The Catholic School Leaders Podcast

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Catholic School Leaders Podcast, where we discuss leadership and Catholic education. I'm John Mahalio, your host. This podcast is always as dedicated to enhancing Catholic education and connecting our Catholic school leaders from across the world. Well, I hope this podcast finds you well and I hope you're doing great.

I know, uh, as I'm recording it, the weather's starting to change a little bit and, uh, starting to leave that summer months behind, starting to move a little bit toward the colder weather. I know people that I've talked to up in the northern part of the United States are talking about the leaves already changing and.

it's pretty soon that it's going to be for us down here in North Carolina as well. But one of the things that is recommended to each of us is to have a physical done each year. And so this is a great time of year to really do a physical. Physical for your Catholic school to kind of take, do an annual physical and annual checkup on how things are going at your school. And so today we're gonna talk a little bit about, just things that you can gauge how [00:01:00] things are going more on the business side of your school.

Uh, we're gonna talk a little bit about enrollment. We're gonna talk a little bit about advancement. We're gonna talk a little bit about budgeting, all those things that. maybe you can sneak up on us if we're not careful. And so, uh, first and foremost, if the, if you're new here, thanks so much for dropping in and listening to the podcast.

I hope you find it beneficial, and I hope it's, uh, helpful to you and your vocation as a Catholic school leader. you're a regular subscriber, if this is, uh, the 31st episode you've listened to, or whatever the case might be, thanks so much for your support. Thank you so much for constantly listening.

Uh, if you enjoy this, feel free to please leave a review or a drop a five star, uh, review on there or, uh, just a rating that helps so much in terms of spreading this content out to other Catholic school leaders just like yourself. Can't say thank you enough for that and, uh, really, really means the world to me.

So, uh, let's start real quick here with a prayer and then we're going to get into kind of some of the content that we want to discuss today. So In the name of the Father, and the Son, [00:02:00] Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity to come together today as your children to talk about just our annual checkup for our Catholic schools.

Together, may we continue to give your name honor, praise, and glory through our work and our vocations as Catholic school leaders. We pray it will bring your light. love and mission to all of our listeners and throughout the world. We ask this through your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. In the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit.

All right, so let's get into this a little bit. Let's talk about your school and let's talk about how things are going at your school. And I recognize that, uh, in, in August or September, whatever your respective schools may begin, for those schools who are in Australia, you're getting ready to wrap up your year.

So, uh, because their calendar is a little different than ours here in the United States, but whatever, uh, your, your school is at right now, uh, you're at that point where at the beginning of the year, [00:03:00] starts, there's a lot of excitement, the newness that is there, there's excitement with new students joining your school, new faculty members, it's just a new year ahead, new goals, uh, and just everybody's ready to go.

the engine is, is on and, we're revving up the engines, everybody's ready to go, and we take off, and the year gets off to a great start, and we're feeling just A OK, it's great, and then when we start to step away from kind of that newness of the year, uh, I know sometimes when, a couple years ago, I flew and, and, uh, to Hawaii, and when you take off, you have the land underneath you, but you hit a point where you look down and all you're seeing is, is the ocean.

Uh, that land is far behind you until you, you actually land in Hawaii. And so, as you're sitting here right now, you've taken off, the plane is in the air, your land is, is not, uh, It's not visible anymore. It's behind you, just like the start of that school year. So it's a great time to do a checkup and see how you're doing right now.

And so, [00:04:00] let's talk about a couple of things that really can give you a gauge right now as to how the rest of your year is going to go. And this also is a great opportunity as well because if any of these things are red flags to you, now is the time to jump in and take some action to say, hey, let's swoop in here and Uh, before this gets out of hand.

And so obviously, if I can help you with any of those things, don't hesitate to reach out, elementaryadvancement. com. Uh, set up a time with me. I'd love to talk with you about what your school's needs are, and how I can help you. Uh, sometimes just to bounce strategies and bounce ideas off another person is so helpful.

And so, please know that this is the, the purpose of this podcast, the purpose of what I do is to just help you grow Catholic education in your, school and in your community. So, let's take a look at our enrollment first and foremost. Uh, as you begin your year, I know that every school has that target enrollment goal that they're shooting for.

