Duties
The Dean of Students is the student-facing leader of the North Campus (grades 7-12), accountable for the day-to-day life of students at the age when faith, identity, and vocation are being most actively shaped. The role is built around three intertwined responsibilities named explicitly in the school's design of the position: guidance counseling (academic, college, vocational, and personal), student conduct, and the integration of Catholic mission into student life. The Dean partners closely with the Head of School, who maintains a primary office on the North Campus and serves as the building's chief administrator and academic leader; with the chaplain, who provides sacramental and pastoral leadership; and with the South Campus Principal, who leads PK-12 academic outcomes and data. The Dean is the most visible day-to-day presence among the students of the upper grades.
- Guidance counseling. Owns the school's guidance counseling function for grades 7-12: academic advising and course selection, college counseling and post-graduate planning, vocational discernment (including discernment of religious and consecrated vocations where the Spirit is at work), and the personal counseling that supports student wellbeing.
- Student conduct and discipline. Owns student behavioral standards, the student handbook, and the discipline of students at the North Campus, with discipline practiced as formation rather than mere correction, in the Gospel spirit of love and responsible freedom that the school's philosophy commends.
- Catholic mission in student life. Ensures that Catholic identity is woven through the daily life of students: retreats, service projects, prayer in the school day, sacramental moments, and the formation of a Catholic culture among the student body. Partners with the chaplain on sacramental and liturgical life and with the Head and faculty on the integration of Catholic teaching across the program.
- Student experience and retention. Cultivates a North Campus culture students want to be part of and families want to stay invested in; partners with Enrollment Management on retention strategy and with the Head on the experience of being a Schlarman student.
- Co-curricular and athletic student life. Oversees the student-facing dimensions of athletics and activities in partnership with coaches, club moderators, and the athletic director, with attention to the leadership-through-service the school aspires to cultivate.
- Partnership with parents on adolescent matters. Sustains a candid, respectful, and frequent partnership with parents as the primary educators of their children on the matters most often arising in the adolescent years: friendships, conduct, faith, mental health, and academic struggle.
- Partnership with the chaplain and clergy. Works closely with the chaplain on faith formation, sacramental life, and pastoral care, ensuring that the Catholic mission of the school is lived in the student-facing dimensions of daily life.