After a contentious Board meeting, the following may be a discussion between two Trustees in the school parking lot. “Why does the School Head keep bringing Leadership Team members to our meetings? It sure throws a wrench into our sessions. It just says to me the Head doesn’t know what’s going on...

Parents seek convenient services that maximize their time and minimize their stress. For many, getting their children to and from school is the most inconvenient aspect of life in a private school. If your school provides transportation options, you, as Marketing Communications Director, have a mark...

Hiring and keeping a talented School Head is one of the Board’s major responsibilities. But, frankly, most Boards only allocate time to Head succession when the School Head resigns and the urgent need to find the next leader is forced on them. Boards must understand that Head succession planning is ...

Periodically, a private-independent school faces the challenge of launching a search for a new School Head. While Boards comprise people who can define the search components and estimate the monetary costs, they may not consider the indirect “expenses” in personnel, time, and organizational dis...

School headship has always been challenging, but the proliferation of failed headships in private-independent schools during the past five years has illuminated the profound significance of the “match” between School Heads and schools (and their primary constituencies). One key Stability Marker (Sta...

Admission Offices face new challenges every year, from meeting enrollment targets to the pressure of balancing selectivity while expanding access to students and families with unique profiles. A well-run admission department should yield an incoming student class whose academic priorities and values...

The ISM Circle was designed to graphically depict the ideal management structure for an independent school. In the lower half of the Circle (see the accompanying graphic), you’ll find those administrative functions that lay the financial and operational foundation of your school’s mission (e.g., fin...

Group dynamics impact any organization’s successful operation. Your school’s Board of Trustees is no exception. Specific behaviors and roles are common in groups, and Trustees must always be cognizant of these group elements to keep your Board’s efforts on track and strategically productive. Often t...

To consistently build a productive major gift program, you, as Development Director, must learn to manage relationships with a broad spectrum of individuals who have varying attachments to your school. Development teams in private-independent schools are generally too small to have one or more indiv...

Teacher compensation is an ongoing topic of conversation and debate in independent schools. It’s often the first “fix” schools look to when dealing with a negative faculty culture or teacher shortage, even though research shows school atmosphere and predictable and supportive leadership have a greater influence on a teacher’s choice of where to work.