What's Top of Mind for the New School Year

A forecast from six months of Talking Out of School stats

A very good day to you, TOOS readers! A thunderously rainy early morning is rapidly changing into a sunny and streamy start to the weekend here in CT. Depending on where your school is, you are putting the finishing touches on that catering order for opening faculty meetings or you are already back in the thick of it with the sounds of kids in the hallways. Whatever your current situation, I hope you get a few minutes to savor some summer in the next few weeks.

Stony Creek Strategy news:

The 23-24 Women’s Leadership Cohort is rocking and rolling. It is a pleasure and honor to start work with these talented women and with my partner, Jane Moulding.

Communications guru Lauren Castagnola and I are exploring a Communications Directors Cohort to launch later this fall monthly, over Zoom. Pulled in ten different directions? Trying to work out collaborations with admissions and development? Needing to put your foot down because just because it needs to be communicated doesn’t mean it’s the Communications Department’s job? Lauren and I are here for you! Click here if you’re interested. Better yet, set up a time to talk. There’s no time like to present to find a little understanding in the world.

Early September, look for the launch of Stony Creek Strategy’s website and our SCS Solutions in Enrollment Management, Hiring and Evaluation, Communications and Institutional Strategy. We are practical problem solvers who diagnose, design and deploy solutions efficiently and in partnership. Reach out to talk about the problems you are looking to solve.

Top of Mind for the New School Year: Trends from the Five Most Popular Posts of 2023

Talking Out of School has averaged over 3,000 readers per month in 2023 and even though the subscriber number have tripled in 2023, we’ve maintained a 70% open rate on posts. Yay, you! Your response has been incredibly gratifying and thank you for joining me on this journey. It’s been interesting to see what has struck a nerve and how I can keep fine tuning content to keep exploring what intrigues me and to serve you as the readership.

Coming in at #5

The head of school transition process should become more intentional, more structured and be co-created as a yearlong partnership between the head and the board.

I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to a number of new heads this summer and given the level of complexity facing schools of all kinds, schools don’t seem to be meeting the moment by creating just as complex, multilayered and nuanced a school integration experience for new heads. It’s not that new heads aren’t excited, grateful or in love with their schools or that boards are unwelcoming - it’s more like the system is stuck and it’s not clear who is going to un-stick it. And “transition services” are all over the map in terms of what head of school search firms, and even consultants within the same firm, are providing, leaning towards “not much.” As one head said to me, “the firm is supposed to do that?”

At #4

The difficult conversations will keep coming

I don’t know about you but sometimes I have waves of great sadness thinking about the thick of the pandemic years and sometimes I’m just really angry at losing what might have been. Most of the time I’m grateful for today. Nevertheless, it’s a time of great upheaval with schools trying to meet more needs than ever before while managing a mind boggling shift in the hiring and staffing landscape - both in qualified applicants and in what the market can command for salaries. All while people are still trying to wrap their heads around this existential global event we just went through. And COVID is still here… phew. It’s a lot.

At #3

The enrollment landscape has shifted, seemingly overnight

While some schools are booming, others are just trying to get their hands how to proceed when many norms have been upended. Going back to that prepandemic 2019 strategy just isn’t an option. This demographic change has been coming at us for a while, but suddenly in parts of the country is has manifested with a vengeance. And tuition - well, that’s a whole other topic.

At #2

Headship is a symphony of cognitive dissonance

I was overwhelmed by the response to this piece I posted a few months ago. When I attended the 2016 NAIS conference and Institute for New Heads mini-reunion, I talked to amazing Pamela Jordan, President of Idyllwild Arts and I asked her, probably with a little desperation, “Does it get easier?” And she paused and said, “It gets different.” True words.

Drumroll please….at #1

Communications can be a transformative function (if schools can embrace it)

This was a a real wow moment - the response to this piece was off the charts, and I’m sure part of this has to do with the fact that comms people communicate - read, share, repost, etc. But it underscores that not enough schools are approaching this function trying to understand what they don’t know rather than a “one and done” hire a super person approach that is bound to end in frustration for everyone.

Again - gratitude to you, readers - you are doing the hard work of serving the kids in your schools.

And there has been such positive feedback about the weekly posts, this schedule will maintain this fall. This means every month there will be two posts from me, one interview, and either a guest author or archival post revisited each month. Stay tuned!

With much thanks -

Julie

NEXT WEEK - the second People Talking interview feature!

Forging a productive HOS/CFO relationship

When I first started as a head, I felt like a car owner going to the mechanic as I became better acquainted with finance - I had a general sense of how it was supposed to run, but when there were problems, I just had to rely on the diagnosis and advice of an expert. That’s scary! And it doesn’t need to be that way.