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.

Well folks, there lies the biggest problem with social networking. You can't benefit from what you don't utilize—you have to log in every now and again! Before you scroll away, frustrated with "all this new technology" that seems to demand constant attention which you can't imagine squeezing into your already over-booked workday, give us a second to highlight how various sites can benefit your position.

e-Readers on Campus: What College Students Had to Say The ever-evolving technology world has recently brought the idea of electronic libraries closer to a reality for schools and universities. On the ISM listservs, people are starting to ask about introducing e-readers to students. Since it seems to be of interest, we dug a little into what people are saying about reading and researching on e-reader screens versus "hitting the books" in their campus libraries.

No matter how hard we try to protect our children, there will always be some form of danger lurking along their path. We can never be careful enough, and this is especially the case when it comes to online safety. Over the years we've seen different trends in online crime. Chat rooms and social sites have been an ongoing topic of discussion. Predators seem to pool in these places, just waiting for an opportunity.