Advisory · Fractional & Shared Leadership
Experienced leadership, at the scale your school can actually carry.
Small Montessori schools rarely fail for lack of commitment. They struggle because the work of running a school is a full-time role, and the budget only supports a fraction of one. So it gets divided among people who were hired to do something else. A fractional or shared head of school gives you the real thing, sized to what your enrollment supports.
Start a conversation →Who This Serves
Four schools this was built for.
The school that cannot afford a full-time head
Sixty children, a tight tuition model, and a budget that will not carry a full head-of-school salary with benefits. So the work gets split across a lead guide, an office manager, and a board chair who is already working a full-time job elsewhere. Everyone is covering. Nobody is leading.
The school where the founder is still doing everything
The founder built the school and still runs admissions, payroll, staffing, family concerns, and a classroom. The school works because of one person’s hours. A fractional head takes the operational and organizational load so the founder can do the part only they can do.
Two small schools that could share one leader
Two programs within reach of each other, each too small for a full-time head, each needing the same expertise. A shared arrangement gives both schools an experienced leader on defined days, with clear boundaries about whose work happens when.
The school building toward a full-time role
Enrollment is growing and a full-time head is the right destination, but not this year. Fractional leadership holds the standard now and builds the systems the eventual full-time head will inherit, so the role is worth stepping into when you can fund it.
Three Arrangements
Naming the difference, because schools ask.
Fractional
Ongoing part-time leadership for one school. The school has a head of school; that person is simply not full-time. Best when the need is steady but the budget is not yet whole.
Shared
One experienced leader serving two small schools on a divided schedule. Each school gets defined days and a clear scope. Best when two nearby programs face the same gap and neither can carry the role alone.
Interim
Temporary full-time coverage while a school searches for a permanent head. That is a different need, and it runs through MatchHub rather than through Advisory.
Interim leadership placement→What the Role Holds
A head of school’s work, on a defined schedule.
Defined days on site or on call, agreed in advance and held
Operational leadership: staffing, enrollment, budget rhythm, compliance
Supervision and coaching for guides and staff who currently have none
Board partnership, including meeting preparation and honest reporting
Family communication when it is hard, not only when it is routine
Systems that outlast the engagement, documented so the school keeps them
Scope, days, and term are set per school. Every arrangement begins with a conversation about what your school actually needs and what it can sustain, because a fractional role that is scoped dishonestly helps no one.
Tell us what your school is carrying.
We will tell you honestly whether a fractional or shared arrangement fits, whether an interim placement is the better answer, or whether what you need is a season of advisory support instead.