CEO Notebook

CEO Notebook  

  • Leadership
  • | Procedures

We Must Learn to Unlearn

Strange but true: Schools are beginning to teach students not just to learn, but to unlearn. After reading about unlearning strategies at NBOA member school Beaver Country Day School in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, I'm
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Communication
  • | Membership

This Remarkable Community — in Your Words

I have often written and talked about the unique role that NBOA plays in the independent school community — how we fulfill our mission to provide you with best practices, staff support and technology to advance bus
1 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Culture

When Your Strategy Is Right - but Your School Culture Is Wrong

It's often said that culture eats strategy for breakfast. I say it myself because I firmly believe the "right strategy" can be paralyzed or its efficacy greatly diminished if it misaligns with a school's culture. In the
3 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Admission
  • | Enrollment

Three Reasons You Should Be Involved with Your School's Marketing Efforts

Not many people closely link the work of the business officer and marketing, but I do. Whether your school employs a dedicated marketing professional or embeds the marketing function within the advancement or admissions
3 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Financial Aid
  • | Tuition

Asking the Right Questions

Independent school business officers tend to be hard on themselves when it comes to determining optimal pricing models for their schools. You often ask, with a critical tone in your voice, "Why haven't we figured out the
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Culture
  • | Leadership

Retirements: Trickle or Tsunami for Our Profession?

Our profession is experiencing a generational shift that is both exciting and troubling.
3 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Leadership
  • | Risk Management

Tapping Your Inner Superhero

After last week's heartbreaking shootings in Orlando, it's comforting to be spending this week among what I consider to be the best kind of professional company: independent school business officers and business office s
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Boards and Trustees
  • | Governance

National Independent School Leaders Join NBOA Board

As you wrap up what I hope has been another successful year and develop your summer to-do list, NBOA is planning ahead as well. Part of that process involves identifying individuals within the national independent school
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Compliance
  • | Employment

Be Prepared for New Overtime Rules

Last month, more than 20 of your peers and colleagues spent 90 minutes asking one question after another of Grace Lee, NBOA Vice President Legal Affairs. The following week, some 360 schools participated in an NBOA webin
4 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Boards and Trustees
  • | Leadership

A Cautionary Tale Hits Close to Home

"I'm afraid that schools the size of mine are on the verge of extinction." Last week, while I was on the road in Denver, a business officer from a small independent school (enrollment less than 200 students) confided thi
3 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Admission
  • | Leadership

Leadership Lessons from Chattanooga

Every city has a story, but few illustrate important leadership lessons like the story of Chattanooga, Tennessee. That's right, the city that many of us know for a catchy tune about a choo choo is so much more—and
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Budget
  • | Technology

Similar Paths, Mutual Goals: the Business Office-IT Partnership

I saw the transformation firsthand in higher education. As technology played a larger role within academic programs, and colleges and universities migrated more operations online, technology directors—who typically repor
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Facilities
  • | Financing

Pay-It-Forward Independent School Construction

With the spring thaw comes the inevitable rush of construction activity on independent school campuses. This year, the shadow of financial sustainability might make those mounting expenditures even more concerning than u
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Facilities
  • | Technology

Three Things I Learned from Sal Khan

Many NBOA members tell me that if they have one great takeaway from a professional development program—a new idea, a solution to a problem, a sample form—then their investment of time and money is worthwhile.
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Budget
  • | Facilities

Make My Day

STEM, STEAM, making, tinkering. Innovators, collaborators, self-directed learners. Idea labs, learning commons, makerspaces. The maker movement is a big deal for independent schools, an exciting reality playing out in ne
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Compliance
  • | Legal

Announcing the 2016 NBOA Award Recipients

Each year we have a unique opportunity to recognize two colleagues who reflect our highest professional standards and our community's aspirations for excellence within independent school business and financial operations
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Culture
  • | Parent Organizations

The Predicament of Parents

As a trustee at my daughter's school, I get a lot of "feedback" from other parents. It ranges from concern over ERB scores to "can't we get more comfortable chairs for parents to sit in at assemblies?" I listen, smile an
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Governance
  • | Leadership

Klingenstein Taps NBOA for Faculty Role

The financial lens of independent school leaders is about to get a lot sharper. As you begin 2016 at your school, I'm very pleased to share that NBOA is also beginning an exciting new endeavor—one that promises to
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Culture
  • | Governance

2015: an NBOA Year in Review

With today's unseasonably warm weather in Washington, D.C., I recall that freezing morning in Boston like it was yesterday. The 2015 Annual Meeting Fun Run, in fact, is one of my favorite memories from NBOA's last 12 mon
2 min read

CEO Notebook  

  • Boards and Trustees
  • | Governance

Leading with Intent: a Call to Action for Nonprofits

A dynamic group of volunteers, a hard-working staff and a well-defined mission to which both groups are committed: This is the unique ideal of nonprofit governance, but it is not easily achieved. In fact, nonprofit leade
2 min read