Leading an independent or international school the past 16 months has been humbling, overflowing with the unexpected, each day offering new challenges and dilemmas. Likely, you have had moments of loneliness and wondering when it will all end or from where help will come.As the coming summer offers... read more
RG175 Blog
As part of our ongoing effort to cultivate and support independent school leadership, RG175 consultants contribute monthly blog posts on topics ranging from governance and head transitions to strategic thinking and school management.
During the past 15 months, schools have had to navigate challenging and uninterrupted whitewater paddling through large waves, deceptive drops, and sharp turns. School leaders have had to adjust quickly and nimbly to changing conditions while navigating ambiguous government guidance and responding t... 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
It’s so seductive, so intuitive, so logical. It stands to reason that casting a wide net will result in more applications and more enrollments. And when the economy is “hot,” perhaps this strategy will work. But the reality is that “being all things to all people” is a bad marketing strategy. It oft... read more
“Aren’t you glad you got out of school headship when you did?” I have heard this question, or variations on this theme, often over the last year, and I have generally answered in the affirmative. What was already a difficult occupation has become monumentally more pressured since the onset of Covid.... 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