: a full-time Director of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging and a new high school principal to replace the departing Dr. Susan Skinner.  

Dr. Susan Skinner has accepted a new job at Hill Murray High School in Maplewood, Minnesota  where she will continue to think of herself as a Red Knight. “This school is really about helping us all build the kingdom of God, how we are called to show up in the world, called to be disciples, and also called to work for change. I will miss that energy and the people here that embody that energy for me. I will always be a Red Knight,” Skinner said. 

Another big change is that BSM will be hiring a Director of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging to continue to make improvements for all families, students, and alumni.There is always a deeper process to find the right fit for faculty and staff at BSM. There are many steps included in the hiring process at BSM, especially when it comes to high-profile positions. Interviews, recommendation letters, resumés, and samples of work, are the basic things that are looked at during the process. “You can’t just look at who’s leaving. You have to look at the whole. What does our school really need to build a good profile and also trying to find complementary pieces when putting together a team of faculty and staff,” BSM president Dr. Adam Ehrmantraut said. 

The school has already started their hiring process and have completed several steps, but there are still measures to be completed. “Initial paper screening has been completed, along with introductory interviews … Advisory committee interviews are ahead, along with site visits, reference and background checks,” Ehrmantraut said. 

At BSM, the qualifications and personality traits that are required to be a part of the team may differ from other schools. Faith is a very important aspect to BSM’s identity and something that the school is passionate about as they hire new staff. “We want teachers who want to be a part of that faith-based, Catholic school and the understanding that your job is more than a job, it’s more like a vocation or ministry,” Skinner said. 

Although the process might be different based on the needed position, the current process of hiring the EIB director and the new principal are very similar from a leadership perspective. “There are key domains that are important to leading a senior high and one is the commitment to the mission of the school… You can’t be successful in school leadership in a Catholic school without the commitment to vocation. That has to be there, it has to be front and center, visual, and authentic,” Ehrmantraut said. 

The role of the EIB director will be a pivotal role in promoting change and strengthening the community. “Community, belonging, and equity is about all of our students, all of the alumni and also about the parent community, and our surrounding community right around us. The idea is for someone to focus on that as a job, and if we can do that, we can make this place an even better place for our students, alumni, for our families, and our place in this community will continue to be more important,” Ehrmantraut said. 

The administration at BSM is still in the process of finding the right fit for a principal and EIB director. There is no set date for when the school will find replacements for the new positions, only a general estimation. “Both positions [will be] complete by Mid-May,” Ehrmantraut said.