How The Sense Of Community At Private Schools Helped Them Triumph During The Pandemic [Podcast]

Mike Vachow is a Managing Director at Gowan Group, a full-service consultancy to independent schools based in Connecticut. Before becoming a consultant, Mike worked in independent day schools for 30 years. He began his career as an English teacher and coach at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans before moving on to administrative roles there. He continued in school leadership as a division director at Lake Forest Country Day School, for ten years as Head of Forsyth School in St. Louis, and as Interim Head at Peoria Academy. Mike also maintains his own consulting brand, Knuckleball Consulting, and he publishes a monthly newsletter called Ahead in the Count. Mike's consulting work has focused on enrollment strategy, strategic planning, governance, and leadership searches.

Mike Vachow

Mike Quoted

“Independent schools won the day last spring because their first instinct was to respond with care and empathy, when other kinds of schools gravitated toward bureaucracy and surveillance…”

“Meanwhile independent schools were reaching out to families asking, ‘How are you doing,’ ‘Is everything ok at your house,’ ‘Do you need anything?’”

“‘Over my dead body,’ said the admissions director.”

“There’s a lot lost if you don’t allow parents to be in the face-to-face presence of those great teachers.”

“There is very little about remote instruction that is of value to PK-2 learners. Next year, you’ll see even less screen time than there was before the pandemic.”

“As an elementary school head, one of the signs of a great curriculum night was to seeing parents going off together and making new friends.”

“Every board should insist that their head leaves town for two weeks this summer…no emails….only respond to the red phone ringing. And heads need to do the same for faculty.”

“Heads need to say, ‘I’ve got to take care of my people.’”

“Treat families who were ‘safe harboring’ last year as if they were new families this year.”

“Parents are going to feel ‘poor’ this year.”

“Heads need to curate the good stuff that we learned during the pandemic.”

What You’ll Learn

• What the new “normal” will look like.

• You can take a synchronous tour with a dedicated tour guide virtually.

• What we’ve learned that will stay after COVID.

• How “virtual curriculum night” might be here to stay…or not.

• How schools will keep some in-person events because they’re important.

• Parents are looking to create relationships with other parents.

• How to approach retention as the pandemic wanes.  

• How directors of admission were forced this year to get to know faculty better.

• How heads of school need to play the long game.

Mentioned

 Latin School of Chicago’s virtual conversations

Jill Goodman’s 6 Critical Experiences for Winning and Keeping Enrollments

Private School’s Have Become Truly Obscene by Caitlin Flanagan for the Atlantic

Letter to Brearley School by Andrew Gutman

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