There is some growing concern that the United States may be headed into another recession. If it does, this may happen in late summer/early fall. This does not bode well for private-independent schools, as they’ll need to make 2013–2014 tuition decisions about the same time.
Managing the Fiscal Realities of Enrollment Changes
Even after careful budget planning, variances in enrollment projections can present problems—lower-than-expected enrollments can be alarming and increases can lead to unwise programmatic enhancements. Careful planning, an understanding of market realities, and strong leadership are necessary and will guide you to safe harbor.
Strategic Financial Planning and Your School’s Budget: Companion Documents
Private-independent schools perpetually undertake two important events—strategic financial planning and budgeting. Budgeting occurs annually; strategic planning is an event-based project that occurs every four to six years. So, how are the processes similar, different, and related? This article explores the interdependence of these two critical institutional processes.
The Board’s Role in a Successful Capital Campaign
ISM has long held that stable schools have strategic Boards. A capital campaign grounded in the Board’s understanding of (and commitment to) its strategic role is critical for campaign success. The use of the word strategic is intentional. “A strategic Board is one that sees its core role as building a financial/organizational platform that ensures that the institution will be able to fulfill its mission on behalf of the next generation of students … [by]… sustain(ing) long-term programmatic excellence.” The following set of four core elements critical to institutional readiness as the Board considers embarking on a capital campaign.
The Moral Costs of Private-Independent Schools
A recent article by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper, Dean of the Center for Modern Torah Leadership (MA), introduces the issue of pricing as a moral issue.1 Rabbi Klapper suggests that Jewish communities should view their widespread consternation about rising costs as less of a “money issue” and more one of “moral costs.” He notes, for example, that large numbers of Jewish parents feel they are being increasingly forced into an impossible-to-solve conundrum: financially ruinous tuition levels for their children, on the one hand, versus their deeply felt moral commitment to Jewish education on the other. Those in leadership positions in Jewish day schools, thus, are pulled into an agonizing financial and moral whirlwind.
Maintain Your School’s Tax-Exempt Status
A critical element in your Board’s due diligence is keeping abreast of tax law as they relate to your school’s tax-exempt status. Most of the compliance requirements (e.g., record keeping, accounting functions financial statements) are handled at the school level, primarily in the Business Office and Development Office. However, the Board must also be acquainted with the rules concerning disclosure, conflict of interest, and other areas where your school may be at risk of losing its tax-exempt status.
Indicators of School Crime and Safety
Establishing good indicators of the current state of school crime and safety across the nation—and regularly updating and monitoring these indicators—is important in ensuring the safety of our nation’s students. This is the aim of Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2011, just released in February of this year. This is the 14th report in a series of annual publications produced jointly by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), in the U.S. Department of Education, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in the U.S. Department of Justice. This report presents the most recent data available on school crime and student safety.
Chart the Attendance at Board and Committee Meetings
Whatever type of school you serve as Board President—country day school, academy, parent cooperative, Montessori, religiously affiliated—governance is based on volunteer commitment.
The Transition to Adulthood
The National Center for Education Statistics recently released its report America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood, which examines numerous aspects of the lives of youth and young adults, ages 14 to 24, in the United States over the last several decades. The report features status and trend data from multiple surveys on the distribution of youth and their family structure; on school-, employment-, and health-related factors; and on future plans.
Elements of a Sound Investment Policy
Responsible stewardship of your school’s investment funds resides in a clearly articulated and regularly monitored investment policy. This responsibility is the same whether you have a modest endowment or one that would rival that of a major college or university. The investment policy consists of two distinct aspects—an endowment policy and a treasury policy. The endowment policy concerns long-term investment strategies and policies. The treasury policy articulates the investment parameters for funds that you invest for only short periods of time to cover operating and capital needs. The short-term investment or treasury policy should focus on providing sufficient liquidity and safety for operating cash while maximizing yield.