Working in a competitive environment for full-pay students, one would think that my motive for wanting struggling private schools to close quickly and not linger on is because it would mean more students in the applicant pool for me. But my reason is simply that this condition affects the independent school brand. Once a private school begins its financial spiral downward, its quality of service diminishes; this reflects badly on all our schools and kills our brand. Most consumers don’t differentiate between independent schools and private schools. During my years in Rhode Island, I knew of numerous parochial (private) schools that were doing poorly. People would cite these schools as examples of why they didn’t see the value in independent schools, or why they think moving to an area with better public schools would be a wiser school option. They tended to view independent schools in much the same way as they viewed these struggling private schools – mismanaged, lacking quality, and many in a downward trend for quality of service. They should have been doing better research, but instead they lump us all together, assuming we were all alike. They are the consumer; however, when they don’t consumer correctly, it’s our problem.
Although a number of schools have closed, and more will likely follow, I still believe that numerous struggling private schools will be around for at least another half century. A lot of schools are beginning to get better at conveying their value, thus attracting full-pay families. With the right leadership, struggling private schools will become more proactive and less reactive in their objective to find the full-pay family. Along with a powerful alumni donor base, schools should be able to sustain themselves. But what if the whole independent school market starts heading downward and poor quality of education becomes pervasive – would we be entering an independent school recession or has it already begun?
What can we do? Heads need to pay more attention to maintaining the excellence of their programs and the quality and skills of their leadership team. They need to create a financial model that generates enough income from tuition, planned giving, and auxiliary programs to sustain their schools. Remember, there is usually a very noble mission at the core of each independent school – we do have a purpose. However, if you think your struggling private school’s purpose has run aground and your school is heading on its way out, I can only hope you go quickly and do not hurt the brand of all the other independent schools.
If we want our schools to continue to thrive and the independent school brand, we need to start employing the right marketing, communication and sales initiatives as quickly as possible – there’s no time to wait! Schools will pay dearly to get their engines rolling up to speed if they do nothing to prevent them from slowing down.