Are You Running or Managing Your School?

There comes a point where I have to stop taking and I have to start showing.

Recently in working with a tiny charter school to find their new leadership it was apparent that they had lost their way. They didn't know what set them apart from the community school and neither did the parents or students might enroll there. They didn't know what true academic success looked like. Finally they didn't know what real leadership looked like. What they did know what at the 7 year mark they were still struggling to be fully enrolled. That even though the community college was a mere 2 blocks from their school less than 5% of their students were graduating with an AA. Finally their current leadership always had an excuse.

So early one morning we flew down to Fort Lauderdale to visit McCarthy High School. Richard Jean who is both principal and president of this private school proudly escorted this board through the 40 acre campus, with 15 buildings. Richard continually stressed that were they were was not where they started 10 years ago when he came on board. This was a school where capacity was 1,600 and enrollment was 1,200. In a show of support 200 students withdrew from the school. It gets even better as the school was $13 million in debt.

Today McCarthy is financially solvent, Richard having retired the debt in 4 years. Enrollment is now beyond capacity hovering around 1,700. Last spring 1,600 students sat for their admissions test for 400 open spots, 100 of which will go to students with vouchers. The class of 2018 received $33 million in scholarship monies or about $82,500 per student. Roughly 10% of the senior class will graduate as National Merit Scholars.

So how did they get there? What did they do? What was McCarthy High School's "secret sauce"?

It's simple. Richard Jean manages McCarthy High School. It started when he looked at who the "competition" was; who they could compete with and who they could not. That area would be in academics. He looked at the schools that were excelling academically and replicated what they were doing. This school has a clear vision and it's posted on every wall. The most important thing is that he has empowered every member of his staff and everyone is accountable. If there is an issue with a student within 24 hours the teacher is responsible to contact the parent via text, voice mail and email. It there is no response in 24 hours it goes to the department head that is responsible for doing the same thing. It then goes to the academic heads, then guidance and finally if there has been no response it goes to the principal.

Not having a strong team or worse yet not building a strong team, not having a clear mission, not empowering people and holding everyone accountable, not delegating, believing that you have to do it all yourself means that you are running the school.

In truth is what it really means is that the school is running you.