| Enrollment
Issues
Application
Improvement: Add this question to your enrollment application: "Have
you applied or will you be applying at any other school this
year?" This can help identify families that could
surprise you later in your enrollment estimates!
Screening
Improvement: You may want to require a Previous School
Assessment Form for new families in your enrollment package.
A Previous School Assessment Form can give you valuable information
that ONLY the previous teacher can give. Sample .doc form available
HERE. (right-click
and Save Target As)
Screening
Improvement: Many people,
especially young people use websites to express themselves. I have
found many people I know at websites such as www.myspace.com. You
can click search on the menu at the top. Type in the first name
of the person in the Find a Friend search box and click Find. On
the next window, enter your zip code and change to within 5 miles and
click update. Scroll through the results to look for the specific
person and click Profile. Unfortunately you may see some unwanted
graphics while searching.
When
You Have To Turn Down Students: Do you have students that want to
enroll in your school, but you cannot take them for whatever
reason? Don't have a homeschool program in your school to handle
this? Suggest a homeschool program that includes extra help for new
homeschoolers! At least you offer an option when you have to
turn them down. Eastern U.S.: Southeast
Academy Western U.S.: Western
Christian Academy If you
have to turn them down because you are full, these programs are not
local and you may have a better possibility of getting them to
re-apply next year.
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Money
Savers
Software: Save
hundreds or thousands of dollars by using Open Office for your
school's suite of software programs. Open Office is a cost free
program that you just download. It has a word processor, spread
sheet, data base, and presentation program. Get rid of illegal,
unlicensed software from your ministry's computers. It will open
your past documents from Word, Excel, and Power Point. Yes, it
takes a little bit of learning to adjust to the different look and
features, but you can have it conquered in no time. Plus there
is no cost to upgrade it as newer features are released.
Download the installation file and save to disk, then put it on a cd
to save downloading time on other computers.
Ink Cartridges:
Buy non-OEM black ink cartridges instead of OEM HERE!
Example: HP45's for less than $5.00. Black remanufactured
cartridges are normally good for photo printing. Avoid
remanufactured color cartridges if you print photos because the
colors may vary slightly. Remanufactured color cartridges are normally
okay for teacher/office use. Trying to refill your own cartridges has
the risk of a messy disaster and the extra labor eliminates the
savings.
Ink Use:
Change your default printing preferences to draft or fast draft for
every printer in your ministry (which prints faster anyway). You
can always change your preferences for individual prints from File and
Print and Preferences when you want a better print quality. You
can change your default settings for all jobs in Control Panel (not
from printer preferences in your browser or publishing program).
This will save you a ton of ink! Try making more documents
available from your website and let users consume their own ink.
Computer Repair and
Software Savings:
This page is usually up to date and has links to
free tools that are needed to keep a computer running. It also
has some great training for the average user that doesn't take long to
read and will save most frustrations. Computer
Survival
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Security
Employee Background
Checks: All states require background checks for school workers,
but not all states will notify you of activity after the initial
check. Some states only do a one-time check unless you specify
the option to be notified for changes. In California for
example, one-time live scan costs $79 but update notification only
costs $20 more. It is just as important to know of activity
while working at your school as before working at your school! You
should always check your state and local requirements for volunteers
and others on your campus such as contractors.
School Internet Access:
Teacher or the administrator can go to jail and be denied from youth
ministry for the rest of their life if someone visits illegal sites on
their computer! Teachers should be reminded of this to
prioritize their procedures. The safest way to protect internet
access is through firewalls, tracking, computer passwords, and supervision.
A Christian school should be a Godly haven for students. Filters
that block 99.9% can still allow access to over 6000 sites. Filters
also give a false sense of security. Larger schools should have two
different internet services: one for teachers/offices and one for the
computer lab/student access. Firewalls: Firewalls can block all
internet access. Many websites use designated IP
addresses that can be manually added for approval to the
firewall. Add only approved websites with designated IP's
addresses. Tracking: Someone in your school should have the
skills necessary to use tracking tools. If the school has the ability
to connect the time and location of page accesses, students that know
they are being watched will be less likely to use the internet for the
wrong things. Keystroke loggers should be used on suspect
computers. Passwords: Every computer should be password
protected and setup to go to a password-protected screensaver or a
login screen after a small amount of inactivity time. Older operating
systems like Windows 98 should have a bios (cmos) password for
starting the computer to prevent people from just resetting the
computer to use it. Supervision: The key to safe internet use is
always using supervision. Structuring your school to only have
internet access in a supervised computer lab will offer the best moral
security. Student computers with internet access scattered
around your building will make it difficult to properly
supervise. Note: Most newer laptops have a built-in
wireless adapter that can connect to an unprotected neighboring
signal. Laptops can have full access to the internet that cannot be
tracked by the school.
License Management:
To do what is right and also avoid breaking the law, your school
school should do an annual audit of software licenses on each
computer. Advancing technology is making it easier to identify
unlicensed software on computers. One license does not mean a
site license! A suspect school could have a federal marshal or
other law enforcement agency knocking at your door. Consider a
school policy where all paper licenses are stored in a central file
cabinet using a folder for each computer. Emailed licenses
should be printed and put in each appropriate folder. The
operating system license on most newer computers are taped to the
actual computer. Make sure they stay stuck to the
computer. Consider a school policy where staff are required to
provide the license to store in the school's license files before
installing on a computer. The simplest way to deal with this
area is to migrate towards free software to reduce the number of
licenses necessary.
