May 1, 2020

Planning for 2020 - 2021 Edition

Having moved their communities and programs into remote fora, independent school leaders are turning their attention to the planning challenge of a lifetime this spring and summer.  We know that if it can occur, an in person start to the 2020 - 2021 school year will be filled with extraordinary precautions and changing conditions throughout the year.  School leaders must also prepare for a possible remote beginning of the year and undertake careful financial scenario planning to estimate the impact it could have on their school's liquidity.  This is the school as a business--the part we can typically keep humming away in the back room--which will take center stage in planning and communication this spring and summer and test the penumbra of affective associations (the school as a "family") by which some or our constituencies describe our missions.  A small handful of schools have the resources to approach this work with surety, perhaps even the opportunity for forward momentum.  The vast majority will strive for stability, and some will be forced to confront their viability.