A facilities audit will provide much of the data you need to create this schedule, as well as help you design a carefully staged implementation plan. The audit is a precondition for future planning.

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Campus construction, whether a new building or renovations to existing facilities, can be a wonderful and exciting experience for a school. The promise of enhanced educational opportunities for students (or more suitable administrative space) is a sign of a school that is healthy and growing. Students, parents, faculty, and staff who have endured inadequate classrooms or offices now look forward eagerly to the improvements.

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Ten years ago, ISM carried out the Research for School Management (RSM) International Model Schools Project, a six-year study that involved 51 schools. The research demonstrated that it was possible to intervene in the operations of a school and directly impact student performance, enthusiasm, and satisfaction. Two of the key characteristics concerning student performance derived from the research included: – a strong sense of community (predictability and support) within the school: students, faculty, and administration; and – student perception of instructional and administrative fairness, to include perceived fairness both in discipline and in grading.

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The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and ISM have long had differing perspectives on issues related to the pricing and affordability of private-independent schools. Some of these differences are the natural result of overlapping, yet quite distinct, membership/client lists. Other differences are more complex in origin. A blog article by NAIS Executive Director Patrick Bassett has again provided an opportunity to highlight some of these divergent points.

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The matrix we call scheduling—that complex interrelationship among time, space, program, and people—is not just a mere description of what is happening in your school. It should also provoke the reflection necessary to understand how the elements of excellent education interact and enable the prime conditions for optimal learning.

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As the Board Chair, you have been on the Board long enough to have often heard questions such as: “Don’t we have a policy on that?” “Didn’t the Development Committee consider that two years ago?” “What do the bylaws say?”

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The ISM’s Stability Markers® are those variables that are associated most strongly with a private-independent school’s ability to sustain excellence in its student programs. ISM has noted in the past that “there is a specific relationship between the ISM Stability Markers and the approach to planning that you, as Board President or School Head, should consider. To help you determine the planning ‘avenue’ that best suits your school’s current status (based on the Stability Markers), ISM has developed a selfscoring process.”

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Approximately $40 billion is spent each year in the United States to cool buildings, about one-sixth of all energy consumed. As air-conditioning costs rise, private-independent schools should look for every opportunity to conserve energy. One often-overlooked way to cut annual energy expenses may be right over your head.

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At approximate five-year intervals, the ISM consulting staff conducts an internal study designed to identify those variables that are associated most strongly with a private-independent school’s ability to sustain excellence in its student programs. The outcome list, termed the ISM Stability Markers®, changes moderately from one iteration to the next, in part because North American economic and enrollment-demand conditions tend to shift over time, and in part because ISM’s capacity to measure—and, thus, to detect—prominent markers gains strength steadily with enhancements in the organization’s internal research capabilities. The second iteration, published in 2001, comprised two tiers, the first with eight items listed in rank order and the second with nine more items that were not prioritized. This new iteration also comprises two tiers, with six items in the top tier and 12 unranked items in the second.

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While you want to avoid extravagance in setting the Head’s benefits, a Board that wants to recruit and retain a valued “CEO” should strive for a comprehensive, competitive compensation package. The Board President and Executive Committee (or those Trustees responsible for designing the Head’s compensation) should tailor the benefits package to meet the specific needs of the Head. Often, the “deal breaker” is not the salary, but the breadth of personal and professional benefits offered.

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