As Head of a private-independent school, you generally operate on a budget that is rooted in tuition and other hard income matched to the cost to deliver your mission to your students. For your school to operate, you must recruit and retain your students and make every attempt to minimize the “gap” between tuition and cost to educate a student—striving to reduce that gap to zero. For continued success, your Trustees should be mapping out a strategic plan and a strategic financial plan to grow your school for future generations. You use your annual fund and other fund-raising efforts to support the “extras” that define your school.

As one last winter storm threatens Delaware, we’re still excited to start sharing spring-related articles and green tips. This month our Twitter followers led us to an interesting article on berkeleyside.com, about Sharon Gamson Danks, an urban planner who believes in edible, eco-education.

Good news ACSI member-school Business Managers, ISM and ACSI have announced their partnership.

21st Century Learning, student-centered learning, individualized learning, regardless of what you call it, technology in the classroom—and outside of it—is a hot topic. In fact, it’s a hard topic to ignore.

With homosexual student suicides making headlines, anti-bullying and anti-gay advocates are stepping up and pushing schools to make a change in their sexual education lessons.

Target hardening, including CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) is an approach to making your school a less attractive target for anyone with “bad intent.”

Your job is stressful. Private school administrators are among some of the hardest-working, devoted professionals out there. You work long hours, you’re constantly on the move from one project to the next, and your busy season seems to never end—there’s always something on the rise.

Although March is leaving Delaware like a lion, with chilly rain and rumors of one last snowstorm, spring has sprung. With warmer days promised, many schools are preparing to start planting their gardens—some have already begun using their patches for student exploration and learning.

As a Division Head, you have a group of faculty members that you guide and support every day. You also have a plethora of duties that keep you running day in and day out. By effectively delegating some of those duties, you not only help your teachers’ professional growth, but give yourself the time to focus on the duties that only you can do.

As winter hits much of the country with a few final blasts and springtime comes to the fore, many schools are in the midst of faculty contract renewal decisions. It is always a good idea to review your contract language each year to make sure that it still meets your needs. To aid in this effort, we’re happy to suggest a few tips and reminders.