Program Dates: September 15, 2020—September 14, 2021 | Program Cost: $88/month for 12 months

Explore how to succeed as an executive or administrative assistant through virtual monthly meetings and peer solutions that address your real-time challenges.

The role of the executive or administrative assistant is vital to school operations. In many ways, you are the glue that holds your school together. But it also comes with its challenges, especially as many schools work in online or hybrid environments.

• Are you frustrated by apparent misalignment of job performance and expectations between you, your supervisor, and your peers?
• Do you struggle to set boundaries to support the successful execution of your job responsibilities?
• Are you constantly trying to implement time management practices, only to be faced with crises that are not of your making, but now demand your attention?
• Is your virtual office environment overwhelming, lonely, or frustrating?

Join ISM’s Administrative Assistant Group Coaching: September 2020 for support and strategies to succeed in your role.

Meeting Dates: September 15, October 15, November 16, & December 15 | Meeting Times: 1–2:30 p.m. Eastern Time

The Board has a critical role in planning the long-term sustainability of a school. This online workshop teaches you not only how to structure your Board effectively, but also how to help the School Head and Board President work together so the school thrives.

Join us to explore how your school’s Strategic Plan and Strategic Financial Plan form the foundation of governing excellence. We will also detail the Board’s role in fundraising and how to build a committee structure that empowers effective governance.

Your school’s future can be bright. This online workshop will give you the confidence to lead the Board successfully with a comprehensive, proven approach to Board management.

On-Demand Session Available | Pre-recorded sessions to view anytime

Your school might be risk-mitigation ready for campus reopening. But is your Health Team and COVID Response Team ready to deal with exposures, screening, and illness?

School health officials and those that oversee the Health Office should attend this one-day online workshop so they are not asking, “What do we do if we have a student or staff member with symptoms?”

This workshop will help you understand how to monitor and respond to screening triggers, reports of illness, COVID-19 positive cases, and possible exposures. You will receive key documents and tools, such as infographics, guides, decision trees, and checklists. These will help you take quick, decisive action in all scenarios, track cases to identify trends, and work most effectively with your local department of health.

This session will be led by Adrianna Bravo, M.D., FAAP, who has devoted her 20-year pediatric career to working in independent day and boarding school health. She is a consultant, presenter, content creator, and advisor for school reopening planning and readiness in the face of SARS-CoV2, Coronavirus, and COVID-19.

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As your school continues to grapple with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, you may not think planning next year’s summer program is a priority.

However, a quality summer program can still add tremendous value to your school. A summer program is an excellent source of auxiliary income that lets your school extend its mission beyond the school year, to a greater number of students.

A quality summer program can provide additional funds and a different pool of students to support your school’s goals. Join us to explore what it takes to run a quality summer program and how it can support your mission and bottomline.

In these times of disruption and change, it is more important than ever to foster a stable environment that supports teachers. This ensures they can respond to the challenges at hand and can continue delivering your school’s mission with excellence.

Attend this online workshop to engage in meaningful conversations about transforming your culture. You’ll explore a mission-driven and comprehensive approach to hiring and induction, assessing and enhancing faculty and school culture, faculty growth and evaluation, corrective action, selective retention, and coaching and mentoring.

Online Course Timeframe: October 2020 | Synchronous Meetings Times: Tuesdays in October from 1-2:30 p.m. Eastern Time, starting October 6

The simple fact is this: Schools need to utilize inbound marketing strategies today more than ever.

Why? Because families are doing more online research about your school than ever before (especially during the pandemic). You need a way to “pre-sell” them on your school, distinguishing your school from the competition and establishing it as the thought leader in your community.

Discover how creating an inbound marketing strategy will help you accomplish these goals. These sessions will meet every Tuesday in October to help you build a complete inbound marketing plan that will drive admission inquiries and enrollment.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact schools’ enrollment management strategies. If you are unprepared, you risk not being able to respond to a fluctuating market.

This online workshop, designed specifically for School Heads, blends the principles of strategic financial planning and enrollment management to ensure targeted, specific, sustainable enrollment outcomes.

Join us to discover the truth: ALL the factors challenging your enrollment are fixable, and most “fixes” cost you nothing! Don’t suffer with unpredictable enrollment outcomes anymore.

As the Executive or Administrative Assistant, your supervisor relies on you to accomplish daily tasks. In order for this working partnership to be effective, you must have strong, open lines of communication and trust on both sides.

Join us to learn how to create and strengthen this partnership, ensuring you’re able to perform your job with ease. Explore how to anticipate your supervisor’s needs to be effective and successful in your role.

This online workshop, designed specifically for new Admission Directors, maps out key concepts all offices should consider. Combining key ISM theories with both tactical and strategic systems, this course aspires to help all new Admission Directors build a successful foundation for a productive office.

Learn best practices and key roles of an Admission Office with the goal of building an effective team. You’ll discover how to understand and embrace the admission funnel as well as how to design and implement a meaningful marketing strategy. You will begin to think strategically about your school’s opportunities and challenges as it relates to enrollment and retention. Through small group work and discussion, we will target topics of interest and network to generate real-time tips and plans to take back to school.

Schools are driven by the ever-increasing demand for more funding, yet are also aware of return on investment. Therefore, many focus their fundraising efforts on major gifts.

Even in these uneasy times, it is possible to collect major gifts by using foundational approaches to build and solidify relationships with your biggest donors. Some might argue this has never been more important. This workshop explores a proven methodology for creating a fundraising program that produces generous returns, now and in the future.

Just the words "financial aid" are enough to bring a moan, or at least a heartfelt sigh, from even the most seasoned administrators. The paperwork, the stress, the phone calls from parents, the difficulty in matching available funds to need—these are just some of the headaches that come with making financial aid decisions at private-independent schools.

However, a mission-appropriate, organized approach to financial aid can significantly ease the stress of the process. With the right framework, you can have confidence in your decision-making skills and assure applicants and school leadership of an effective and fair process.

Your Development Committee is a critical link between the Board’s strategic goals and the philanthropic efforts of your school. Since most Strategic Plans contain the need for soft (gift) income to underwrite parts of the Plan, the Development Committee plays a pivotal role in the yearly work of your Board. Consequently, the committee must focus on strategic items, rather than being bogged down in everyday operational fundraising issues.

This online workshop empowers your school to create a Development Committee that supports an effective partnership between the Board, the school's professional administrative staff, and donors and prospects. The result is a Board that can robustly support your development efforts for the benefit of your students.

The efforts of the Marketing Communications Office are integral to your private-independent school, providing a unified message to your faculty and staff, students, families, and the larger community.

Discover how to excel in this position through proven strategies, in-depth knowledge, and hands-on activities to create a marketing communication action plan you can immediately implement. You'll also explore new tactics you should take in the wake of COVID-19.

The most enduring relationships that any school can have is with its alumni. Healthy, productive relationships with alumni are possible when your school has a well-organized, alumni-focused volunteer program.

This online workshop helps you create a well-organized and responsive program that empowers you to engage and steward alumni. Discover how to plan and execute virtual and in-person alumni events, reunions, and fundraising initiatives.