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Your worst nightmare is unfolding. The Board has asked you, as Head, to prepare a strategic plan for the school. Before you even start, consider these three tips.

1. Conduct a Rigorous Situation Assessment

A plan is only as good as the facts on which it is based. For this reason, a situation assessment is essential to support informed decision-making in strategic planning. A situation assessment addresses three major topics.

Know the Board's Appetite for Change

Be sure to scope the Board's appetite for change. After all, the Board will ultimately be asked to approve the strategic plan and the allocation of resources to support its implementation. If the Board doesn't buy into your plan, then the strategic planning process could come to an inglorious end, when presented to that very same unsuspecting Board by the soon-to-be ex-Head. With the Board on your side, at least you can do some proper advance preparation and lobbying on issues you know the Board finds difficult to accept.

Document the Way Things Work Today

Don't assume that you - or anyone else, especially the Board - understands the way things actually happen at the school.

• Prepare a detailed description of every major functional area.
• Include everything from the administrative functions through to the academic functions.
• Identify who is responsible for the functional activity, the activities being managed, the way the activities are managed, staffing, and budget.

Without these descriptions in hand, it becomes almost impossible to describe how any change proposed in the strategic plan

Douglas Halladay heads , a consulting firm specializing in all aspects of private school operations. We asked him how to advise a board of trustees on a headmaster search. Here are his answers.

We aggressively seek candidates for you who combine solid administrative skills and outstanding management abilities with dynamic leadership experience. The model that we utilize is included below.

Step 1: Initial Meeting

During our first meeting with the client, we review your organization regarding the position to be filled. We also seek to understand the organization's environment, which includes learning about the culture, norms, philosophy, history, work atmosphere, and personalities of the people and community this person will work for and with, as well as coming to know what causes individual success or failure at this organization and thoroughly understanding the vision of the organization. If confidentiality allows, we spend time with the supervisor and peers of the position to determine the management's style and personality. Since our goal is to find someone in whom the community will have confidence, both in ability and style, this part of the process is crucial.

Step 2: Position Profile

My firm next prepares a Position Profile that describes the client organization, details the nature of the position, the key issues facing the new leader, and the qualities and experience of the ideal candidate. Once approved by the client, this document serves as the primary instrument to communicate the opportunity during the search process.

Step 3:

In today's rapidly evolving educational landscape, the integrity and security of private school operations have never been more critical. As administrators, we strive to cultivate environments where trust and transparency are paramount. However, my own experience transitioning a school from paper-driven to digital bookkeeping revealed just how vulnerable these systems can be. The school's petty cash account was a constant source of frustration, impossible to balance due to a complete lack of controls. This article delves into the multifaceted issue of employee theft within private schools, exploring its various forms, the risks it presents, and the profound impact it can have on both finances and reputation. By understanding these dynamics, we can better equip ourselves with the strategies and tools necessary to safeguard our schools and uphold the principles we hold dear.

A Trustee's responisibility.

You have spent a year as a trustee of St. Etheldreda's. You have attended all the meetings. Recently you were appointed to the finance committee. The nagging question keeps chewing at you. "How do we know that our employees aren't stealing from us?" After all, hardly a day goes by without yet another report on the news of some trusted employee stealing from one organization or another.

You simply have to ask these tough questions of your business manager and your auditor.

1. Does one person have control over all of your accounting functions?
2. Are two signatures required on checks over a pre-determined amount - say, $50?
3. Are checks ever pre-signed?
4. Are your

Great Organizations have Great Plans

In simplest terms, an organization undertakes strategic planning to reaffirm or modify its mission – why it exists, what its purpose is, what it now does – and to agree on its vision – what it wants to be and do in the coming years. The purpose is not to decide what should be done in the future but to decide what should be done now to make desired things happen in an uncertain future.

In short, strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future.

The real value of strategic planning in a school is more than simply the outcome of having a blueprint that guides future leadership decisions. It is a powerful and effective way to build consensus and motivate resource support and is particularly useful in defining priorities for the Board, the Head of School, and the administrative team who are charged with the implementation of the plan.

Pitfalls of Strategic Planning

How many times has your organization embarked on a strategic planning process, only to build a plan that ends up on the shelf? If your organization is like many others, it's because they have failed to avoid the major pitfalls of strategic planning. The main pitfall of planning is falling into the delusion that planning can