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No matter if you’re a School Head, Admission Director, Development Director, Board member, or any other private school administrator—Ideas & Perspectives, ISM’s premier private school publication, has strategic solutions for the pervasive problems you face.
- Tuition not keeping pace with your expenses? In I&P, explore how to use strategic financial planning to create your budget and appropriately adjust your tuition.
- Enrollment dropping off? Discover how to implement the right admission and enrollment management strategies that engage your community—and fill your classrooms.
- Trouble retaining teachers? Learn how you can best support your teachers using ISM’s Comprehensive Faculty Development framework. Your faculty members will become more enthusiastic about their roles—which ultimately improves student outcomes.
- Fundraising campaigns not as successful as you’d hoped? Implement ISM’s practical advice and guidance to build a thriving annual fund, construct an effective capital campaign, and secure major donors—no matter your community size or location.
- Not sure how to provide professional development—for you and your staff? Learn ways to develop and fund a successful professional development strategy. You can improve teacher-centered satisfaction and growth, which in turn strengthens student-centered learning.
- Problematic schedule? You can master the challenges of scheduling with the help of ISM’s practical advice, based on our experience with hundreds of schools and our time-tested theories.
- And so much more.
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See the articles from our latest issue of Ideas & Perspectives.
Moody’s Independent School Outlook: The Implications
Volume 34 No. 8 // June 12, 2009
Each year, Moody’s Investors Service rates private-independent schools and the outlook for their ability to sustain debt (and, therefore, the advisability of an investor to support that debt). In the most recent ratings of the 52 schools it currently tracks, the service assigned stable outlooks to 94% of the schools, a positive outlook to 2%, and to 4%, a negative outlook.
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The Student Culture Profile and Your Purpose and Outcome Statements
Volume 34 No. 8 // June 12, 2009
ISM's Student Culture Profile has been in use for four years. Designed for use with middle and upper school students, the instrument can serve a useful purpose in your efforts, as School Head, to monitor the extent to which your student culture conforms to your school's core purposes and outcomes.
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Managing Faculty Culture in Times of Turmoil
Volume 34 No. 7 // May 12, 2009
In extraordinary times, leaders need to employ extraordinary insight. There is no school that we know of that is not contemplating or undergoing considerable change, and some of the change is negative—letting faculty go, eliminating raises, reducing or cutting programs and support services, increasing work loads.
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Revenue-Performance Bonuses
Volume 34 No. 7 // May 12, 2009
For schools that have frozen salaries for the upcoming school year (i.e., have awarded increases of 0%–2%), a system of Revenue-Performance Bonuses (RPBs) may be worth consideration.
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Avoid the Pitfalls When You Must Downsize
Volume 34 No. 7 // May 12, 2009
In difficult economic times, schools with declining enrollments or other financial pressures may feel the need to downsize their faculty and staff. ISM cautions schools to carefully consider the significant negative impact that downsizing can have on a school’s culture. When downsizing cannot be avoided, however, it is vital that a school conduct this process in a way that is legally compliant, doesn’t provoke discrimination claims, and attempts to minimize the negative cultural aspects as much as possible.
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Two Sarbanes-Oxley Regulations Your School Must Address
Volume 34 No. 6 // April 23, 2009
Soon after the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), I&P recommended that private-independent schools adopt the “principles embodied in SOX” as “guidelines for schools to use in ensuring that their management of financial affairs instills confidence.” Private-independent schools, acting as nonprofit institutions, are not required to observe most of the regulations found in SOX. However, there are two regulations they must follow.
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A Proactive Use of Cash Reserves
Volume 34 No. 6 // April 23, 2009
In the current economic climate, it is easy for schools to ignore an enormous potential source of strategic funds. The first of the ISM Stability Markers® is cash reserves, and ISM urges schools to set aside an amount equivalent to 15% of their operating expenses. This means, for example, that a school with a $4.5 million budget should have a cash reserve of $675,000. This is strategic money that has three major purposes (and a variety of other applications):
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Reducing Insurance Costs: Request for Proposal
Volume 34 No. 6 // April 22, 2009
ISM has often detailed how to reduce the costs of employee benefits and property and casualty insurance. This article focuses on the Request for Proposal.
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Economic Downturns, Stimulus Packages, and Financial Aid
Volume 34 No. 6 // April 22, 2009
We’re all aware of the economic downturn, and there is probably no better place to experience it firsthand than the financial aid “office” of your school. Financial aid officers across the country have faced increased applications during this economic downturn, placing greater burdens on tighter budgets. Therefore, it is time to think about a different financial aid model—financial aid as a school “stimulus package.”
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Reducing Insurance Costs: Property and Casualty Insurance
Volume 34 No. 5 // March 25, 2009
In a previous I&P article, ISM detailed how to reduce the insurance costs of employee benefits. This article provides recommendations for cutting the costs of property and casualty insurance. One way of reducing property and casualty coverage expense is to look at possible areas of change that may apply consistently through all lines of coverage. These include actions such as increasing your deductible or retention (the amount of risk you retain). While there may be an opportunity to save money here (i.e., you take on more potential risk for the known reward of premium savings), do not increase the amount of risk you retain past what the school can realistically afford!
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