In my last blog, I wrote about What Better Looks Like. This was not what I started out writing about. What I thought I was going to write about was how independent schools are managed and how innovation happens. But before I could do that, I wanted to say a few basic things about our goal to keep tuition at or near its current level (adjusted for inflation), and why I think this is doable.
Finishing the last blog allows me to now write more broadly about the challenges of managing independent schools. Sandy Spring Friends School operates like most independent schools: the Head of School has the final say on who gets hired and who gets fired. In reality, important decisions that have consequences in the First Grade, the Upper School Math Department and throughout the entire school are made collaboratively. After all, how does the Head of School know whether the second year Spanish teacher is doing a good job or, for that matter, whether the person coaching lacrosse for the last 20 years still has fire in the belly? Since the Head cannot be everywhere at the same time, I depend on the Division Heads and others on the Administrative Council to routinely tell me what is going on.
One of the key principles of managing is that accountability and responsibility should be aligned and that everyone should know who is responsible for what. If Sandy Spring Friends School was a business and not a school, the Head of School would be the CEO, and the Head of the Lower School, the Head of the Middle School and the Head of the Upper School would each be a General Manager of a Division charged with making a certain product or delivering a certain service. The Division Head would have a budget which would include revenues based on the number of students enrolled and expenses based on the number of adults that work in the Division and other operating costs, some of which the Division Head controls (the number of crayons or test tubes purchased) and some of which the Division Head does not control or only has partial control (the amount and cost of the energy used to warm the building).
Now let's say that the goal of Sandy Spring Friends School is to take each of its 572 students (yes, every single one, no exceptions) and move them from wherever they are in September of the school year to wherever they need to be so that they are prepared to begin their rising grade in the new school year. This (magical) process includes an academic component, athletic and arts components, and a social component (ability to connect, no falling through the cracks). I call it magical because all 572 students learn in their own unique way, develop in their own unique way, and discover their own unique voice. So in the Lower School, if I am the Division Head, I know that in order to get the job done I have to have the right number of class room teachers. But that's not all; I need kids to learn art with an art teacher, exercise and play sports with a PE teacher, sing with a music teacher, advance in technology with an expert, enjoy the library and all that goes on there, be admitted by an admissions pro, learn a foreign language, get counseling, benefit from a reading specialist, perhaps from a learning specialist, be supported by administrative assistants and other caring adults and come see the Lower School Head if they are in trouble! (Or any other time they want to drop by for a hug or a chat).
The Heads of our three Divisions are asked to oversee and align all of the resources that go into their grades and, at the same time, recognize that they are part of a larger whole and that teaching and learning throughout a PK-12 school has to fit together. It’s a fascinating job requiring autonomy and authority to organize and manage the myriad of resources available and necessary to make sure that the fairy dust is sprinkled everywhere it needs to land. I think of it as part of my job that the Division Heads have the responsibility, flexibility and the license to be creative that matches what they are expected to deliver for every child, every year.