NBOA President and CEO
Presenting the faculty perspective: "When the business officer came to my classroom to discuss adding one or two more students, I felt like she didn’t respect what I do every day.”
The speaker was an independent school teacher who in this context was a student in an online professional development course I teach for NBOA called “Essentials of School Business for Non-Business Administrators: Budget Meets Mission.” This course is designed to help heads of school, administrators and academic leaders understand the basic principles of the independent school business model as well as the challenges this model presents.
The teacher then added: “Now that I have a better understanding of net tuition revenue and the impact that one or two more students per section can have on my school’s financial health, it has made all the difference.”
This statement surprised me on two levels.
First, we need to do a better job of making sure that every faculty member knows — regardless of the financial pressures we face in the business office — that we understand and appreciate that they deliver the mission of our schools, on the front lines, every day. Independent schools will not achieve financial sustainability by drawing down on the essential resources our faculty represent. Paramount components of every school’s future financial success include investments in competitive compensation, high-quality benefit programs, professional development and ongoing dialogue to identify means of delivering education more efficiently and effectively.
Second, we must help every member of the school community — administrators, trustees, parents, faculty and other staff — understand the key revenue and expense drivers of the school’s business model. While these factors may be complex in many ways, they’re not complicated. Perhaps we don’t communicate clearly or often enough, or we don’t believe anyone else is truly interested in the “business” of our schools. However, it’s apparent that when we provide our colleagues with financial information in a way that they can understand (not tiny type on spreadsheets), we can strengthen our working relationships and make a profound difference in our schools.
For these and other reasons, I believe this issue of Net Assets is particularly relevant. It makes the case for focusing on the key metric of net tuition revenue with laser-light attention, replacing financial clutter with the dollars and cents that truly matter. I encourage you to bring this issue of the magazine into your administrative and academic leadership meetings and to discuss your school’s net tuition revenue: where it is, how it’s been trending and, most importantly, how to work collaboratively to ensure that your school has the resources it needs to deliver world-class education and live its mission for decades to come. In the current economic environment, we all must engage in these critical conversations together.
Follow NBOA President and CEO Jeff Shields @shieldsNBOA.
