Often the spring means it’s auction season—live and/or silent—at private-independent schools. The auction is not only a fund raiser but also usually a fun celebration for everyone. With eBay as a household word, more and more, schools are using an online auction options for their silent auctions.

Your annual fund is the foundation of all your other fund-raising efforts at your school. This month, Phil Higginson, Assistant Head of School for Institutional Advancement, and Penny Rogers, Director of Communications, both from Ravenscroft School (NC), tackle a question about donor categories and benefits.

The conventional idea is that teacher evaluation is based solely on classroom observation—and that the annual review is a “lets get it over with” thing. Personal and professional development is not generally part of the equation, and the evaluation system can be viewed as punitive rather than productive.

As Head of a private-independent school, you generally operate on a budget that is rooted in tuition and other hard income matched to the cost to deliver your mission to your students. For your school to operate, you must recruit and retain your students and make every attempt to minimize the “gap” between tuition and cost to educate a student—striving to reduce that gap to zero. For continued success, your Trustees should be mapping out a strategic plan and a strategic financial plan to grow your school for future generations. You use your annual fund and other fund-raising efforts to support the “extras” that define your school.

As one last winter storm threatens Delaware, we’re still excited to start sharing spring-related articles and green tips. This month our Twitter followers led us to an interesting article on berkeleyside.com, about Sharon Gamson Danks, an urban planner who believes in edible, eco-education.

Good news ACSI member-school Business Managers, ISM and ACSI have announced their partnership.

21st Century Learning, student-centered learning, individualized learning, regardless of what you call it, technology in the classroom—and outside of it—is a hot topic. In fact, it’s a hard topic to ignore.

With homosexual student suicides making headlines, anti-bullying and anti-gay advocates are stepping up and pushing schools to make a change in their sexual education lessons.

Target hardening, including CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) is an approach to making your school a less attractive target for anyone with “bad intent.”

Your job is stressful. Private school administrators are among some of the hardest-working, devoted professionals out there. You work long hours, you’re constantly on the move from one project to the next, and your busy season seems to never end—there’s always something on the rise.