Dear SDFAS Community:
It is with great pleasure and pride that The Board of Trustees
announces the appointment of Mr. Mark Rosenblum as
SDFAS’s new Head of School, effective August, 2017. With over
20 years of experience as a teacher and administrator in
independent and international schools, Mr. Rosenblum is an
accomplished educator and proven leader with an enduring
commitment to bilingual education. Well-versed in the culture and
ethos of French-American school life, and with personal ideals that
align perfectly with SDFAS’s core values, Mr. Rosenblum is wellsuited in every respect to build upon the great legacy of our special
school.
To lead SDFAS into the next phase of excellence, the Board of
Trustees sought a dynamic leader with a strong commitment to the
mission and values of SDFAS - to provide a distinctive bilingual
curriculum rooted in the rigor and creativity of the French and
American academic traditions. The Board also called for a strategic
thinker and exceptional communicator in both French and English,
who would be present, approachable, and acutely able to articulate the vision and needs of the school within
the SDFAS community and beyond. Finally, the board searched for a candidate with meaningful experience
in the French, American, and International secondary school worlds to better prepare our students for what
lies ahead.
In many ways, Mr. Rosenblum seems to have cultivated his career with a view toward becoming our Head of
School. His early love of French culture and ardent commitment to master the French language led to a
Master of Arts in French from Middlebury. The prestigious Klingenstein Fellowship, a Master of Education
in Private School Leadership from Columbia University, and a teaching career in both international and
American schools ensued. Passionate about bilingual education, he went on to seek leadership opportunities
that would allow him to shape the curricular vision and governance of internationally-minded institutions.
Five years as Chair of the World Language Department at La Jolla Country Day afforded him administrative
experience in the highly competitive San Diego independent school market and led to his current role as
Head of High School at French-American School of New York (FASNY), a school that enthusiastically
espouses nearly the same mission and values as SDFAS.
Mr. Rosenblum’s experience at FASNY is particularly relevant for SDFAS. Like SDFAS, FASNY prepares
its students for further study in the American, French, or French-American systems of higher education. Mr.
Rosenblum has become well-versed in the French and American curricula, the French Baccalaureate, and the
International Baccalaureate Diploma programs. The insight and expertise he has gained in simultaneously
administering every aspect of these respected programs is invaluable. He has grown the school’s visibility
both locally and internationally and has become adept at recruiting highly qualified faculty from around the
world. Moreover, Mr. Rosenblum understands and respects the needs of the Francophone community as well
as the diverse families of SDFAS, having served a similar community at FASNY, which, like SDFAS, seeks
to implement the best practices and pedagogical cultures of both the French and American systems.
Mr. Rosenblum's achievements and professional background reveal a bright, hardworking individual with a
keen ability to envision and successfully carry out forward-thinking, bilingual educational experiences for
the students he serves. Whether it be founding a prestigious French immersion language academy,
implementing a comprehensive World Language curriculum, or cleverly engineering an International
Baccalaureate Program to coexist alongside a French Baccalaureate, Mr. Rosenblum has proven himself a
determined, effective leader with exceptionally high standards and an unwavering dedication to excellence in
education.
Further, Mr. Rosenblum is uniformly regarded by his current and former colleagues as an energetic, clear
communicator with a collaborative leadership style and student-centered approach. Individuals with whom
he has closely worked invariably describe him as a person of deep integrity and sincerity. Many of you who
had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Rosenblum remarked that he is thoughtful, reasoned, and not without a sense
of humor. The Board is extremely confident about Mr. Rosenblum’s ability to honor our history, mission,
and values and to move us forward as a leader in both French-American and Independent School education.
This announcement is the culmination of a long and meticulous search process that began shortly after
Christian Jarlov announced his retirement. The Search Committee, together with Bob Fricker, gathered input
from the Board and SDFAS community to develop a position profile identifying the qualities needed in our
next leader. After reaching out to 2,500 contacts across the country and abroad, the Committee received 44
expressions of interest and thoroughly evaluated the top 16 prospects. Seven qualified candidates were
selected to visit the school for in-depth, in-person interviews, and three finalists were invited back to meet
with faculty, administration, staff, students and parents. After carefully reviewing the information gathered
from extensive interviewing, deep referencing, and community feedback, Mr. Rosenblum clearly
distinguished himself from a pool of impressive candidates, and the Board is confident that he is the right
person to lead SDFAS.
We are so looking forward to welcoming Mr. Rosenblum and his wife, Stacy, as they join the SDFAS
community with their son, Julian, who will enter the fourth grade. In the meantime, the Board of Trustees
and the Search Committee would once again like to thank the parents, faculty, staff, students, and
administration for their participation in the search process and for providing valuable feedback. We
truly appreciate your dedication to SDFAS, and we look forward to your continued support under Mr.
Rosenblum’s leadership.
We would also like to thank Christian Jarlov once again for his outstanding leadership throughout his
tenure and for his important participation in the recruitment of Mr. Rosenblum. We look forward to
working with Mr. Jarlov over the next year to assure a smooth and successful transition.
Sincerely,
SDFAS Board of Trustees
Natalia Bertran
Serge Brachet
Nanouchka Guilhemfouert
Paul Guckian
Ian Hayden
Artun Kutchuk
Kyndra Leach
*Please see message from Mark below
Eric Otterson
Chantal Reed
Teresa Sekiguchi
Jennifer Silver
Francesca Torriani
Benoit Vincent