We are seeing an uptick in unexpected and unplanned turnover among independent school Heads resulting in a decrease in years that a Head is serving a school.We know that turnover and new leadership can be a healthy thing—productive and invigorating, while bringing fresh thinking. The issue here is u...read more
Math Teacher to Students: “Hey, folks, it’s not me against you; it’s us against Algebra II.”A staple of board-head relationships is the establishment of the head’s annual goals. In the typical scenario, the head reflects on the past year, revisits the strategic plan, notes any specific problems from...read more
A couple of renegade trustees—sometimes only ONE—can turn an effective board into a contentious, unsupportive, parsimonious, or a dysfunctional one; often the board turns into all of these. So how can you screen new trustees effectively? And is it possible to get rid of the “bad seeds.” Screening...read more
Story Number OneEarly in my administrative career, the school was struggling with a weak French program. We decided to bring in a foreign language expert to spend several days examining the program, sitting in on classes, and talking to students. At the end of the last day, she gave me several actio...read more
It’s often said that the most important relationship in any independent school is the one between the board chair and the head. I agree. And yet the traditional ground rules that are supposed to provide structure to this relationship seem wholly inadequate for helping a head be successful. Reminding...read more