Capital Advice on Facilities Planning: RFPs, Consulting, Opportunities

Tom Franz is a former head of school who now serves as a consultant to independent schools with a leading facilities advisory firm. He will moderate a panel of experts that will provide a behind-the-scenes look into the world of capital facilities and planning consultants — those who serve independent schools in matters of planning, developing, funding and delivering capital projects. Panelists will include a lending expert and former business officer turned head of school, and the session will feature Franz’s trusted resources developed over his 30-year career.

Learning Objectives:

• Hear firsthand accounts and perspectives from school leaders on successfully engaging architects, engineers, contractors and financing advisors.
• Identify ways to leverage the expertise of consultants to address specific challenges and opportunities within independent schools and how to get the most from your consulting investment.
• What should be in a Request for Proposal, when and how to seek “bids”, and apply your school’s procurement guidelines to solicitation of professional services.

Pricing

Members: Free
Nonmembers: $125.00

Register

Credit Information

Presenters

Chad Christoff

Director

Stifel

Chad Christoff is a Managing Director in Stifel’s Independent School Finance practice. Mr. Christoff specializes in financial advisory services for independent school borrowers across the country as well as private colleges and universities.  He has spent 15 years working with educational institutions to prepare for, evaluate, and execute tax-exempt debt financings. These financings include both bank-based and public market structures, fixed and variable rate debt, and the use of interest rate swaps and other derivatives. Mr. Christoff has served as the primary point of contact, provided analytical support, and managed transactions for a wide variety of recent independent school borrowers, ranging from “AAA” rated institutions such as Phillips Academy (MA) to young institutions considering their first-even debt issuance. Mr. Christoff has presented at several industry seminars and conferences. He also serves as an ad-hoc member of the Finance Committee for Watershed School (Boulder, CO).  Mr. Christoff holds a B.A. in Economics from Grinnell College and is a native of Donahue, Iowa.

Tom Franz

Senior Associate of Partner Development

Building Solutions

Tom Franz is a senior associate of partner development and manages Building Solutions’ Southeastern territory, which includes North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Franz served a variety of schools during his almost four decades as a teacher, coach, mentor, division head, assistant head for academic affairs, head of school and interim head of school. He currently serves on the North Carolina Association of Independent Schools Board and has served many schools as part of the VAIS, SAIS and SACS accreditation and re-accreditation processes.

Kevin Lewis

Head of School

St. Andrew’s Episcopal School

Kevin Lewis is head of school at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Jackson, Mississippi. Lewis joined St. Andrew’s in 2004 as the school’s business manager and then vice president for finance. Prior to that, he served for 10 years as associate head of school and chief financial officer. Kevin is a Certified Public Accountant who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accountancy from Mississippi State University. In 2018, he earned his master’s of education in independent school leadership from Vanderbilt University.