Sixty percent or more of an independent school’s total budget consists of faculty and staff compensation and benefits. Yet most boards have little or no knowledge of how this money is delivered or whether the salary and benefit system is mission specific and mission driven. Why is this important? The salary and benefit system should be designed to attract, retain, and reward faculty who embrace and will advance a school’s mission and vision.

Many school heads often have neither the time nor the inclination to delve into the salary scale structure to examine the message that it sends about how teachers are compensated and rewarded. The compensation system typically reflects a long “tail” of decisions that no one remembers, and heads may be reluctant to expend political capital in tackling this sensitive subject. 

The goal of this session is to promote this important dialogue:  If we could start with a clean slate, what faculty compensation and benefit system would we build? Why would we build it? And how would it serve the school’s mission and financial sustainability? 

One of the three main roles of a board is the oversight of strategic planning.  Of course, most boards do this in concert with leadership, and in most schools the head takes the lead along with the board. The important challenge is to listen to the various stakeholders, make them feel valued, be reasonably transparent and yet leave the appropriate role of leading and implementing the plan to the board and leadership team. Strategic plans can be tedious, costly, and overblown, and a small, single agenda, highly motivated group can hijack the process. To stay on track, boards need to plan carefully and thoughtfully and follow healthy board governance practices. The planning process is as risky as it is important, and if handled poorly, can put the health of the school and board in jeopardy. 

Most heads know that lay below the surface of an apparently happy parent body or faculty lurks the potential for discontent at some level.  Underlying issues of disgruntlement exist in every school.  An incident can gain traction among a stakeholder group and lead to a firestorm even if only a small group, but one with a powerful voice, is leading and encouraging it.

How do schools and heads stay ahead of the curve in not only managing and strengthening a positive school climate/culture but remain in charge even when confronted by a challenge or short term crisis? Many heads do not feel they have sufficient political capital or tenure to move actively on initiatives to improve school climate. Such efforts can backfire if not managed carefully.

This session is directed to heads and senior school leaders about how to assess, manage, and strengthen school climate and also how to avoid meltdowns which were common in our schools during the pandemic.

John Littleford served as teacher, trustee and head of school for over 25 years. For the past 28 years he has been a consultant to over 6000 independent and international schools. His clients also include corporations, foundations, universities and a range of other non-profit organizations.

Mr. Littleford's areas of expertise are board governance, strategic planning, executive and faculty compensation and evaluation; executive searches; marketing strategies including admissions; fund raising, managing change; school climate; institutional and financial audits; and team building. His widely read landmark book, “Faculty Salary Systems in Independent Schools” was published by the National Association of Independent Schools for 20 years.

John Littleford speaks, and leads workshops at Conferences for independent and international school and nonprofit leadership all over the world. Littleford & Associates’ Newsletter is published four times a year and is widely read by 25,000 trustees and schools and not for profit leaders.