COVID-19 Updates: Creative Cost-Cutting, Pass/Fail Guidance

(From CliftonLarsonAllen) Many independent schools across the country are considering a range of issues that have financial implications as they continue remote work. To navigate these uncertain times, organizations need to have an accurate assessment of where they stand financially, which they can use to form strategies to fill funding gaps and/or cut costs. Some of the many strategies to consider:

• Before cutting staff, consider other line items for saving, such as arranging a payment plan with certain vendors; choosing which vendors to pay and in what order; or amending the organization's plans to eliminate or greatly reduce the employer contribution. 
• If cuts in personnel expenses really do represent the only way to keep an organization alive, then explore ways to share the sacrifice across the organization, such as rolling furloughs, universal part-time hours and temporary leveling of salaries.

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​​​​​​​​​​(From CNN) A growing number of colleges and universities have shifted all of their courses for the spring semester to mandatory pass/fail, while others have simply extended the deadline to change their grading option until the end of the semester. Such policies eliminate problems with fairness while allowing students and faculty to focus on creating a meaningful learning experience in anxious times, says author David Perry. This is also true for grading faculty performance, Perry argues, since online teaching is uniquely hard and student evaluations will be useless in this new arrangement.

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