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Student
Motivation
School Money: One
of the best motivators I have used since the mid-80's is school money.
The main idea is so the teacher can have an easy, ongoing motivational
system. Students that finish work early can be paid to do extra
work. If a student's only reward for getting done early is more work,
he will learn to work slow. Students that struggle can be quietly
offered a deal to combat discouragement. School money can be
used for hundreds of other situations (e.g. helping with a classroom
maintenance task, picking up trash on the playground, playing Bingo on
party days, additional benefit of a school award, surpassing an
individual fundraiser amount). Academic work for money should be the
best deal (largest amount) to students. School money should be printed
in such a way to discourage counterfeiting (colored paper, heavier
stock, or hand printed serial numbers for jr and sr high). The money
should be smaller than real money so many can be printed from one
sheet. The teacher's bank of money should be locked up!
Different denominations are used, but I would recommend using 1's as
your most frequent reward so it is easier for the store to
count. If reusing money after it is spent in the store, students
should be required to count their money and turn in the total to the
teacher once per week to discourage stealing. If you have an
economical source for making these bills, have students write their
name in ink across the bill as it is given out. Students should have a
designated time they can trade in smaller denominations for larger
bills. Students are not allowed to take money home. School
Store: Parents are asked to donate recommended items or real money
for a classroom store. Each teacher needs to find one or two
parents to help with managing the school store. Items can be
stored in large plastic storage tubs that should be locked up or taken
home. Students are either spenders or savers. There needs to be
a large amount/variety of small items, medium amount of medium items,
and a medium amount of large items. www.orientaltrading.com
www.ssww.com
Although candy and soda are big sellers, use only healthy food
items. You can use larger store items like lunch with the
principal, free lunch if you have a lunch program, or whatever would
be attractive to the student! A weekly store time of a half hour
is ideal, but older students could get by with bi-weekly or
monthly. The manager(s) of the store should arrive early to see
if any donated items have been turned into the teacher. The
manager and the teacher should meet at the beginning of the year to
discuss store pricing to set appropriate values. Some
teachers have used the school money system to correct problems in the
classroom. e.g. If a student forgets pencils or pens, he can buy
one. If students are not properly using breaks to go to the
restroom and are asking during class time too often, they can go as
often as they want, but it costs them school money (even if they do
not really need to go, it is an incentive that is valuable to some
types of students). Money can be given for a "row
prize" in the classroom that is based on daily behavior.
This creates incentive and peer pressure to improve
behavior.
Please send us some
of your ideas! Help out other schools.
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Promoting
Your Enrollment
Clarifying Intensions
Earlier: Schedule an Enrollment Night for enrolled families to
re-enroll. This will get a majority of your commitments nailed down on
a given day. It is also easier for your secretary to process the forms
in bulk rather than trickling in. You can either do it in a program
fashion OR a between the hours of ?-? format. Offer refreshments!
Enrollment nights also help families prioritize your fees in their
budget because their is a definite date due rather than a large window
of payment. Make your enrollment fees higher for returning families
that do not register on Enrollment night.
Clarifying Intensions
Earlier (2):
Offer online enrollment forms and payments on your
website. Parents will never have to hunt for misplaced enrollment
packages and it will save you ink and time! Offer credit card
payments for enrollment fees and book fees so parents short on cash
flow have an option at a time when they are already paying tuition.
Better for them to owe the bank than you!
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Fundraising
eScrip: This
is probably the easiest fundraiser that every Christian school should
use. By
just having your parents register their shopping and credit cards with
your group i.d., you can make a significant amount of money each
year. We have found most families participation benefit a school
$100-$200 per year. Multiply $100 times the number of families to get
an idea of benefit! Many other money making tools are available through their
program. Some schools make it a part of the enrollment
process. Step
by step Christian school guide for your school to implement
this.
Online Computer Lab
Fundraiser: Students can sell
12 month computer training accounts to a huge market
of 45+ year old people. It can even be sold to grandparents, aunts, and uncles in other states.
Your school will automatically receive renewal income every year
because users will realize how easy it is to learn and will want to renew every year to keep up with
technology. Users can complete as many courses as they have time for in their 12 month account.
