2021 Annual Conference Schedule

The pandemic uncovered a number of challenges that independent schools must grapple with as we move toward a drastically changed post-pandemic reality. To chart a relevant path forward, school leaders need to embrace a disposition of “fearless inquiry,” a willingness to interrogate the core of current systems and practices. And they need to develop a new skill set for “strategic design” – a way of developing new approaches and environments, rooted in human wellness, equity and inclusion, and new literacies to better support students who will be living in an increasingly uncertain future. This keynote will develop your abilities to make sense of all that has changed and help you take concrete steps to begin a process for reinvention.

Extended reality (XR) environments, including augmented, mixed, and virtual reality, immerse users in an interactive environment through the use of various technological tools. We will see how XR technology can be used to effectively create an environment where targeted relationship skills, emotion recognition, social awareness, cooperation, and executive functioning are addressed using best SEL practices for the benefit of our student communities.

Senior leaders and trustees know that even with the right plan, implementing change can be tremendously difficult. Post-pandemic, when many school stakeholders are still grappling with exhaustion and burnout, it may feel impossible. Leaders build the foundation for change by ensuring the school remains mission-driven, establishing a process for identifying areas of growth, and using data to inform decision making. This interactive session will explore critical elements of change theory as we work through proven leadership strategies to build capacity for lasting progress, even when no one wants to change.

Building on the themes of the morning keynote, this session offers a deeper dive into the process of strategic design for schools in the post-pandemic world. Given the urgent challenges we are now confronted with, we’ll look at an effective frame for moving forward with hope and optimism into the future. We’ll interrogate three BIG questions:

• Who are we now given the tumult since March 2020?
• What must we decide to shed from our systems and practices in this moment?
• What must we aspire to become as schools and as communities committed to providing a relevant preparation for the children we serve?

Highly interactive and provocative, this session will leave you with specific starting points and tools for the important journey ahead.

Creating a culture and climate of equity and inclusion requires a thorough understanding and application of change management theory, as well as an intentional strategy grounded in school culture and values. Using clear frameworks, this session will help senior leaders, DEI practitioners, heads of schools, and trustees prioritize their DEI roadmap and create a sustainable, community-based approach to those goals and objectives.

In spite of an enrollment upturn for many SAIS schools due to COVID, NAIS schools overall have lost nearly 13% of their students since 2007. How can we turn the tide? At many independent schools, are we focused too much on the tyranny of the urgent that is demanded by the ever-changing algorithms of digital marketing? While it is currently the marketing platform of choice, consumers are overwhelmed by digital messaging. What will be important long-term? Connor’s “Burger” metaphor is a lighthearted but memorable look at the serious issue of enrollment decline and how to address it:

• Listening obsessively for what people want – and accounting for that in our messaging and strategic planning. Who should we listen to? What should we be asking?
• Identifying where our ideal prospects are now – those who share and support our same values, attitudes, and desires. Where will they be in 2026?
• Getting everyone in the school “pulling in the same direction” to bring those ideal families into our schools and serve them all the way through to graduation and beyond.

Jumping into administration is daunting and many doubt their readiness. But with many retirements looming, we need new and vibrant administrators now more than ever. This workshop led by a long-time division head will give new and aspiring school leaders the tips, tricks, and tried-and-true methodologies necessary to be successful on day one and beyond.

This luncheon will feature an NAIS update, the SAIS President’s Address, and presentation of the SAIS Distinguished Service Award.

Schools know that in order to prepare their students for an increasingly interconnected and international world, students need to become global citizens. They also know how challenging it is to create authentic cross-cultural experiences. This workshop will address the importance of global citizenship, the stages of intercultural competency using the Intercultural Development Continuum, and ideas to engage students in becoming global citizens. If you want your students to better understand the world, this is the session for you.

Good governance is complex on a great day. Crisis and external pressures raise the stakes considerably and demand different things from both the board and the leadership team, requiring heads of school to meet their boards in a different place and way than they ever have before. How has governance shifted and what are key takeaways as we consider the road ahead? What were we not doing well before the issues of 2020 came to the forefront? How does crisis management differ from the head of school and board chair or trustee role? Come join this conversation and acquire skills and insights to manage the next part of the journey.

