Basic LTD Benefits Maximum monthly benefits should be negotiable. A maximum monthly benefit of $5,000 provides full-policy coverage (at 60% of salary) for any employee making $100,000 or less. To provide benefit coverage for administrators on earnings of more than $100,000 per year, consider raising the maximum monthly benefit to $6,000, $7,500, or even $10,000. Many policies have guaranteed minimum benefits as well. Look for a minimum benefit that is the greater of a specific dollar figure ($50 or $100 is common) or a specified percentage of the normal gross monthly benefit. This will give higher-salaried employees a significantly greater minimum monthly benefit.  

Business Managers have one of the most demanding positions among all school administrators. You wear many hats—even some hats you may have never been trained to wear. A Human Resource Manager (or labor law expert) hat might be one of these.

According to a recent analysis conducted by The Washington Post, students in Washington DC's poorest neighborhoods are "nearly twice as likely to have a new or second-year teacher as those in the wealthiest." The result? Some of the city's neediest students are being taught at schools that "double as teacher training grounds."

Over the past few years, there has been an alarming rise in the amount of violent incidents in schools. And while it may be unsettling to think about, schools must do everything in their power to prevent the "unthinkable" from happening. While the following recommendations are by no means a complete checklist of all school security procedures that should be reviewed, they are an important first step toward this end.

Smart schools know one of the secrets to retaining valuable faculty and staff—offering as impressive benefits package as they can afford. Passion is the driving force behind why most of your employees work in the private-independent school realm. However, a good percentage of new recruits, about 60%, abandon the private school system each year because of the lack of benefits and/or weak benefit plans.

Q:Under FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act), am I required to permit a teacher who takes a leave in the springtime to come back before the end of the semester, even if only three weeks are left in the year/semester? This will disrupt the classroom significantly.

Probably the last thing you want to think about is your employee handbook. We've talked a lot about them over the past few months, but we wouldn't be doing our jobs if we ignored all the laws that have been altered and enacted in the last year. The simple truth is, handbooks are not only the key means for keeping your employee policies in compliance with the law, they are also your employee's guide to your culture, and to your school's mission. These shouldn't be written by lawyers for lawyers—heavy legalistic language can actually do more damage then good as it can confuse and/or detour employees from reading.

All we have been talking about is the economy and how it's changed the rules for everyone's life. Well, just forget about it for a minute. Here's some simple, fun, free things you can do this summer to make you smile.

Ideally, companies and organizations should upgrade software and hardware to meet new "standards" every five years. And if your school's computers are older, or much older, than that, you probably have the IT staff on speed dial.

The best blog for kid book reviews: A year Of Reading Looking for the latest children's books reviews? Well, this blog has them! Written by two teachers, this site shares thoughts about new publications from a classroom perspective. There's also some links to other book review blogs.