This fundraiser does not require money,
inventory, or responsibilities for teachers. Just
give the fundraising facilitator guide to a volunteer. The facilitator
will print flyers for the students. Students distribute the
flyers to prospects. Prospects signup directly without going
through the student. The school receives 60% and a record of
which student made the sale. A school of 50 students selling 3
accounts each earns $4,500. A school of 200 students
selling 3 accounts each earns $18,000. Renewals are automatically
credited to your school each year. Fundraiser will become
available sometime during the 2007-2008 year. www.onlinecomputerlab.com
Cell Phones and Ink
Cartridges: Looking for a great way to raise thousands of
dollars for your school? The EcoPhones Cell Phone, PDA & Ink Jet
Printer Cartridge Recycling Fundraiser will even pay for broken,
non-working phones. Unlike other programs, EcoPhones guarantees
payment for every item - even ones not on their list of more than
600+ models. There's nothing to buy and nothing to sell. Simply ask
parents, neighbors, co-workers and local businesses to donate and
recycle their cell phones and cartridges. For more information,
you may register online at cell-phone-fundraiser.com
Fund-Raising.com
- Your source for fundraising information on the internet
Free
Fundraising Ideas Find School Fundraising Ideas, Free
Fund
Raising Ideas Center - Unique fundraising ideas for that
outperform traditional events, to raise money for schools and other
non-profit groups.
Fundraiser
Finder: Fundraiser search engine, message boards, news, links,
books, newsletter, and more. "YOUR Fundraising
Resource!"
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Online Records
Online Records
Trends: As all schools are considering online grades
programs, you should keep the following in mind: Technology
always gets less expensive and better performance as time goes by.
Once you choose an online grading option, you are committed to that
system because you have taken the time to set everything up, train
staff, and train parents. You should make sure you get the
features you need before spending time and money on a direction that
may not meet your needs.
Benefits:
Student achievement usually improves when using online grades.
Parents and students are able to see ongoing grades and homework
assignments. It displays an ongoing subject G.P.A. so everyone
knows where the student is at. Students are motivated to try
harder when they see their G.P.A. is just under the next higher grade
break. It can remove the need for mid-term
reporting. It improves parent-teacher communications and removes
the question "Why didn't you tell me how my child was
doing?" In some cases, it can remove the need for sending
out report cards.
Watch Out For:
There are many great choices, but some programs are too complex for
parents, students, and smaller schools. Some require huge
amounts of time to maintain. Most are not designed for
individualized curriculums. Most do not offer transcripts, high school
projections, and curriculum inventory features. Some do not
store previous years' records. Some do not allow weighted
grades. Always aim to reduce double entry office procedures. Always
use a program with automatic backups.
Recommendation for
Traditional Curriculums: We have tested many services, and have
found two good choices that are very easy to setup: Snapgrades
and Engrade.
Both have grade weighting, most common necessary features, and no extra setup or administration program
costs. Engrade is free and very easy to use. Snapgrades costs
just over $30 per classroom per year if the entire school uses it and
is also very easy to use. Snapgrades has a free trial. Engrade
versus Snapgrades: Many free programs such as Engrade need to add
advertising or begin charging because their expenses grow as the user
numbers grow. If they begin using advertisements, you will not
have control over the type of ads they allow (most will be family
friendly, but not always Christian friendly). The next step is for
them to allow you to pay a fee to have an ad-free system. Since your
school will be engrained with their product because of teacher and
parent familiarity, you would be forced to pay whatever they decide
for a fee in the future (it would probably be nominal though).
At this time, it doesn't appear that Engrade will keep previous years'
records like Snapgrades does.
Recommendations for
Individualized Curriculums: If you are not using an
inventory feature in your current situation, then considering the
programs mentioned in the previous paragraph may work for you.
Smaller schools may even get by using only one account
for the entire school. These programs do not currently offer high
school projections or transcripts, but does allow for exporting data
to make custom features. If you are highly dependent on your
current record-keeping system, then you may want to consider
implementing the above mentioned program to double-entry your grades
to benefit from the improved parent communications.
What your school
should already be doing: If your school does not use online grades
now, you should be making some preparation for it just in case.
Successful implementation takes preparation!
Schools should have a computer with internet in each classroom.
It can take a year or two to develop a reliable system that includes
security, maintenance, and backup computers. Another reason for
getting computers with internet in the classrooms before online grades
is your non-techy teachers need to starting building their computer
and internet skills with daily e-mail use and other tasks BEFORE it is
a requirement for survival. Too many older Christian servants
are quitting because of online grades being thrown at them without
proper preparation.
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School Structure Using
Student laptops: A
Christian school should not allow student laptops. Generally, a
structure of wired network computers (without wireless adapters) is
the only approach for student use of the internet.
Internet filtering can only block between 95% to 99.8%. That means
with 98.8% filtering that students can still access over 6000 possibly
negative websites. This means a highly supervised structure is
required. Student internet use in a classroom is generally not
supervised as well as in a computer lab environment. Even if your
school has firewalled all internet except a few allowed IP addresses,
laptops can pick up neighboring internet access signals which do not
have filtering, firewall, or tracking. Schools with large quantities
of laptops will become targets for break-ins. more
here
Office
Tips
Families Behind On
Tuition: Make sure you have a school PayPal account where
you can setup a donation feature somewhere on your school
website. The donation feature is the only way you can receive
open amounts. When you have a family that falls behind on
tuition payments, the administrator can offer them to pay their
tuition via credit card through the donation feature as an option when
suspending the student. This makes those uncomfortable meetings
or phone calls much better when you at least offer them an option when
suspending. It is better for the families to owe a credit card
company than your school! Also, they may be able to find a
relative with a credit card much easier than cash. You will lose
almost 3%, but it is better than losing everything!
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