We've received several calls in recent months from schools wondering whether a letter they ostensibly received from "CMS" seeking employee data is legitimate. Suspicions were high among a few Business Managers we spoke with who were concerned that the letter might be a scam, that someone was trying to steal the identity information of their employees.

Private-independent schools don't have the same issues concerning high school dropouts. However, every school is affected in some respect. Robert Balfanz, co-operator of the Baltimore Talent Development High School, co-director of the Everyone Graduates Center at John Hopkins University, and researcher, has determined four core reasons why students drop out of school before graduating.

When an athletic coach in Hernando County starting getting text messages from one of his teenage female students, he thought nothing of it. He often kept in contact with his students that way. However, many of her text messages were not related to the weightlifting team—they were in regard to personal issues.

Q: "What is the difference between the Annual Fund and Annual Giving?"

As Development Director, your role is to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward donors who will then invest in your school's mission. In order to do that successfully, you need the physical environment that will support your activities. So, what should your Development Office look like?

Everybody loves a hard hat. Well, maybe not people who have to wear them every day. But for the rest of us, there is just something kind of cool about being on a construction site, wearing a hard hat. If you are in a capital campaign, and you have construction going on, you have the perfect opportunity to give your constituents a special experience and build enthusiasm for the outcome!

When we set out to find monthly green tips that can impact schools, sometimes we come across the most interesting stories. This month, instead of bringing you a bulleted list of green facility ideas, we're bringing you a whole site full of green educational opportunities and inspiration for your campus. Discover Plastiki. A crew of six people aboard a sailboat made from 12,000 plastic bottles are tweeting, blogging, and filming their journey from California to Australia. It's a 100-day, 10,000-mile science project—and its mission is to spread knowledge about pollution and the power in recycling.

In January, as we were welcoming in a new year, the Ventura school district of southern California was also welcoming a new milestone along their path to being a green school district. Replacing one of their 1977 bus models, they introduced a new state-of-the-art, plug-in hybrid electric school bus to their fleet. Green buses are currently only being produced by one manufacturer in the U.S.—IC Bus Subsidiary of Navistar Inc., based in Raleigh, NC.

Bullying cases are back in the news—and they're more intense than ever. Texting and social media have opened new doors to bullies. Recently, msnbc.com published an article in the wake of a Massachusetts teenager's suicide that shared bullying stories from readers. Some were parents reflecting on their own experiences, and some were parents sharing their challenges concerning their children. One message was consistent—all authors wondered why the school's administration wasn't more involved in protecting the victims.

School gardens are popping up all over the country. It's one of the ways educators are reaching kids about greening efforts, lowering emissions, basic horticulture, biology, and social skills without lecturing. School gardens allow students, teachers, faculty, and even community members to get involved from the ground up, and then later benefit from the garden's fresh produce and florals. Green schools, rather they be "green" by their lunches, their community gardens, or their curriculum, are becoming a national movement.