NBOA President and CEO
Each fall, faculty members return to school refreshed from the summer, embodying optimism and enthusiasm for the school year ahead. Inevitably, one will pose the question dreaded by almost every business officer and facilities director: “How was your summer?” The usual response — professional and prompt as always — is “Fine. How was yours?”
The real answer, as we know, is that the facilities director has just finished a sprint that included a summer camp filled with rambunctious kids, various visitors renting facilities, and a long to-do list to ready school buildings and classrooms for fall. Nor was the facilities director alone during the summer months. His or her comrade-in-arms, the business officer, was closing out year-end financials, finishing work for the board of trustees and preparing for his or her own summer “vacation” — the audit.
A packed summer is just one way the work of the modern-day facilities director parallels that of the business officer. Both also steward the school’s greatest assets — the physical plant and endowment — and together they have daunting questions to answer. What is the future of independent school facilities in an increasingly competitive environment? Are these investments key to differentiating us within our marketplace, or will their great expense prevent us from innovating and reimagining our value propositions? Moreover, what options exist for schools that lack the space to expand or a strong fundraising base, or that face enrollment challenges?
There will always be schools that can afford to invest heavily in their facilities, whether to build new performing arts centers, dining halls and STEM buildings or simply to modernize traditional spaces into more open and collaborative learning environments. And every school, regardless of resources, must strive to keep its physical spaces in pristine condition. Those spaces, after all, serve as proxies for the quality education, safety and care that the school commits to providing its students.
But if a school focuses only on how its facilities can or cannot support the school’s program, it may limit thinking with regard to all the new possibilities. Another leader who agrees with this notion is Brad Rathgeber, head of school and CEO of One Schoolhouse, which provides online courses and programs within the independent school community. “In addition to maintaining their school’s physical plant, administrators should think beyond it by exploring what is available to students within their community and online,” Brad told me. “This will not only help schools remain affordable to many families but will differentiate them, especially if they are not at the top of the marketplace.”
While pressure on our schools’ facilities continues to rise, one certainty will remain. To succeed, the business officer and facilities director must tackle the challenges ahead the way they’ve tackled previous challenges: together.
Follow NBOA President and CEO Jeff Shields @shieldsNBOA.
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