What Is A Montessori School? 5 Facts About Montessori Schools

The article in the New York Times sounds ominous. Certainly, as it points out, private school endowment funds have seen declines in their value as a result of economic and financial meltdowns. But there are other factors which the article does not address which make the impact on financial aid less of an issue than the writer would have you believe.

Let's look at the facts.

Conservative Investment Policies

The investment approach for private school endowments has historically been a conservative, cautious approach. Trustees and their advisors have generally been good stewards of their finances. They avoided risky investments such as derivatives and real estate despite calls from some quarters to maximize returns. The reason for the decline in their portfolio value is simple: just about every investment-grade instrument declined.

Sustainability

Back in the 90s, sustainability became an important principle in private school mission statements and philosophies. The National Association of Independent Schools has taken a leadership role in supporting all kinds of sustainability initiatives including financial sustainability with its 1,500 member schools.

From the Nais: "In order for independent schools to thrive in the 21st century, NAIS believes that they must be sustainable along five dimensions: financial, demographic, programmatic, environmental, and global."

As a result, schools with significant endowments (greater than $10 million) generally were well-positioned to weather the economic storm which 2009 brought on with a vengeance.

Financial Aid is a Priority

Financial aid goes to the heart of most private schools' commitments to diversity. It is not an option. It is

If you are one of thousands of teachers who have been let go because of budget cuts, you are probably looking for another teaching job. Teaching is what you know. Teaching is what you love. After all, you sacrificed greatly to earn your degree. You could have gone into another profession or business and made much more money. But your idealism and sense of service to your nation's future got the better of you. You became a teacher.

Unfortunately, finding a new teaching position can be a very unsettling experience. Nothing is the same as it used to be. Years ago, you became a teacher. You went through a probationary period of several years. Back then, you were granted tenure, generous benefits, and a pension.

No money=no teachers

The economic meltdown of 2009 and the pandemic of 2020 were game-changers. Those events hit hard. In both situations, school districts struggled with budgets slashed deeply because of declining tax revenues. Suddenly, thousands of teaching jobs were eliminated. Maybe your job was one of them.

Downsizing is a phenomenon that has struck just about everywhere. What is even worse is that the available teaching jobs often don't come with the kind of generous benefits and tenure to which we all have grown accustomed. That's a thing of the past in most parts of the country.

The irony is that we as a nation have never needed talented teachers more than we do now. Our students are doing poorly when compared

An employment application is no place for half-truths. You have to understand that private schools have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients. They cannot afford to hire somebody who might jeopardize the school's reputation or, worse yet, cause harm to students. That is why it is so important to answer all the questions on an employment application truthfully.

Background Checks

Most private schools will use a service to do background checks on any potential new hires. They will not run the background check until they have interviewed you because background checks are expensive. That's another reason why you need to be truthful about anything in your resume which will arouse probing questions and nix your chances of even being interviewed.

What the background check really examines is your criminal and credit history. If you were charged with a criminal offense or have bad credit, that will show on your background check. Take the offensive and point out that your credit was destroyed by huge medical bills as a result of your mother suffering from Alzheimer's. Don't be creative. Just tell the truth.

Expect a drug test at some point in the hiring process. Since views about pot and even alcohol vary widely from one part of the country to another, make sure those tests come out clean. If you have been prescribed a controlled substance that will show up in a drug test, mention it proactively and file a copy of your doctor's prescription just in case

Finding a private school job was fairly simple years ago. You kept your resume and curriculum vitae up to date, did a bit of networking, attended a couple of professional conferences and that was pretty much it. News of job openings would come your way. You followed up with your application, were interviewed and, hopefully, won the appointment. It doesn't work that way any more.

As a result many teachers and administrators used to doing things the old way will look askance at the idea of using online sites and online tools to conduct their private school job search. I would suggest that you might want to think twice before you cast aspersions on these new ways of finding a job. You just might be on your way to becoming a digital dinosaur. Now, you wouldn't want to be a digital dinosaur, would you?

First of all, understand that online tools are simply that - tools. A chisel in the hands of a novice makes clumsy cuts and produces amateurish results. The same is true of most online tools and social media. You need to learn how to use them effectively to land the job you really want. Each of these tools and applications is effective when used by itself. But for the best results I recommend that you use all of them. Using these new tools effectively takes practice and patience. You cannot realistically expect results within hours of your first posts. Give it time.

Let's focus