Managing Risk Beyond Gun Threats

Business and Operations // October 3, 2014

When you hear there have been 74 school shootings since the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012, it’s hard to believe that gun violence is declining. However, the statistics are showing that our campuses and communities are safer now than they were two decades ago. While 74 is not a number worthy of a long exhale of relief, news of declining gun violence does allow a certain level of comfort—and it allows us to focus some of our risk management planning regarding other threats that can affect your school beyond gun control.

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School Spotlight: Valley Christian’s “I Am a Warrior” Campaign

Private School News // October 2, 2014

With two beautiful campuses and a wide array of exceptional programs for scholars, athletes, and artists alike, Valley Christian boasted some impressive stats that should've made any advertising campaign easy to pull off. But marketing a school requires more than just numbers and bulleted lists of accomplishments, as the newly minted Director of Marketing Kim Ellefsen discovered. In the end, her original “I Am a Warrior” campaign both inspired the on-campus community of teachers and students, and attracted outside acclaim.

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“Show Me the Money”—What Impacts Students’ Future Earning Potential?

Private School News // October 2, 2014

How much money can today's students—tomorrow's work force—expect to make over their lifetimes? As it turns out, private-independent schools control several factors that may impact a student’s lifetime earning potential.

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Written by the Victors: AP History Exam Overhaul and Curriculum Responses

Private School News // October 2, 2014

Independent schools are blessed with their autonomy. No outside regulatory board can tell them what, when, or how to teach their students. But, what happens when qualifying exams run by external companies and boards decide to adjust the tested information? Do private schools stick with their curricula, or change them to ensure high test performance and better college admission for students? Welcome to the chaotic world of AP US History.

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Ask ISM's Health Care Reform Specialist

Business and Operations // October 1, 2014

Q: After our Welcome Back Orientation, we had an employee indicate she wished to drop our health coverage effective January 1, 2015, and purchase an individual policy on the exchange. Is this allowed, as our insurance renews October 1?

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The Yik Yak Debacle: Private Schools Respond to Cyberbullying

Business and Operations // October 1, 2014

Policing students on technology and social media can feel like a Sisyphean effort at times. Students always seem to discover workarounds for security obstacles set before them, whether it’s an expensive firewall or the latest generation of record encryption software. Enter Exhibit A: The Yik Yak app.

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Disaster Liability: The Tick Encephalitis Case

Business and Operations // October 1, 2014

When is a disaster an unavoidable strike of fate versus a foreseeable misfortune? That question encapsulates the potential risk your school evaluates every time a tragedy like the Sandy Hook shooting or the Ebola outbreak appears on national media. But no one could have foreseen the consequences a tick bite would have on a young private school student returning from a school-hosted trip to China—consequences that would have one school sued for millions of dollars.

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Responding to Criticism, Part One

School Heads // September 25, 2014

A new school year means new students, new teachers, and—yes—new problems for you, the School Head, to resolve. No matter your experience level, you’ll make a decision this year that will be unpopular with someone. You’ll receive private and public criticism for those decisions, however necessary or difficult they were to make, and be left questioning yourself. What is the most graceful way to respond to such censure? Oddly enough, we can look to HBO’s new satirical news segment “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” for two great examples of how leaders and organizations should (and should not) respond to candid criticism. The first, commercial fruit juice company POM Wonderful, responded well; the second—which we’ll cover next month—responded poorly.

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Comprehensive Interviewing: Phone Interviews

School Heads // September 25, 2014

While the “normal” hiring season has long since closed, School Heads are not strangers to the last-minute change of faculty or staff. Despite the urgency of these eleventh hour hiring decisions, you can’t afford to skip comprehensive interviews. Phone interviews in particular can play a vital role in the interviewing process, as they allow you to determine early on who might do well and who is not suited to the role before you and your search committee invest time and personnel into the in-person interview. With that in mind, we’ve assembled some quick tips on phone interviews to help them proceed as smoothly as possible during this “off season” recruitment.

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An Enhanced Agenda for the Strategic Board

Board of Trustees // September 23, 2014

A typical Board meeting at many schools is based on a standard format primarily structured around reports from the School Head and various committees. This type of meeting often fosters results that call for little or no action. When trapped in such routine agendas with no true focal points, many Board meetings simply “go through the motions.”

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