Remarkable Times, Remarkable Blessings

Zach Clark, Westminster Christian Academy (St. Louis) as origially posted on The Christian School Journal.

Remarkable Times, Remarkable Blessings

Read about the struggles encountered and the actions taken by the leadership staff at Westminster Christian Academy - and be encouraged!

Zach writes, "Ultimately, it is God’s mercies and provision, by His grace, that sustains us. But, I also know that God works through people, their decisions, and their strengths and weaknesses. Many schools are facing far more difficult times than we have. We do not pretend to fully understand all of what has happened or what is happening now. But, I do challenge you to join us in the day-to-day discipline of asking questions and digging deeper down and climbing higher up in the understanding of this calling of serving in a Christian school in today’s times. 2009 is indeed a remarkable year, and remarkable times remain ahead. Let us go forward together."

Leading Your School in Uncertain Economic Times - UPDATE

Dr. Mosbacker's PowerPoint presentation - Leading Your School in Uncertain Economic Times - has been added to the MACSA website.

Click here to view the presentation and/or to listen to the audio of the sessions as presented on Thursday, April 30, 2009.

Your feedback is welcome and appreciated!

Leading Your School in Uncertain Economic Times

Leading a school brings with it many challenges but none as crucial as doing so during these challenging economic times. Dr. Mosbacker, Superintendent at Briarwood Christian School in Birmingham, Alabama provides fresh insight to how we can secure the future of Christian education in our region. He provides much food for thought as he presents possibilities about how to increase the 'value' of Christian education in the minds of our parents. This thought provoking presentation made at the Spring '09 Administrator's Summit is well worth your investment of time to listen.

Click here to visit the MACSA website for the audio downloads of these sessions. The files are in MP3 format and are rather large. Please be patient with the download!

Listen - then come back to this post and share your thoughts!

The Realities and Ministry Philosophy of Full Cost Tuition

By Dan Krause , President
GraceWorks Ministries
As posted on The Christian School Journal
January 31, 2009

Try this experiment. Ask an ardent supporter of public education what’s wrong – from a philosophical, societal good point-of-view – with private Christian schools. Chances are, a top reason you’ll hear is that Christian schools “cherry pick” the wealthiest and highest functioning families in the community, leaving public schools to pick up the pieces with lower income (and therefore lower functioning) students. Of course students in private schools do better, they’ll say; these same higher functioning students would do well - if not better - in public schools. Ipso facto, it’s not what private schools do that makes them successful, it’s the students private schools attract. Public schools, by societal decree, have to service everyone, and therefore cannot achieve the same stellar results as private schools.

Let’s evaluate this argument two ways:
(1) as a statement of reality, and
(2) as a statement of philosophy.

Click here to read the rest of the post! Complete with charts and graphs!

Leading Your School In Uncertain Economic Times: Practical Suggestions

Dr. Barrett Mosbacker
Superintendent, Briarwood Christian School (Alabama)
Full article posted on The Christian School Journal

Many experts predict that we are headed for a recession. A recession in and of itself is not particularly worrisome. Like breathing, expansions and retractions in the economy are normal and keep the economy healthy and vibrant over the long-term.

Whether the predictions of gloom and doom come true or not, it seems clear that we are in an extended economic slowdown, which may affect many of our schools. As school leaders, it is our responsibility to assess the situation and then to provide prayerful, faithful, and steady leadership.

So how do we prepare our schools for economic turndown, or even a possible prolonged recession? The role of the leader is not to react but to respond prayerfully and strategically. If the economy spirals into a long recession it will affect our families and in turn, our schools.

I offer the following series of possible contingent responses for your prayerful consideration if, as seems inevitable, there is a sharp economic downturn. Obviously, every school and local market is different, but perhaps one of these suggestions will be helpful.

• Pray faithfully for your families and for your school ministry.
• Look at possible ways to prepare your students for an economic downturn.
• As much as possible, move toward zero-based budgeting or at least look at your budget from that perspective.
• Smaller schools need to assess the number of students per class to ensure that each class is at break-even on a contiguous basis
• Increase financial aid.
• Stay on top of your accounts receivables.
• Think of ways to expand your market.
• Work on your retention rates!
• Consider merging with other Christian schools.
• If you are a Covenantal school (a school that only enrolls children born to at least one confessing parent (1 Cor. 7:14), consider enrolling the children of non-believers.
  
  

Click here to read the full post, including detailed information on each of the above suggestions.