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.

Although March is leaving Delaware like a lion, with chilly rain and rumors of one last snowstorm, spring has sprung. With warmer days promised, many schools are preparing to start planting their gardens—some have already begun using their patches for student exploration and learning.

As a Division Head, you have a group of faculty members that you guide and support every day. You also have a plethora of duties that keep you running day in and day out. By effectively delegating some of those duties, you not only help your teachers’ professional growth, but give yourself the time to focus on the duties that only you can do.

As winter hits much of the country with a few final blasts and springtime comes to the fore, many schools are in the midst of faculty contract renewal decisions. It is always a good idea to review your contract language each year to make sure that it still meets your needs. To aid in this effort, we’re happy to suggest a few tips and reminders.

The Watergate scandal taught us that a bad idea (a burglary) can be made infinitely worse by doing something else stupid (covering it up) in response. The modern-day equivalent is seen in the issue of retaliation—where the bad thing is an illegal act (such as employment discrimination) and the “made worse” part is retaliation (such as in firing the person who raised the issue, or the person who gave “testimony” in the investigation, etc.). This would seem to be obvious—but statistics (and recent legal cases) tell us otherwise.

Addressing the 2010 TED Conference, Sir Ken Robinson said that education for the 21st century needs to move away from the standardized to the personalized—away from McDonald’s to the Zagat. Robinson delivered a funny and refreshing look at education today, and how it needs to change.

Q: We have some non-exempt employees who are misclassified as exempt. Is summer the best time to make the change? What communication method do you suggest? Is there better language than the DOL’s “primary duties do not include using discretion and independent judgment in matters of significance” (which will offend those employees who think their status is being downgraded)?

Q: How do you count divorced families? As one household or two? Meaning, if one gave and the other did not, do you have a 50% parent participation or 100%?

As Development Director, you hear all these words describing your function. What’s the difference?

The copywriters at Webcopyplus blew it. And they admitted it. They searched for an image for a tourism piece and found what they were looking for in Google images. Then they downloaded the image and used it, assuming that since the image did not have a copyright notice it was “public domain” and this free to use.