Search consultants who really pay attention encounter school-operations issues in many different ways. Consultants have to understand our client schools’ operations in order to understand the kinds of leader that each school needs. We need to understand competitor schools’ strengths and weaknesses to understand our clients’ position in their markets. Finally, we can learn about our candidates’ effectiveness as leaders of their current schools.
You can’t see everything on a school’s website, but you can see quite a lot that aligns with the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework for Education, the approach we use at Tradition to understand organizations. For example:
1. The website just works
The basic topics are covered. The links work. You can perform all the functions you’d expect to perform, and it’s easy to get around the website to find what you need. It’s easy to donate, and there are parent links to Blackbaud or whichever system is used to manage the administration of the school.
2. The content is current and mission-aligned
A parochial school uses imagery and language that supports the mission of the school. Students pictured are still students, and staff pictured still work at the school. A school with special programs or world languages represent those features prominently and logically.
3. There is a calendar. Or more than one calendar.
The more calendars, the better. The more information on each calendar, the better. Some options:
- A one-year calendar on one PDF page gets printed and put on the fridge
- A WordPress calendar allows users to navigate and search
- A Google or iCal option permits parents and students to subscribe and integrate calendars seamlessly
- Sample daily and weekly calendars demonstrate the daily lives of students
4. There is a Portrait of a Graduate or Profile of a Graduate
A Portrait of a Graduate indicates some alignment between board and employees, between employees and parents. It helps everyone operationalize the mission in every decision.
5. Chain of command is articulated clearly
Perhaps the most bedeviling operational issue in independent schools is the desire of parents to call the Head of School directly. A single web page on your school’s web page can and should tell parents whom to call in which circumstances. The list further helps to clarify job descriptions in cases where weak leadership has made delineation of job responsibilities difficult to understand.
If a Head does nothing other than fix the chain of command, his or her chances of success in the real job of leading a school improve dramatically.
6. Parent, student, and employee handbook are posted and include grievance procedures
In the darkest moments of a school’s operations, it is unclear to aggrieved community members what to do and whether it’s safe to do what they need to do. Documented procedures help to create positive employee morale by creating clarity and safety.
Handbooks also outline the academic and ethical standards to which everyone will be held, creating a generalized sentiment of fairness in operations, further improving morale.
How many of these points does your school’s website cover? Do you have any you would add? Please let us know.