Two Reasons Why Families (Might) Leave Your School

Advancement // January 13, 2016

It’s January, which means there’s a fresh crop of potential student applications piled on your desk, waiting to be evaluated. While you’re combing through these forms, you’ve got a second form of recruitment this spring to remember: Re-recruitment. Just because your students currently attend your school doesn’t mean that they’ll automatically plan to return this fall. Here, then, are two reasons why families may choose not to re-enroll at your school for the 2016-2017 academic year.

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Ask ISM's Health Care Reform Specialist

Business and Operations // January 12, 2016

Q: We just got our renewal numbers for health insurance for the coming year, and they have us in the small group market. I thought that if you had 51 or more employees, you remained in the large group market. Did I receive the wrong quote?

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The Best of the Worst Job Applications

Business and Operations // January 12, 2016

While it’s only January, hiring season is quickly approaching. To prepare you for the onslaught of résumés and cover letters, we thought we’d offer you a humorous look at some other hiring managers’ “best of the worst” employment applications, collected from every corner of the World Wide Web. Are they true? We can’t say for sure, but they’re certainly entertaining.

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Three Policy Hurdles to Double-Check

Business and Operations // January 12, 2016

Reviewing your employee handbook—that central document every school employee is expected to read and comply with—mid-year while you can see your school’s policies in action is always a smart idea. While you may already have some adjustments in mind for next year’s edition, we’d like to point out three policy pain points to keep in the back of your mind during your review.

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Five Ideas for Protecting Your Food-Allergic Students

Business and Operations // January 5, 2016

With holiday celebrations behind us—including classroom parties, bake sales, and seasonal concerts that with festive intermission snacks—you might be taking some time over your break to think about refreshing your policies on food allergies. (Or, create one.) Allergy emergencies are intense, and, depending on the level of preparedness of your faculty and staff, they can be downright frightening. However, implementing too strict of policies can leave food-allergic students feeling isolated and outcast.

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Staying Positive In Negative Environments

Business and Operations // January 5, 2016

The holidays aren’t joyful times of the year for everyone. In fact, for some, the season triggers depression and lingering sadness. It can be a challenge to hold onto your positivity when those around you just want to rain on the parade. Staying positive is good for your health, though. Pessimistic people have a 20% higher risk of dying over a 30-year period than optimistic people. Smiling is healthy. Laughter is healing. And, even if you, are in a seasonal slump, these few tips can help you to keep focused and keep positive.

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Seven Excuses That Don’t Matter—And One That Does

Academic Leadership // January 4, 2016

Successful educational programs require hard work and (occasionally) difficult changes. It can be daunting to keep and sustain the sort of drive needed to make them take hold and become permanent. But, that doesn’t mean you should allow excuses or circumstances to prevent you from trying new initiatives to improve your school. Here, then, are seven common excuses that shouldn’t stop you from starting difficult changes—along with the one reason you should halt any initiative before it gets off the ground.

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Interdivisional Idiosyncrasies (Or, Your Division Is Not the Center of the Universe)

Academic Leadership // January 4, 2016

It’s easy to get caught up in the details and duties of your own division. Faculty meetings, evaluation and coaching, professional development, and perennial "fires" all demand your attention. But when you’re one Division Head of several in a multidivision school, you have to think beyond your own area. You must understand how your particular “cog” turns in the overall “machine” of the school, and how your students’ needs change as they age.

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The Caveats of Private School Vouchers

Board of Trustees // December 30, 2015

Some private schools today, looking for ways to alleviate budget demands, have turned to government vouchers to supplement tuitions. The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice found that Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin are currently the top states in which private schools are accepting vouchers; 27 states have some variation of vouchers. Catholic schools serving inner-city and low-income neighborhoods comprise most of private schools participating in voucher programs.

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Board-Level Diversity

Board of Trustees // December 30, 2015

Start your school’s diversity efforts at the Board level. Here, diversity can be addressed without the kind of direct costs usually associated with achieving socioeconomic or socioethnic diversity in your student body, or diversity in your administration, faculty, and staff. As Board President, your starting point is in your planning document, every iteration of which should call for a Board profile to be developed to fit the strategic or long range plan. Open the way for a Board discussion of diversity, even for a broad topic like “Increase the socioeconomic and socioethnic diversity on the Board of Trustees.”

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