It's official—summer has arrived! If you’re living east of the Rocky Mountains, you might have noticed a lot of clustered greenery along your favorite hiking trails and in your backyard. Knowing what to avoid when working in the yard and while walking through the woods will save you from weeks of red, itchy rashes called allergic contact dermatitis.

Green Summer Tips Not to Be Missed While looking for tips to include in this month's issue, we stumbled upon a blog for green summer tips. Many of these are simple changes you can make to your daily routine with minimal effort. Here's to having a happy and green summer!

As a Head of School, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring that all three advancement functions in your school are delivered with excellence. Understanding the symbiosis that exists among these three functions will assist you in your task of supervising the people in them, helping to insure that desired level of excellence for your school is achieved. Attending the Advancement Academy is an excellent way to begin gaining that understanding. Moreover, you will be in a position to better assist your advancement team with their professional growth and renewal. An often-cited leadership trait is the ability to make those around you better able to perform the tasks you have asked them to do.

A healthy student culture and a healthy faculty culture are keys to your school’s success. And there is one more key … a healthy parent culture.

According to an article in the New York Times, pressure over grades and college admission competition is driving private school students to abuse prescription stimulants. Alan Schwarz, who wrote the story, said the Times contacted over 200 students, school officials, parents, and others—and 40 agreed to be interviewed.

Q: We developed a “Characteristics of Faculty Excellence” statement a few years ago. At the time, it seemed to hold a lot of promise, but when we introduced it, it just sort of fell flat and was never really used. Is there any way to re-energize our list so that it’s not just one more forgotten document sitting on the shelf gathering dust?

The 2011–2012 school year has certainly been newsworthy. Bus accidents, bullying cases, and teacher/student sex scandals have made headlines and topped Twitter feeds throughout the year. It has been one tail-spinning year of risk management concerns. But, among these headlining topics, perhaps the most troubling stories have been those involving student sexual abuse.

The school year is winding down (or has already come to a close) and you’re looking forward to doing some planning in the less-harried atmosphere of summer. One of the things on your mind is next fall’s orientation program, we’re sure. Oh—it isn’t? Hmmm. Should it be? Actually … yes!

As the semester winds down, we know that your schedule ramps up—often without a moment to spare. Following our recent practice, we wanted to offer a selection of quick-and-to-the-point HR perspectives culled from recent Twitter and blog postings, to encourage and support you.

Earlier this month students in Wichita set out to illustrate the power of the Internet, and the fact that what you can say and do online can have far-reaching consequences by launching the “Wonder Who’s Watching?” campaign.