Graduate Certificate Program for Business Leadership in Independent Schools

NBOA and Johns Hopkins University, with significant financial assistance from Sage Dining Services, had joined forces to present a Graduate Certificate in Business Leadership for Independent Schools program that began April 1, 2006.

The year-long graduate-level course – pre-requisites included a Bachelor's degree and 2-3 years experience – began and concluded with a resident week of 12-hour days full of interactive and peer-group working sessions at the JHU business center in downtown Baltimore. Between the two residencies there was a year of distributed learning where the students developed their learning products. Each day during the residency focused on one core content area. The first day, for example, had a professor of ethics working with the participants on the "moral compass." Then the next six days were spent looking at the rest of the issues affecting business management at independent schools through that compass lens.

A key component of the year-long program required groups of four business officers to work together to develop (and self-monitor) a strategic initiative program for each member's school. This strategic initiative needed to be approved by each school's Head. That provided a double benefit for the school: the business officer gets graduate-level training in management, and the school gets help with a strategic initiative at the same time!

The five major content areas include independent school culture, business operations, financial operations, human resources and facilities — all tactical aspects of daily operations. Overarching themes guiding and threaded through each content area include leadership, ethics, communication, legal/regulatory issues, and strategies.

The program was an enormous success for the participants. Their work products are amazing. Going forward, NBOA is working on redesigning the program based on what we learned from the first cohort. We will then offer the program again. If you are interested in more information, please contact Linda Dennison at linda@nboa.net.