While the summer months can provide a much needed and well-deserved opportunity for relaxation for school staff, you as the administrator must stay busy preparing for the coming school year. How else, after all, can you justify your monstrous executive salary? Summer “vacation” provides educators with a unique professional opportunity to strategically review some key areas of the ministry for possible improvement—a luxury few other professions are granted!

Taking a strategic approach to leadership means making the most of your down-time. Busy administrators rarely have the time during the school year to think proactively about school policies, and when they do, it is usually in response to a pending crisis. The old lawyer adage that “bad facts make bad law” could be restated for school administrators to say “crisis reactions make bad policy” (and sometimes lead to lawsuits.) Take time this summer to address these strategic issues to improve your ministry’s next school year.

Review all school policies and incident reports.

Use the summer months to review your school procedures and documents. All school policies and documents should be reviewed on an annual basis on the criteria of practical effectiveness, clarity, legality, and overall room for improvement.

Consider these key questions:

• Have last year's experiences brought to light the need for a new policy in some new area or the need to modify an existing policy?
• Does the school need to increase its insurance coverage?

A general review should be conducted annually, and let's face it, the less hectic summer months may be the only likely chance for that to happen. In conducting the review, the administrator should encourage staff input and teachers should be asked to submit a report of recommended policy changes. Gathering front-line input will enhance the quality of your policy and increase the buy-in of those asked to enforce it.

Another source of policy updates is an administrative review of last year's major incident and discipline reports. Your staff go to great lengths to document every major incident throughout the school year. Now is the time to review those reports for trends, and policy & personnel strengths and weaknesses. Keep these questions in mind as you review the reports:

• Is a particular rule or standard vaguely worded causing inconsistent enforcement?
• Have the students found a loophole?
• Has technology outpaced your current standard?

Review and update the Student Handbook.

With the benefit of another year's experience, the Student Handbook will most likely need to be updated. Rarely will an entire school year go by without indicating the need for some changes to the Student Handbook. The Student Handbook is supposed to contain a summary of all major policies of the school that relate to students and parents.

According to the Christian Law Association, "The Student Handbook is one of the most important documents the school's leadership will draft. It is the rule book the ministry is forced to abide by in the event there is a controversy between the leadership and the parents of the students. Any ambiguity in the Handbook will be interpreted against the school. Therefore, it is very important that much prayer and thought be put into the Handbook and any changes you may need to implement this summer." (©2001, Christian Law Association, reprinted by permission.)

CLA has published a Student Handbook Checklist that is available on the ministry's website. This is a great resource for school administrators and a great value for just $10.00! Because every school is unique, every student handbook is also unique. The checklist is intended to help you begin thinking of what the school's policy will be in each of the critical areas. For example, will the Standards of Conduct only apply to the students while they are at school or school sponsored events, or will they be equally applicable at all times? You may think, "Of course it is applicable at all times. We are a Christian school!" However, failure to carefully articulate the application of your expectations in the handbook may hinder your ability to discipline students for actions which take place away from the school or school events.

CLA's checklist provides sample language and a summary of all of the major issues that must be considered. You should invest a significant amount of time in tailoring the student handbook to the unique culture of your school. Take advantage of the summer months to reflect on the lessons learned this past year and how your ministry can better address them in the rapidly approaching school term.

Effectively screen new ministry staff.

If yours is like most schools, you will likely be facing the need during the summer months to make additions to your ministry team of employees and volunteers. These decisions must be made carefully in view of the reality that access to the children in your classrooms is a sacred trust of the highest order. Use the summer months wisely to screen prospective new staff members for eligibility.

Every prospective school staff member must be thoroughly screened by the ministry's administration prior to accepting classroom responsibilities. Working with the children entrusted to your ministry is a high honor and privilege reserved only for those most trustworthy individuals whose reputations and character are beyond reproach. While criminal background checks are certainly one component of "screening" new staff, you should consider the process of screening to include the entire interview process as an opportunity to gauge a candidate's eligibility for children's work.

Plan for the future.

Because of the traditional academic calendar, few occupations enjoy a schedule more conducive to strategic planning than education. Yet this golden opportunity for institutional advancement is often underutilized. Why? My guess is money. As the last student sprints out the door for summer vacation do your overworked and underpaid teachers "collapse" and spend the next three months recuperating in seclusion? Are your teachers forced to work a second job to supplement their ministry salary? As the administrator, you will be left pretty much alone in the building for the next three months to order textbooks & supplies, mow the grass, and fix all the broken lockers... "Vacation? What vacation?!" What if there was a better way?

It is time for Christian leaders to acknowledge that Christian education is in trouble in America. As the economy worsens, families naturally tighten the purse strings. Budget items considered "luxuries" are the first to go (I read today of two children in Utah protesting high gas prices after their parents cancelled their cable TV...) While the symptoms may be financial, the root cause of this crisis is spiritual. Too many parents view Christian education as a luxury instead of a Bible-based convictional mandate. They are more interested in "private" education than "Christian" education per se. Is your ministry doing anything to build conviction for Christian education, or are you playing along with the "consumer" mentality that has schools competing to "give the people what they want?"

At Eternal Vision, our ministry is dedicated to helping Christian schools cure the financial symptoms by addressing the three underlying issues: Cost, Quality, and Conviction. Our Vision Endowment program can help your Christian school ministry raise the quality of your school program, build conviction for Christian education, and lower the cost of tuition for responsible families. The Vision Endowment is designed to provide funds to honorably compensate your teaching professionals, lower the cost of tuition, reduce the financial burden of the school on the local church, and free up available funds for program and facility improvements. Doesn't that sound like something you should take a few moments to investigate?

Once you have finished reviewing these key areas, take the few remaining hours to enjoy your summer vacation! I trust as you reflect on how God has blessed the school this past year you will gain an increased excitement about what God will do through the ministry in the future.

(Special thanks to Dr. David Gibbs and the Christian Law Association for permission to reference CLA's materials. If you are not already aware of CLA, you will want to take a minute to familiarize yourself with this great ministry for churches and Christian schools!)