This has been a year of extreme disruption globally and we are beginning to feel the aftershocks. Challenges schools faced before the pandemic, such as the declining birth rate, have only accelerated. Adults and students alike have experienced declines in all areas of thriving, which may have an outsized impact on learning approaches and outcomes in the years ahead. Amid all the uncertainty, we have an opportunity to rethink school in every way. We will explore the major pandemic forces and outline useful frameworks for designing a winning future strategy.

The pandemic and our national awakening for substantive equity and justice has caused many schools to examine how effective they’ve been at hiring and retaining a more diverse and culturally reflective employee community. What lessons have we learned? What environmental safety measures have we put in place for diverse employees?

As we move beyond the disruptions of the last year, educational leaders find themselves at an unprecedented watershed moment. Established processes have been not only disrupted but also reshaped, while long-held practices emerge revised—and, in many cases, truly revitalized. Schools across the country are questioning how things have always been done with a newfound and decidedly healthy skepticism. This spirit of brave interrogation and bold experimentation also has schools asking profound questions about communications, marketing, and branding. How can unwavering, foundational values and missions translate into messaging fit for the new normal? How can schools proclaim who they are while communicating the well-earned insights of the past year? Learn why this is the most opportune moment in a generation for schools seeking to put everything—including the framing of their core value proposition—on the table for reconsideration and renewal.

We know that connection, personalized learning, and collaboration are integral components of a student’s learning journey, yet these tenets are frequently forgotten in the design of professional development programming for the adults in our schools. Faculty and staff are often required to sit through professional learning sessions that do not appeal to their needs or innate desire to collaborate, which can leave them feeling isolated and frustrated. Let’s take action and shift this traditional “one size fits all” paradigm to one that prioritizes the unique learning needs of faculty and staff. In this session, learn how to transform your school’s professional development programming by nurturing collegial relationships, developing teacher leaders, and implementing personalized learning among colleagues. Tangible examples of various teacher-led programming models including learning walks, instructional rounds, and mini-conferences will be shared along with strategies to get started.

Join a conversation about important lessons learned from historic and current cases of sexual misconduct as a school trustee shares her experience and things she wished she knew during the investigation. Perspective from similar cases will also be shared. This session will offer critical and relevant information to help reduce incidents and respond in ways that support both students and the institution.

Every school has faced unprecedented challenges as a result of COVID-19. In addition to regular employment law issues such as FMLA and wage/hour inquiries, there are also issues that schools may be encountering for the first time, such as transgender or unique mental health issues. Given the constantly evolving laws, it is imperative that school leaders have an understanding of how to address these from a practical and legal perspective. This session will explore the top issues that are likely to be encountered and provide an action plan for challenging scenarios to help reduce the risk of legal liability and other negative consequences, including negative employee morale and community relations issues.

Being a manager is about more than supervising personnel, but effective supervision is essential to the success of your department and your school. A good manager understands the basics of supervision and knows how to mitigate risk related to personnel management, properly responding to leave and accommodation requests or poor performance. A leader also understands that a balance of compassion and compliance when managing personnel fosters trust and productivity. Join us to learn what you need to know to lead your department:

• Discover best practices for performance management and techniques to effectively communicate expectations while encouraging resilience and resourcefulness
• Learn to think outside-the-box in the interactive process when an employee requests a medical accommodation
• Understand your obligations under federal law when interacting with personnel in your department

As more schools seek to establish or strengthen their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), school leaders often struggle to align desired outcomes with sustainable strategies that are grounded in best practices and actually position the person(s) charged with DEI leadership for success. This session is designed to help school leaders move from talk to action, with particular consideration for the supports needed to empower DEI practitioners to be more effective in their work.

Accreditation and strategic planning are important processes that require a school’s leadership team to focus on the long-term future and financial equilibrium. This session will identify questions to ask and the corresponding data to consider in relation to the school’s financial health, recent history, and future projections. Review tools, sample presentation formats, and templates to implement at your school, including net tuition revenue analysis, cost effectiveness by division, five-year DASL stats comparison with benchmark schools, faculty salary analysis with public schools and benchmark schools, one-page financial dashboard, and more. Leave this session with tools in hand to help obtain the necessary data to make informed decisions as well as analyze, project, and present the future impact of those decisions to the leadership of the school.

Faculty and administrators benefit from utilizing a system of evaluation, feedback, and professional growth that everyone “buys into” and that they can sustain. Sometimes, the best system isn’t one a school purchases from an outside source, but instead one they create themselves to serve their own needs and goals. In this way, it is more meaningful and sustainable. Learn how one school approached the process created their own teacher-centered system for observation, feedback, evaluation, and growth. Thinking about trends in evaluation, success stories from others, and the unique goals and challenges of their own campus, participants will envision what developing a sustainable, teacher-approved, teacher-centered evaluation and growth system could look like at their school.

