It was a good Thanksgiving on average for independent school heads. Auspicious vaccine news corresponded with the future-gaze of budget...

The pandemic offers schools the opportunity to distill their programs and tighten their brands.

Next year, the new normal for elementary schools may be older than the old normal.

The pandemic has revealed anew a great number of truths about education.

Approval of the 2021-2022 budget is 4 months away. Retention plans for students and faculty are the key.

Independent school heads and board chairs should engage an outside counselor to help them remain focused on 2020 guiding principles.

This fall, it will be more important than ever for trustees to be present in the life of the school.

Teachers' and advisors' first calls to school families in August will help ground them in the realities of the strange year to come.

As indy schools communicate fall plans this summer, it will be more important than ever for boards to speak with one voice.

School leaders should focus on the guiding principles they'll use to design fall scenarios before moving into the details.

In planning for the fall, independent school leaders should be creative in finding ways to have elementary students on campus every day.

Indy schools will soon communicate major decisions that lie at the intersection of the school as a community and the school as a business.

College and elementary students could take a gap year in 2020 - 2021, together.

Just how promise-crammed is the pandemic crisis for independent schools? Count me very conservatively optimistic.

Independent schools should begin planning for a remote-learning start to the 2020-2021 school year.

A summer 2020 budget and community support plan for independent school leaders.

School leaders risk hasty, well-meaning decision making in the current COVID crisis.

A summer enrollment plan for indy schools recovering from the COVID crisis.

Any member of a school community should expect to be seen and known. Heads must lead and model this effort.

In their employment and enrollment decisions, heads balance compassion with their duty to protect the school's mission and bottom line.