The people who contribute the most to the smoothness with which any organization functions are those to whom others turn for leadership and advice. By dint of their experience, talent, support, aggressiveness, or thoughtfulness, they inevitably develop a power base that impacts the school’s operation.

Your Board must “market” itself to your school’s constituents. One way to do this is to develop a system of reporting to parents and to the faculty and staff after each Board meeting.

A new school year is full of excitement and possibilities. As your teachers settle into their classrooms and kick off the fall semester, why not show appreciation for all that they do at your school?

Having a crisis plan (part of your comprehensive risk management plan) complete with disaster recovery is critical for all businesses—and certainly private schools—coastal or not.

Once you’ve successfully kicked off the school year, it’s time to turn your attention to the next big task. Believe it or not, that should be preparing for the following year’s summer program. The fall season is the perfect time to review your past year’s summer program, assess what’s working, and determine where you need to improve your offerings for next year. Prepare now for next summer’s program, even though it seems far off.

Your school newsletter, whether electronic or print, is more than a series of reminders and notices. When crafted strategically, it is a shining example of your school’s mission at work. Your school newsletter should illustrate the exemplary quality of the school’s education, the student body, and the people who deliver the program. It’s one of your strongest tools to influence recruitment and re-recruitment by showing the strength of your community, the value of programs offered, and the caliber of students and graduates produced.

Looking for a way to bring your community together? Empower your families and friends to advocate for your school? Consider an ambassador program. Parent and student ambassador programs are a great way to expand your reach and share authentic success stories with prospective families.

An important function of every school’s Business Office is helping create and maintain the crisis management plan. Many schools have created a Risk Management Team to oversee this function. If you’re a member of the committee, don’t forget to create your response and recovery action plans.

The following scenario was recently shared in our Business Manager e-list, a free, email-based, position-specific resource for private-independent school community members. “A student is enrolled for the 2017–18 school year but has a small outstanding balance on their 2016–17 tuition account. The parents promised to pay it over the summer but, before making the payment, filed for bankruptcy and named the school as a creditor. What do we do?”

ISM believes that one of the core tenets of school stability is a high-performing faculty, leading to strong student satisfaction and enthusiasm. But how does one determine whether a faculty member is “high-performing?” For many years, schools have primarily used teacher evaluations—usually classroom observations—to make this distinction. However, there’s evidence to show that traditional classroom evaluations aren’t always the best indication of high faculty performance.