School leaders making consequential decisions need a clear picture of their school’s financial health. Our full School Operations Assessment provides you with the tools, context, and analysis to make sound financial choices, in the form of a written Report and financial Dashboard. The latter is also available as a stand-alone assessment tool.
These objective fiscal and operations checkups can be useful if you need to:
• prepare new Heads of School;
• support overworked administrators;
• prepare for accreditation;
• inform strategic and long-range planning;
• assess planned facilities changes;
• evaluate contracted services;
• or provide finance committees or boards with need-to-know data.
To get started:
Our School Operations Assessment dives deep into current operations through a financial review, on-site visit, and interviews with the Head of School, CFO/Business Manager, and other school officials. We share our expert analysis in a written Operations Report that verifies where best practices are in place, identifies areas in need of improvement, provides comparative data from schools with similar profiles, and offers practical and actionable recommendations.
Six months after submitting the Assessment, we meet with the Head of School to check in and review progress.
The Dashboard is a cornerstone of our School Operations Assessment, but is also available as a stand-alone product. It examines key financial metrics—historical, current, and projected—to analyze school-specific data and provide comparisons to schools with similar profiles. More than a one-time snapshot, updating the Dashboard with new data ensures the school maintains a well-defined picture of its overall financial health.
Mike Waylett’s successful 40-year career in independent schools has included oversight of financial operations, human resources, buildings and grounds, major construction projects, and advancement offices, as well as significant experience with governance issues, strategic planning, and accreditation. Mike has held senior administrative and Head of School roles and has chaired numerous accreditation teams.
Contact Mike Waylett to discuss School Operations Assessments or Dashboards for your school.
See our roster of Consultants here
"Strongly recommend this service to the independent school community. This is a professional, thorough, and seamless process with powerful takeaways for moving forward in operations."
Cobb Atkinson
Head of School
Westchester Country Day School
"Mike brings a wealth of experience and knowledge about school finances to his work. His assessment of our business office was comprehensive, thorough, and full of useful insights and recommendations for both our day-to-day operations and our strategic planning at the board level. By comparing our school's financial situation to peer institutions and to independent school trends throughout the country, Mike helped us identify what should be our most pressing priorities."
Jonathan Brand
Head of School
Grymes Memorial
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