Associate Deans Lisa Redding and Brian Poon, and Deans of Students Anthony Meyer and Scott Butchart all have new positions in the administration this year. Photos by Ethan Roubenoff and Sophie Rubin.

The deans’ teams in both suites have been rearranged and filled with a mixture of both interim and permanent administrators after both deans of students ended their tenures in the past year.

After Anthony Meyer was tapped to succeed Diane Lande as dean of students for the classes of 2014 and 2016 last spring, Lisa Redding ‘89 has taken Meyer’s place as associate dean for the class of 2014.

Scott Butchart will succeed Dean of Students Adrian Mims, who left over the summer to work with the Calculus Project, as interim dean of students for the classes of 2015 and 2017. Brian Poon, filling Buchart’s old role, will be the interim associate dean for the freshman class. Poon and Butchart will hold their current positions for one year while the proceedings for  hiring a new dean are carried out, according to Holman.

“Mr. Butchart was a finalist for this past spring search, so he was the likely person to tap to be the acting dean for this year, and I’m very grateful he said yes,” Holman said.

According to Holman, candidates for the permanent dean position must go through several rounds of interviews, the first with a dean’s search committee made up of faculty, counselors, administrators, parents and students. The committee will determine the characteristics it is looking for in a new dean before the interviews begin as well as the questions to ask candidates; after the first round of interviews, all candidates will be brought in for individual interviews. Finalists for the position will then be determined.

“The three dean candidates come to the school, they meet with me, they meet with the assistant headmaster, they meet as a group with the curriculum coordinator, they meet as a group with the deans,” Holman said. “They have an open faculty forum, where the faculty can ask each candidate questions, and they meet in the evening with a open parent forum where the parents can ask questions, and then the final recommendation of a new dean resides with me.”

Holman stressed the importance of the deans within the school.

“All of the deans and associate deans hold the school culture and student culture in their hands. They, with the guidance counselors, are the main contact outside of class with kids,” Holman said. “The two deans are in charge of communicating well to the students the expectation and culture of Brookline High School. And that is incredibly important.”

Holman’s main concern about the impact of the changes in staffing lay in how she could best help the new deans and administrators adjust to their positions.

“The two academic dean positions are big positions that take a lot of time, take a lot of commitment, take a lot of skill and parent, student and faculty relations,” Holman said. “They’re so time consuming, so, like with any administrative job the concern was how well I support Dean Butchart and Dean Meyer stepping into these positions so that they can be successful. I have utmost confidence in them, and my concern was more how would I be able to support them, because I want to support them optimally.”

Juliana Kaplan can be contacted at [email protected].