The School Head must be fully aware of the stress under which the Business Manager functions. This stress may be the result of the confluence of several factors--the diversity and complexity of the tasks and responsibilities assigned to the Business Office, the number of people who report directly to the Business Manager, and the various school constituents that the Business Manager is called upon to interact with daily. Demonstrating an understanding of this complex role is critical to retaining this key Management Team member.

The Board has just carried out an exercise to examine and restate your school mission. This statement clearly and unambiguously answers the question: Why does our school exist? In the example we will develop in this article, Aegis Academy (I&P’s fictional coed, K-12 day school) has created the following statement.

In recent years, as I’ve consulted with schools around the country, I’ve noticed that, as the population grows and cities push their boundaries, schools that were once “country” schools now find they have neighbors. Those schools that still have more acreage than they need appear prescient. Unfortunately, most schools quickly find themselves landlocked on a campus that doesn’t meet their projected needs.

When it comes time for your next School Head search, let your strategic plan and ISM's leadership studies’ findings take some of the stress out of the process. Using these allows the Board to create a list of School Head skills, experiences, and characteristics based on (a) institutional goals and needs and (b) Head-specific research outcomes. These provide your blueprint for the position description for your new Head.

One of the major tasks for the School Head is to guide the Management Team—the deputies to whom the Head delegates direct responsibility for supervising specific functions within the school. This guidance occurs in both formal and informal ways, such as regular meetings of the whole team, meetings with individuals, conversations throughout the day, and by example.

ISM’s Purpose and Outcome Statements concept was developed in a series of I&P articles suggesting that mission statements alone will always fall short of their hoped-for goal of defining your school’s institutional purposes in ways that are simultaneously visionary and practical.1 Mission statements—abstract documents by nature—must be supplemented by two other documents: first, the Portrait of the Graduate, and second, Characteristics of Professional Excellence for faculty. Done well, these pithy documents supply inspiration, universality, particularity, and concreteness.

In December 2006, new federal rules went into effect concerning the sharing of electronic documents during the discovery phase of litigation. In brief, the rules require parties involved in federal lawsuits to produce “electronically stored information” prior to trial. While sharing of electronic documents prior to trial has become commonplace in recent years, the new rules codify the practice, as well as require that the documents be provided in a timely and efficient manner.

Consider the ISM X™ (The ISM Management and Leadership Xcellence Formulation). Designed to communicate a series of critical organizational, financial, and cultural principles, the ISM X also contains implicitly the outcomes of: ISM’s 2004-05 Head leadership studies, ISM’s 1989-95 student performance and faculty culture study, and the internal ISM studies that have resulted in three iterations of the ISM Stability Markers®, the latest being in 2006.

This model has been prepared to fit contract renewal for an experienced Head, but it can be readily adapted for other circumstances. In the case of a newly employed Head, all terms that refer to continuance would not be used in the initial contract, nor would a school be likely to provide for a mini-sabbatical such as that specified in Promise 9. The model also provides for school housing (Promise 5) and a school vehicle (Promise 7)—both easily omitted. These types of agreements are, in general, governed by the laws of the state where the school is located. Because these laws may differ, it is important that you have your legal adviser review all contracts. This model contract is not considered copyrighted material. You are encouraged to copy this contract and adapt it to your school’s needs. Be sure to have your school’s lawyer review it and ensure it meets all state regulations.

Of the numerous new laws passed during the first 100 days of the Obama administration, the COBRA subsidy provision of the economic stimulus bill—the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)—has had perhaps the most immediate impact on schools (e.g., with the federal government providing a subsidy of 65% of benefits costs for involuntarily terminated employees for up to nine months). However, a new law that has received far less attention from schools—the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (LLFPA)—may have much further-reaching and longer-lasting consequences for any schools that engaged in pay discrimination at any point in the past. All schools are urged to review their past and current pay practices and to address any potential liabilities that they may discover in light of this new law.