Financial aid applications are rolling in. Formulas are being tested. Your committee is working in overdrive, reviewing and organizing applicants. Decisions are being made. Final decisions are being made. Now, it’s time to send out notifications to those receiving financial aid, and to those not qualifying.

Q: I have a good idea what type of claims employees can bring against schools (for wrongful termination, harassment, and the like). What type of claims do you see parents bringing against schools? Do Directors & Officers (D&O) policies generally cover these claims?

Attention science lovers: The EPA recently released a report on 2012 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions from large facilities around the nation. It is important to note that this report does not reflect total US GHG emissions, but yet demonstrates findings based on reporting facilities.

Getting your school’s message out there is easy. Getting your school’s message heard through the clutter of everyone else’s is the tricky part.

Since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Connecticut, school administrators and parents are on edge. The tragedy has thrust gun control and school security issues to the forefront of the national conversation, and zero-tolerance policies are once again in the news.

Daniel Day Lewis’s striking portrayal of Abraham Lincoln as he works the political maze to pass the 13th amendment to outlaw slavery and involuntary servitude in the film Lincoln will be coming to all public and private school middle and high schools as soon as the DVD hits stores.

Q: I’m the Business Manager/HR person for a midsize school (50 employees). I’d like to automate our HR record-keeping functions, and I’ve started to look into what our payroll provider offers. Is there a software program or vendor that you would recommend?

In the 12 months since we released the new ISM Evaluation and Growth Cycle model, we’ve been asked to compare this to other approaches that schools currently use. We’re happy to address one particular theme concerning evaluation rubrics.

Looking at the calendar (and observing the cold, gray weather here in the Northeast), we know that we’ve reached the winter doldrums—the time of year when measures of enthusiasm, engagement and morale bottom out in schools (and most other organizations, for that matter). Part of the collateral damage often involves a fraying of working relationships between groups as well as individuals.

If your school has a Facebook presence, but you’d like to see more wall banter, why not have some fun? Facebook isn’t just for posting cat pictures! Give your Facebook fans something to comment on, just for the sake of commenting. After all, engagement it what it’s all about, and it’s a painless way to engage your alumni.