In this report, just released in December, we describe the results of the 2012 Re-Enrollment Survey, an instrument administered by Hanover Research on behalf of ISM. The survey, which was taken by independent schools throughout the U.S., serves as a follow-up to the National Private School Parent Survey, and is aimed at determining whether the intentions captured in the parent survey matched the “reality for schools.”
Antidotes to Board-Level Schizophrenia
The business of a school is in its classrooms.
Many intelligent, well-intentioned Trustees infer that the Board’s business, too, should focus on day-to-day school operations. As Board President or member of the Committee on Trustees (COT), consider the consequences of this notion, whether you currently observe it on your Board or fear it may develop. Typical ramifications include the following.
Due Diligence and Employment Practices Liability
As a Board member, part of your due diligence includes risk management at your school and making sure you have insurance to cover employment practices liability. While the School Head and Management Team ensure that policies and procedures are in place and implemented, the Board is ultimately responsible for any legal costs that may incur if a case is brought against the school.
How to Get a ‘Paralyzed’ Board Back on Track
When a Board’s internal problems keep it from moving forward in its responsibilities to the school, the Board President and Executive Committee must act.
Background Checks for Trustees
No doubt, your school performs background checks on job applicants to protect the students and employees. In addition, private-independent schools have begun performing checks on parents and other volunteers who interact with students. As Chair of the Committee on Trustees, you need to discuss the advisability of performing certain background checks on potential Trustees.
Action-Oriented Agendas for Successful Board Meetings
At many private-independent schools, a typical Board session is often characterized by:
lengthy discussions, often focusing upon minutiae or items of special interest to just one or two members;
a detailed report by the School Head on school activities since the last Board meeting;
Who Is Responsible for Board Evaluation?
Historically, evaluation of the Board of Trustees has been either (a) nonexistent or (b) poorly performed with a generic instrument designed for use by any nonprofit entity. If the results were used at all, they formed the basis for a discussion at an annual retreat session, often with little or no action afterward. ISM recommends that the responsibility for Board evaluation at a private-independent school be lodged with the Committee on Trustees.
Board Support of the School Head’s Personnel Decisions
All too frequently, the Board urges the School Head to root out weakness and develop an “ideal” faculty, and then drifts away when the Head makes a difficult, unpopular, but necessary decision. Without Board support, the Head fights a lonely battle.
Strategies That Get a ‘Paralyzed’ Board Back on Track
When a Board’s internal problems keep it from moving forward in its responsibilities to the school, the Board President and Committee on Trustees must act. The various forms of “Board paralysis” tend to have embedded in them three causes: members who (1) bring their own agendas, (2) have a bureaucratic mind-set, and/or (3) focus on their own children’s issues rather than on the best interests of future students.
Appropriate Tuition Adjustment: Recasting Financial Figures, 2012–13
Each fall, ISM publishes a set of conversion factors to facilitate the recasting of previous tuitions into current dollars. (See the table on the next page.) We continue to use the Urban Consumer Price Index (CPI-U).1 However, we also realize that the CPI-U does not completely reflect expenditures in private-independent schools; it can only serve as a base figure. There are compelling arguments for adjusting your tuition at a rate 2% above the overall inflation rate.2