A New Way the Board Can Prepare Your School for the Future

By becoming problem-finders—rather than problem-solvers—your Board can prepare your school for any future scenario.

When your Board expects the unexpected, it can ensure your school is prepared to weather any storm. That’s the intent of scenario planning—a concept that focuses on imagining different scenarios and discussing how your school could and would respond.

It may sound trivial but imagine: What could your school have done if you scenario-planned for a global pandemic in 2019?

Would you have:

Want a Great Board? Start With Strong Committee Chairs

As Board President, you are aware that committees are the linchpins for your Board of Trustees. The Board operates effectively when there is a foundation of effective, well-led committees. When Board meetings are well-attended, purposeful, and gratifying, that, too, usually grows out of understanding and implementing the principles of establishing committees the best way.

Open Discussion: Why Standardized Tests Don’t Work and Assessment Alternatives

Just mention a standardized test and teachers and administrators alike typically have the same reaction—dread, annoyance, and agitation.

Why? Many school leaders don’t like standardized tests, but don’t know how to replace them.

Join an open discussion with Mike Gwaltney, ISM Consultant and Director of Online Learning, and Josh Nelson, ISM Consultant and Director of Faculty and Curriculum, to hear their viewpoints on assessment and other modalities for gauging student comprehension.

The Strategic Role of an Effective Development Committee and How to Create One

Your strategically focused Board of Trustees is key to making your development programs effective and sustainable. When your Board centers on decision-making that is future-focused and viability-motivated, your school prospers—inspiring your donors and prospects to commit philanthropic dollars to your school. Your Board and Development Committee must work together to ensure the proper management of donors and prospects. Here's more about fostering the strategic role of an effective Development Committee.

Running the Board Meeting: The Committee on Trustees and the Head Support and Evaluation Committee

As Board President or Chair of the Committee on Trustees (COT), you are keenly aware of the importance of the relationship between your Board and your School Head. The tenor of your Board meetings can contribute to, or detract from, the quality of this relationship.

Board Clarity—Leading Through the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for independent schools. The urgent, overwhelming, and ever-changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic is causing Boards to consider operational issues typically reserved for the School Head and Leadership Team. The most pressing concern, reopening the facility, is such an issue. It is vital that Boards and School Heads work together to make the right decisions.

Keeping Parent Complaints From Interfering With the Strategic Functions of the Board

As Chair of the Committee on Trustees (COT), you will be called on to take the lead in assisting your colleagues in dealing with one of the troublesome facts of private-independent school life: parental complaints made directly to Board members. Many parents think of their school’s Board of Trustees in the same way that they think of their local public school board. And, if that were true, their complaints would not violate that model, i.e., the public elects a public school board to represent their interests.

Using Metric-Based Strategies to Set Your Tuition: How You Emerge From a Recession Depends On It!

In the aftermath of a major crisis, fear surrounding enrollment over the next few years can be rampant. Time and research will tell if reality will match schools’ fears. Private schools experienced this level of uncertainty in the aftermath of the Great Recession, which officially occurred between December 2007 and June 2009– its impact was felt far longer. 

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