Private schools can suffer late-summer teacher resignations, often in August, mere weeks before the start of the new school year. Despite having signed a contract, a teacher may leave your school to work at another school, or even pursue another career—forcing you to find an immediate replacement. What can your school do to develop a plan of action to prevent this from happening?

Working parents need extended day programs that are well-designed, convenient, and flexible—and these parents are willing to pay for quality service. Yet, extended day programs are still managed in many schools as though they were side operations. To make these programs real contributors to the overall solvency and marketability of your school, consider the following steps.

Every member of the Academic Management Team must understand how to operate as the CEO—the School Head—does (mission-based and strategically oriented). Our understanding of the changing role of the Division Head now emphasizes this “headship” aspect of the role. In the past, the Division Head was bureaucratic—involved in curriculum development, policy setting, and handbook creation. The position rarely involved meaningful discussions with colleagues in other divisions, let alone in the Advancement or the Business Office. This will no longer suffice in today’s private-independent school. The Division Head now has one primary function and two supporting functions.

Today’s parents tend to view their child’s private-independent school with a profound sense of ownership. Since they “make payments” to the institution, parents reason that their privileges should include making explicit demands on teachers, on administrators, on Trustees, and on the curriculum itself. If granted, some of the demands would alter educational and programmatic policy and practice; others would provide a de facto waiver for that parent’s own child in regard to school policies and practices. The obvious counterweight should be added: Parents are sometimes right. The extent and difficulty of a third-grade teacher’s homework assignments may, in fact, be out of line. An upper-school history teacher’s response to one student’s tardiness may have been extreme. Your middle-school physical education courses may be ill-conceived or poorly executed. The Lower School Director may unreasonably procrastinate in returning parents’ phone calls. The Board may, in fact, be uncommunicative or secretive as a matter of habit, rather than selectively (that is, for special cause).

A positive work environment has a direct impact on your school’s ability to retain and attract highly qualified, mission-appropriate faculty and staff—the people you rely on to bring your program to life. As School Head, you know from experience how quickly the positive tone you strive to maintain can deteriorate. This is especially true when one person is frustrated with the school’s requirements or has a conflict with a colleague, and shares his/her views with increasing intensity and frequency. Minor disgruntlement can lead to full-blown toxicity, spreading quickly from individuals to small clusters and larger groups if there is no policy in place to resolve the dilemma and promote healing.

Global awareness and cultural literacy are themes associated with contemporary learning outcomes. While these outcomes may be achieved through enhancements in social science and English curriculums, they are manifested in world language instruction. Some school leaders seek to diversify their world language offerings. While languages such as Mandarin Chinese and Arabic may be useful languages for students to learn given their importance to global economic and political issues, adding a new language carries with it significant risk. It can negatively impact a school’s existing language program(s), schedule, and bottom line. ISM has cautioned schools to evaluate this issue before adding a new language in lower schools, and seeks here to help guide those considering it for their middle and/or secondary school.