Learn practical strategies to handle emerging trends and leadership challenges in private schools.
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.
The Role of Faculty in Admission
Volume 34 No. 1 // March 25, 2009
In the strategic roles given to various functions within a private-independent school, teachers are not left out. The Board provides the resources (money, facility, and management structure) to support the School Head and Management Team, and the School Head/Management Team provides a predictable and supportive environment within which exceptional faculty can thrive. The faculty's strategic role is to be aware of and drive successful student re-recruitment and new student recruitment. During these uncertain economic times, teachers must understand how critical their roles are in the admission process.
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The Shared Roles of Your School's Advancement Offices
Volume 34 No. 2 // March 25, 2009
In ISM theory, the development function, the constituent relations function (including marketing), and the admission function are all part of the school services termed "advancement." To assure efficient functioning among the advancement offices and effective execution of the tasks delegated to each team member, consider the following.
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Your Strategic Financial Plan: Minimum Annual Surpluses
Volume 34 No. 3 // March 25, 2009
ISM's Stability Markers® carry specific financial implications for your use, as Board President, in strategic planning. While all 18 markers contain general implications for every fresh strategic plan that you write, several are explicitly financial. There are, however, some strategic planning ramifications of the top-ranked ISM Stability Marker, the formulaic mix of your cash reserves, debt, and endowment.
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A Financial Contingency Plan for Your Worst-Case Scenario
Volume 34 No. 5 // March 25, 2009
As a subset of your next strategic plan—or as a right-now, no-cost, mid-course addition to your current strategic plan—form an ad hoc committee (including Trustees and senior administrators) to craft a financial contingency plan for the worst-case scenario that your school might face. Include in your contingency plan a cluster of "sensitivity markers" that will trigger the plan. (ISM wishes to acknowledge the Board of Trustees at Notre Dame Preparatory School/Marist Academy (MI), which inserted an item of this type into its recently completed, ISM-facilitated strategic plan.)
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Student Discipline, Policies, and Risks
Volume 34 No. 5 // March 25, 2009
The number of student discipline-related lawsuits against private-independent schools has been increasing over the past several years. Such actions can be with or without merit. The former may lead to a huge monetary loss at a time when schools can least afford it; the latter can lead to loss of reputation and negatively impact your ability to recruit and retain students (and coincidentally, teachers). A thorough review of the manner in which you handle disciplinary situations can possibly save you a great deal of time, money, and prestige.
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ADA Update:The Expanded Definition of Disability
Volume 34 No. 2 // March 25, 2009
The recently enacted ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) became effective January 1, 2009, significantly expanding the definition of disability and counteracting a number of recent court decisions that had previously limited the scope of the law. Schools need to be aware of the following elements of the updated law when interacting with employees or job candidates who are or may be considered disabled.
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The Link Between Internal Marketing and Demand in Excess of Supply
Volume 34 No. 3 // March 25, 2009
Two of the second-tier ISM Stability Markers®—"Internal Marketing" and "Demand in Excess of Supply"—are inextricably linked. As with all of the current 18 Stability Markers, they are important to your school's ability to maintain programmatic excellence, as the school defines it.
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Why Professional Human Resources Advice Is Essential to Your School
Volume 34 No. 4 // March 25, 2009
Many private-independent schools have long had professional human resources advice readily available to them, from either a staff member or an external consultant. Other schools are only now beginning to address this issue, often spurred by inquiries from Board members who work in the business world where the need for HR guidance is well-accepted. ISM believes that in today's complex operating environment, all schools need to assess their employee-related practices on a regular basis and have direct access to expert HR and legal advice.
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Your Companion Annual Agendas
Volume 34 No. 5 // March 25, 2009
Now is the time to set your companion annual agendas—the annual Board agenda and the annual operations (or administrative) agenda. ISM recommends this approach as the most efficient means of implementing your strategic plan. With this approach, both the Board President and the School Head will set aside time toward the end of the school year to establish these two short, but critical, documents in preparation for the upcoming year. (In practice, the President's annual Board agenda is often set in May or June; the Head's annual operations agenda, in July or August. The exact timing is of little consequence.)
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The New 403(b) Regulations: Finding the Right Fix for Your Plan
Volume 34 No. 1 // March 25, 2009
In previous issues of I&P, we discussed the upcoming changes to the regulations governing 403(b) plans, which will now take effect after December 31, 2009. The IRS created this new legislation to make 403(b) plans look and act more like typical 401(k) plans, and also to make sponsors of 403(b) plans assume greater responsibility for the administration of their plans. Since your school’s 403(b) plan is an ERISA plan, the government is going to hold you responsible for ensuring that the plan is administered in accordance with the plan document and that the plan always serves the best interests of its participants.
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