In the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the independent school community faced a variety of economic, demographic, and technological pressures disrupting the traditional business model of independent schools. The impact of the pandemic on independent schools exposed new vulnerabilities but also revealed creativity, agility, and nimbleness among school leadership. This keynote will focus on where we’ve been, what we’ve learned, and where we may go next as financial stewards of our schools with a greater appreciation for our capacity to advance the important role of independent education in perpetuity.

As schools plan for and return to off-campus experiences locally, nationally, and internationally, how can we reimagine them to maximize competency-based learning while supporting inclusive student well-being and managing risk? Many schools have signature or well-loved programs that immerse students in learning beyond the classrooms and school campus. We know, now more than ever, that many of the competencies developed through hands-on learning in the world are key to developing the next generation of creative thinkers and doers, ready to tackle the complex challenges we face in today’s interconnected world. This session will provide tools, resources, and school-based examples to strengthen off-campus programming while adapting to the current risk climate. Participants will gain an understanding of recent research on global competencies and consider multiple school models for off-campus programming that center student development on competencies such as understanding multiple perspectives, communicating across cultures, and taking action on global issues. This session will also provide benchmark data and timelines on returning to domestic and international overnight programming as well as model risk management practices, all from across the 300 member-schools of the Global Education Benchmark Group. Educators and school leaders will gain practical takeaways for how to adapt and design off-campus programs to prepare students to thrive and lead in our interconnected and complex world. .

All too often, enrollment and employment contracts are drafted once and rarely revisited, with schools recirculating the same language from year to year. However, new issues can crop up that require referencing these core documents and what they say about a school’s policies, procedures, and how certain situations are managed. Similarly, courts and administrative agencies often reach decisions that require schools to assess whether their contract language is still legally enforceable. This session will address the hot legal issues to be cognizant of in drafting employment and enrollment contracts, including a focus on lessons learned as we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. What elements can be hardwired into these contracts, so schools are better situated to manage and respond to future crises?

In 2020, SAIS received a grant from the EE Ford Foundation to build a Head Search Database (HSDB), which helps makes head search data transparent by aggregating and centralizing information. This new system provides basic information about head searches, placements, and tenures to help demystify headship trends. It provides transparent reports to school leaders, search consultants, and the search committee. Come check out what this new tool can do and share your input on its future resources, features, and uses.

The Ron Clark Academy (RCA) House System is a dynamic way to reward and inspire students while creating a culture of belonging at your school. Implementing the RCA House System correctly with a class, grade, or whole school can provide benefits that will profoundly impact students and teachers alike. Students can also earn points that contribute to the overall house’s total score. The students receive points for displaying academic excellence, character, school spirit, outstanding performance, and much more. Students and teachers at schools using the system rave about its impact on the educational experience. Children have noted how it has helps them form friendships and create closer bonds with peers. Teachers point out how students perform at higher levels when points are assigned and their peers are cheering them on. The RCA House System continues to make its way to schools across the world, including the United States, Canada, South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Australia, and Northern Africa.

Join the discussion as we identify current trends in philanthropy across the U.S. with a specific focus on giving to education. Within this philanthropic landscape, discover the four things every school needs to be successful in fundraising and how heads and senior administrators can effectively partner with their advancement departments. Learn best practices in fundraising, pitfalls to avoid in making a gift request, and the characteristics shared by heads of school as fundraisers-in-chief.

Hiring is THE most important role a leader has in their organization. As Jim Collins shared in his book Good to Great, it is about who is on the bus and what seat they occupy. Unfortunately, in independent schools, the people charged with hiring often come up through the academic ranks and lack formal training and research-based strategies to attract, interview, and hire the best candidates for their schools. In this workshop participants will learn:

• Why hiring mistakes happen
• How to develop a step-by-step hiring system
• How to create and use blind assessments
• How to develop interview questions and performance tasks
• Better ways to conduct reference checks
• How to effectively use technology
• How to write more compelling job postings
• How to find candidates that match your school’s mission and culture
• How to develop a strategic hiring vision to help move your school towards its long and short term goals.

This interactive workshop will include direct instruction, resources and examples, collaboration with other participants, and a Q&A. It will not focus on the legal aspects of hiring.