Introduction:
In his recent Better Schools newsletter Chuck Evans shared data on the slight growth of the private school sector where he suggests that the economic downturn of 2008 may have been a good thing as it forced school leaders through a re-calibration of expectations and re-assessing of educational experiences. Therefore, I chose to reach out to him to hear more as he is a former head of school in Virginia and Texas, has been serving independent schools as a teacher, leader, and consultant for more than twenty-five years, has worked as a lobbyist in the Texas State Legislature, a certified mediator, and is a founding board member of (CESA).
[podbean resource=”episode=5ntv8-815b08″ type=”audio-rectangle” height=”100″ skin=”1″ btn-skin=”107″ share=”1″ fonts=”Helvetica” auto=”0″ download=”0″ rtl=”0″]Chuck Evans: 3 Questions on Growth, Governance and Predictions
- Can you share more about what you’ve seen in the past few years and how this is even important in good economic times?
- Many school leaders lament the competitive nature of the current school marketplace, but in your experiences what are the qualities of a school that is poised to maximize their opportunities within their local market despite greater competition from charter schools in particular?
- I talk to school leaders on a regular basis, and one of their primary struggles is helping their boards understand the context of creating a distinct school and competing within the local marketplace. I’ve written quite a bit on how leaders get worn out trying to pull their boards along in the process of strategic development and implementation as they too often get bogged down into the minutia of daily school activity. How might boards be changed to maximize the strategic work and move to a position of support and empowerment for school leaders?
