Ten Eco-Tips for the Holidays Originally published on care2.com by Kelly Magill. The holidays are here! Along with the holiday spirit, a few extra pounds, and a happy but hectic hustle, this time of the year can be very wasteful. This year, however, you don’t need to feel guilty for going all out in your celebrations. We’ve come across an article that’s packed with tips on how to minimize your holiday footprint.

In “At Elite Schools, Easing Up a Bit on Homework,” the New York Times reports that a group of elite New York City private schools has decided to give over-programmed students a breather. Dalton School will stagger tests and papers, as well as push midterms back so students can actually relax during the holiday break. Hunter College High School has established three “homework holidays.” The Horace Mann School now has a tutoring center for students to help get it all under control.

Myth: Schools located in cities and those in suburbs will naturally have different security practices.

On the eve of yet another Facebook facelift (F8), Facebook hits a new milestone with 800 million users.

Every school has its own policy for accepting kindergartners. For some, it’s a birthday deadline, others it’s a developmental readiness assessment. And, yet there is no definitive answer. When to accept students, or start students, is a difficult decision—and often one that is ultimately made by the parents.

Although the School Head is responsible for hiring a strong, mission-based faculty, the Board must provide the needed funding, via strategic financial planning, so that the Head can recruit and retain a quality teaching staff for your school. Keeping new teachers is especially difficult in the current economy and market.

The Committee on Trustees is always searching for “ideal” Board members—people whose skills and personal qualities help to keep your school moving forward. As time goes on, however, it is worth revisiting the essential responsibilities, behaviors, and priorities of Trustees. This training might be part of your annual Board retreat or new Trustee orientation. The goal is to ensure that Board members know that the ideal Trustee:

Twitter, the microblogging site that has become a social media powerhouse, has also become a new media tool for private-independent schools. If you are tweeting now as part of your communication plan for constituents—or if you haven’t gotten into it yet—here are four tips to make your efforts highly effective.

Facebook and other social media outlets give you immediate access to your constituents. You can share information quickly and provide links to your Web site and other areas. Facebook also gives those constituents plenty of opportunity to talk back. This is a good thing, since you want to engage those individuals; you want your “fans” to say great things about your school.

Social media has quickly become part of the fiber of our culture—a pervasive yet effective means of connecting with your community and spreading the word about your school to a broader audience. In a recent Webinar hosted by edsocialmedia.com titled Social Media and Branding: Composing a Cohesive Tune, Rob Norman of Turnaround Marketing Communications asked, “How can I create branded content?” His answer was “give the audience what they want.”