Independent Schools and the Economic Crunch: Convincing Our Stakeholders to Keep Investing

As I talk with colleagues at independent schools across the country, I see a pattern developing. Many parents and grandparents who pay independent school tuition are growing restless, agitated and volatile as the economy becomes less predictable. Those whose disposable incomes are portfolio-driven and those whose incomes center on the spending and investments of others, based on feedback from colleagues at other schools, appear to be most concerned about making ends meet while paying tuition. For many families, independent school tuition may be one of the expenses that must be cut in the coming months in order to stay afloat. This situation begs the question of how do we, as independent schools, convince our stakeholders that their investment is worth the sacrifice, especially during such uncertain economic times. Quite frankly, we can't afford for our stakeholders to leave our schools and we must convince our stakeholders that they can't afford to leave, either.

First, I suggest we, as educational leaders in independent school education, give our customers top-notch customer service. Much of what we can offer our customers cannot be quantified with a price tag but can be linked directly to customer satisfaction. For example, we should strive to customize our educational programs as much as possible for our families. We should offer a personal touch everywhere this can be done. We must encourage our faculty and staff to go above and beyond the minimum expectations when dealing with students and parents. Little things such as positive emails, phone calls and notes to parents and students can pay big dividends. Giving students and parents a voice can be priceless. Asking parents and students for feedback or for suggestions on ways to improve their educational experience will promote buy-in from those stakeholders.

Second, I suggest we demonstrate publicly our efforts to improve. We must demonstrate to stakeholders ways in which we will be good stewards of their tuition dollars. We must show our stakeholders we are investing in facility and technology upgrades. We must show our continued investment in quality professional development for our teachers, professional development that directly affects students in positive and practical ways. If we are asking stakeholders to continue to invest in our schools, we must show them how we are using their investment dollars to impact their children. Along the same lines, we must demonstrate confidence in our schools. We can do this by showing no signs of panic, by not cutting programs and staff in anticipation of a financial crisis, by staying true to who we are and who we were before the economic crunch began.

Third, I suggest we show evidence of dividends paid on stakeholder investments. These dividends in the world of independent schools can come in the form of ACT and SAT scores, college acceptance lists, scholarship offers for graduating classes, playoff appearances or state titles for athletic teams, individual student achievements, individual teacher achievements, awards or recognition earned by the school, great stories in newspapers or on TV about our students, etc.

We must convey to our stakeholders that the investment they make with us, the investment they make in their children's future, is the one sure-thing investment available to them in the midst of economic turmoil.

Modeling a Successful Parent Conference, Parent Call or Conversation with a Parent

Experienced educators know that one of the keys to being successful with kids is building a strong relationship with parents. Teachers, administrators and parents must be on the same team when it comes to successfully educating kids. Convincing new and young teachers of this, however, takes some work. Often young and inexperienced teachers dread making contact with parents, especially concerning grades or discipline issues. So many times parents automatically get defensive when school personnel call home because for many parents the only news they hear from the school about their child is negative. (I'll address ways to avoid this with parents in another blog post later.)

The first question I ask teachers, especially young teachers, when they ask for help with particular students or classes is, "Have you called parents?" Without fail, new teachers cringe when I ask this, but only before we teach them how to call parents. What young teachers must understand, especially in terms of classroom management, is that a parent phone call usually fixes the vast majority of issues they deal with in the classroom.

My Dean of Students has been working with a new teacher who needed some help making those first calls home. Rather than sending this new teacher off to make parent calls with little or no direction, the Dean walked the teacher through the following steps:

• First, the Dean talked through the process with the teacher and gave some advice on how to begin the conversation, how to broach the unpleasant news and how to finish with something positive about the student.
• Second, the Dean made the first parent phone call with the teacher present; he modeled the entire process for the teacher. This was very important because it allowed the teacher to hear his tone, some key expressions and his calm demeanor.
• Third, after the Dean's phone call, the Dean and the teacher debriefed the Dean's conversation with the parent. The Dean encouraged the teacher and also gave the teacher an opportunity to ask any final questions before the next call.
• Fourth, the Dean observed as the teacher made a similar parent phone call.
• Finally, after the teacher's call, the Dean debriefed the experience with the teacher. Since several more calls needed to be made, the Dean stayed with the teacher until all the calls were made. Afterward, the two debriefed all the calls and talked about the positives and the areas for improvement.

For me, the most important part of this process was modeling the phone call so the teacher could see that the Dean was neither nervous nor intimidated but rather calm, cordial and actually looking forward to speaking with the parent. This same process can be used with face to face meetings between teachers and parents. Likewise, young or inexperienced coaches can benefit from mentors walking them through a similar process. While there is no substitute for experience in such situations, inexperienced teachers certainly can benefit from having good administrators model best practices for them.