Financial Sustainability and the COVID-19 Pandemic — Upcoming Webinars: NYSAIS, AISGW, AIMS, and ACIS
After hosting webinars last week for more than 400 heads of school and chief financial officers of SAIS, NJAIS, ADVIS, and PAIS member schools, Ari Betof and Kelsey Vrooman are co-facilitating sessions for leaders in New York, Colorado, Maryland, and Washington, DC in the next two weeks.
Independent schools must quickly adapt to the unprecedented financial sustainability challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ongoing expense obligations coupled with potential declines in net tuition revenue, philanthropy, and auxiliary income risk creating a multi-stage crisis that will challenge all independent schools and may push schools in weaker positions past the point of viability. Ari Betof and Kelsey Vrooman frame these challenges and model the combination of financial factors already impacting independent schools and those likely to arise in the months ahead. Using example schools with differing levels of financial health, these sessions highlight the importance of mission-driven, data-informed decision making in response to financial challenges and offer strategies for school leaders in uncertain times.
NYSAIS eSeminar
Navigating the COVID-19 Independent School Financial Crisis
New York State Association of Independent Schools
Audience: Heads of School & Chief Financial Officers
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
11:00AM — 12:30PM ET
AISGW/AIMS Webinar
Navigating the COVID-19 Independent School Financial Crisis
Co-hosted by the Association of Maryland & DC Schools and
The Association of Independent Schools of Greater Washington
Audience: Heads of School & Chief Financial Officers
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
2:00PM — 3:30PM ET
ACIS Webinar
Navigating the COVID-19 Independent School Financial Crisis
Association of Colorado Independent Schools
Audience: Heads of School & Chief Financial Officers
Friday, April 17, 2020
2:00PM — 3:30PM ET
Ari Betof, Ed.D is President of Organizational Sustainability Consulting. He is a nationally recognized expert in independent school organizational stewardship and financial sustainability. In addition to his work with individual schools, nonprofits, and private sector companies, Ari’s clients include the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) — where he served as a NEASC Senior Advisor. He has also recently consulted to the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools (ADVIS), Association of Independent Schools of Greater Washington (AISGW), New Jersey Association of Independent Schools (NJAIS), and Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS). Ari has served as an independent school trustee; head of school; director of institutional advancement; director of enrollment management; director of strategic planning; and faculty member. His experience includes working at boarding and day schools, schools as small as 170 students, and as large as 1,100 students. Dr. Betof has been an instructor in University of Pennsylvania’s PennGSE Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership and Leadership Master’s Program. He has served as a mentor in Harvard University’s School Leadership Program, faculty member in the NAIS School Leadership Institute, and judge for the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Circle of Excellence Awards.
Kelsey Vrooman is the founder and CEO of Actionable Institutional Research and Data, a firm providing outsourced data analytics and institutional research services for independent schools. A former Director at the National Association of Independent Schools, Kelsey managed the creation of Market View, a geographic data visualization tool for independent school enrollment, conducted Jobs to be Done research projects, including why parents send their children to independent schools, and partnered with the National Business Officers Association (NBOA) to apply the Composite Financial Index to K-12 schools. She oversaw the online professional development program at NAIS, and staffed the Institute for New Heads and School Leadership Institute. Prior to her work at NAIS, Kelsey co-founded the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools (ATLIS), the national association that provides invaluable resources and guidance to school leaders on cybersecurity, educational technology, data privacy, innovation, and technology systems. Awarded the Emerging Leader Award by the International Society of Technology in Education and NAIS’s Teacher of the Future award, Kelsey has served independent schools for fifteen years as a trustee, technology administrator and classroom teacher.
