When community service and service learning are an integral part of life at a school, children come to understand that their help makes a difference. Further, they appreciate that service must be a lifelong commitment. The following article is one in a continuing series on developing your school’s community service and service learning program.

As the Chair of your school’s Head Search Committee, you are charged with spearheading the process of identifying and recommending your school’s next CEO. The committee will be analyzing the experience, skills, and strengths of each candidate. It will want to match the candidate’s professional and personal qualities with the school’s needs.

Substitute teachers are essential – and good ones are difficult to find. Over the years, you, as Head, have assembled a key group of talented, reliable substitute teachers. They are the first people called because of their expertise, their teaching skills, and their knowledge of and support for your school. Similarly, your school may be their first choice for work assignments. However, as your programs change or your teachers learn and apply the latest pedagogy, these substitutes may begin to feel out of place in your faculty culture. Consider offering annual orientation and professional development to your core group of substitutes so that they, like your regular faculty members, can maintain excellence in the classroom.

As a School Head or private-independent school administrator, a myriad of legal and regulatory issues flash across your radar screen on a regular basis. With the barrage of administrative tasks, staying up-to-date on human resources laws may not seem a priority. However, having a solid understanding of the regulations pertaining to employment and benefits issues may make the difference between adroitly nipping an issue in the bud and allowing a situation to fester into an expensive lawsuit that could threaten the viability of your school.

“We’re in an at-will state. We can let someone go at any time for any reason.” “We simply didn’t renew their contract. We don’t need to give a reason.” While these refrains—heard from school administrators on a regular basis—are both true as far as they go, they don’t tell the whole story regarding the risks of dismissing an employee at a private-independent school.

ISM recently surveyed a random sample of 450 I&P subscriber schools to gather information about compensation for full-time faculty. The 194 responding schools answered questions concerning teacher salaries, selected benefits, and hiring. The preceding issue showed implications of the salary data; this article focuses on non-salary benefits.

The most distinctive difference between students’ educational experiences in most private-independent schools and those of students in their strongest public school competitors is the level of personalized attention they receive—attention guided by the multiple human values embodied in school mission. In lower schools, this kind of attention is fostered by relatively low student-to-teacher ratios, often in self-contained classrooms. In middle and upper divisions, the advisory program is the primary “delivery system.” The most significant, programmatic difference-maker in serving private-independent schools’ strategic interests—in both fulfillment of mission and development of competitive advantage—is the vigor, authenticity, and professionalism of their advisory programs.