Virtual & Onsite Consulting Services

Onsite Consulting
Onsite Consulting

Ensure that your school’s governance and operations support your mission.

We work together with your leaders, teachers, staff members, and students to understand your school’s unique needs, strengths, and challenges. We help you create a plan to help you meet your goals.

Your team can then put these mission-appropriate recommendations into action to achieve increased cash reserves, higher enrollment levels, and long-term stability. At the end of the day, we all have a singular purpose—advance school leadership to enrich the student experience.

We offer personalized consultations for many leadership divisions of a private school—the Board of Trustees, School Heads, the Business Office, the Development Office, Enrollment Management professionals, Marketing professionals, and Academic leaders. Select the area of school leadership you’d like to further explore.

 

Our Consulting Services

School Head

Whether you want to ensure that all school functions run at peak efficiency or are considering implementing new strategies and initiatives, lean on a trusted source of knowledge to increase the likelihood of long-term success.

Business & Operations

Take advantage of a full range of planning, facilities, and operations consulting services that give your school a solid footing for the future. Examine where your key operations work well, and where they can use improvement.

Academic Leadership

Your programs set your school apart. Explore how to create and build programs that pull families in and give them an experience they couldn’t have at another private-independent school.

Admission & Enrollment Management

ISM’s data-informed approach pinpoints what attracts families to your school and inspires them to stay. Receive customized solutions based on your school’s unique marketplace stance, challenges, and opportunities.

Fundraising & Development

Learn how to develop successful strategies to engage and bring donors closer to your institution. No matter your school size, history, or pedagogy, explore how to plan, implement, and evaluate your fundraising strategies to realize your full potential.

Marketing Communications

Explore how to share exceptional stories of student learning, engagement, and outcomes, and illustrate how these can become differentiators that distinguish your school from your competitors.

Board of Trustees

The Board must focus its efforts on governing, planning, and financing your school's future, while leaving everyday decisions to competent administrators. To do that successfully, your Board must think, plan, and act strategically.

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See articles for School Heads, Business & Operations, Advancement, Academic Leadership, and Trustees, in addition to Private School News.

Liability and Risk Management Issues Associated with Exercise Equipment

Private School News // April 29, 2010

It may not be football season, but that doesn't mean sports-related and fitness-equipment-related injuries can be forgotten until next school year. One of the most frequent sources of negligence claims and lawsuits against personnel and facilities stems from the use of exercise equipment. Many claims report a failure to properly instruct on the proper use of equipment and/or insufficient supervision. These claims often include allegations related to the following*:

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Tips for Parents on How to Keep Their Children Safe Online

Private School News // April 29, 2010

Allowing kids to go online unsupervised and without ground rules is like letting them explore a major metropolis by themselves. The Internet, like a city, offers enormous opportunities for entertainment and education, but also presents risks. —The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

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Insect Bites That Do More Than Sting

Private School News // April 29, 2010

Springtime brings out more than new leaves and flowers—it brings out all those little critters, too. As classes start to wander outdoors again, exploring kids wander through the sports fields again, and school gardens begin to grow, this is a good time to be reminded of potential allergies to insect bites and stings.

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A Teenager's Search For Happiness

Private School News // April 27, 2010

Editorial Most adults, if not all of us, set out each morning on a quiet journey to find happiness. We don't always find it—we don't always look in the right places to find it—but we always intend to. Teenagers set out each morning on the same journey. They want to be accepted, appreciated, respected, and most of all, happy.

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Are Our Schools Obsolete?

School Heads // April 23, 2010

It seems that every decade there's a new "flavor of the month." Each time, it is the new thing that will revolutionize education and change the way in which we do things. It is possible that the last invention to truly change education was the blackboard, invented in 1801 and popularized in the United States in 1842 by William Alcott. Tables and benches were replaced by individual desks and chairs, and the Prussian military rows were incorporated as the ideal of educational practice.

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Ask the Expert

School Heads // April 23, 2010

Q:: "I read more stories about teachers suing schools and school districts for wrongful dismissal. How can I protect my school against this?"

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Ask Michael

Business and Operations // April 21, 2010

Q: We're a religious school, but our Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) statement says that "we don't discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion," etc. Is this a problem?

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"Can You Believe They Did That During The Interview?"

Business and Operations // April 21, 2010

As many schools are now either right in the midst of—or are thankfully winding down—their faculty hiring efforts for this season, we thought we'd take a moment to share a few views of the "lighter side" of the interviewing process. Whether it is due to nervousness, desperation, or other factors, we all know how interviews can bring out the "quirkiness" in even the most otherwise "calm, cool, and collected" individuals.

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"Qualifying Exigency" Defined for Military-Related FMLA

Business and Operations // April 21, 2010

Over the past two years, two new categories of FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) were added under federal law: "qualifying exigency" leave (of up to 12 weeks) and military caregiver leave (of up to 26 weeks). When originally added to FMLA, "qualifying exigency" was broadly defined as leave required to help a family member prepare for a sudden military call-up. The Department of Labor (DOL) has since provided more details around situations where a "qualifying exigency" may apply.

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