And if we hit that target, great! Because that means our budget is [00:05:00] whole. Uh, maybe if you're blessed enough that you were over that enrollment target, that's great as well. Because if you think about this, From the perspective of an average tuition, I'm just going to use a round number, is 7, 500. If we are 10 students over that number, uh, that gives us 75, 000 that we can invest into our school to bring more resources into our school or improvements into our school, or just maybe put things, put money away for future projects that we're planning.

But that being over that enrollment gives us a lot of options. It's a great place to be. And I know sometimes we don't think about where that enrollment goal is going to hit until the summer, but I'm here to tell you that today, as you're listening to this podcast, now is the time that you really want to be thinking about what that enrollment goal is going to look like for next year, to make sure that we are over that enrollment goal and not under, because I just mentioned to you a minute ago that if you're over that enrollment goal, you could have a net [00:06:00] to the good of 75, 000, but if you come up short on that enrollment goal by, say, 10 students, and your average tuition 7, 500, now you've got a deficit of 7, 500 or 75, 000 that you've got to make up at your school.

And that creates some challenges. Uh, running a shortfall on your budget before the year even begins creates a lot of challenges for our schools. Creates a lot of stress. Creates a lot of sleepless nights for principals. I get it. I understand what that looks like. And so today, as we sit here, it's a great time to be looking at how we can create those strategies to make sure that our enrollment efforts, That our branding efforts, that our marketing efforts, are successful for our school so that when we hit the end of summer next year, things are looking up for our schools.

Things are looking up with our enrollment and things are really, really moving in the right direction. We want to make sure that we're always playing on offense and not on defense. And so if you're a [00:07:00] school right now whose enrollment was under what you projected it to be, The question I ask for you is, what are you doing today to take those strategies and put them into play to make sure that doesn't happen next year?

Now, I understand sometimes things happen. it's just an off year. We had a lot of families move or, you know, Whatever the case might be, there are years that are anomalies, but then if that is something that you're seeing year after year after year, and your enrollment continues to decrease, you have to realize that your enrollment is going to be the backbone of your school.

Without students, our schools don't exist. So this is the opportunity right here, right now, to kind of say, okay, we got to stop the bleeding on our enrollment loss and look at the strategies that we're using. And again, if I can help you with those, elementaryadvancement. com, Feel free to reach out to me because I'd love to talk to you.

The schools that I'm working with are seeing a great increase in their enrollment and they're doing a lot of great things. And so, uh, let's talk about it. See if I can help you with those things. But we want to make sure, first and [00:08:00] foremost, that our enrollment in this school physical that we're doing today, The enrollment piece is going to be that first and biggest piece of how we're looking for not only this year, but looking into the future.

Alright, so, we've talked about enrollment. Our second piece of this is going to be our fundraising, our advancement efforts. Some of our schools, by the time you're listening to this, your first big fundraiser for the year, maybe your event, is already done. And when I'm talking about fundraising events, I'm going to take annual funds out of play just for a minute.

And say more so community engaging events that are surrounded around our fundraising efforts. If you've already done your first one, I hope it was successful. I hope it was a great community building event. I hope everybody had a great time. And I hope you had your, you hit your financial goals off of that because that's important to do.

Communicating out what those goals are for your fundraising event is so important, and then hitting or exceeding them is such a great feeling. No better feeling in the [00:09:00] world when you say, Hey, our goal is to raise 50, 000 off of this event. And at the end of the night to say we hit 65, 000. That's a great feeling.

It's a great way to spike the football. and so if that was your first event, congratulations, I hope it was a great event for you. I hope it hit all of your goals and is really allowing you to take that big step forward. Uh, maybe you have an upcoming fundraiser, maybe it's coming up here in the, in the next couple of weeks or a couple of months.

And my question for you right now is what are you doing? to make sure that event is a big success for you. Are you getting your team together frequently? Do you have your sponsors lined up? Are we getting items people actually want? If it's some sort of a, an auction or a event of that nature, are you actually getting things that people are interested in, or are you just kind of throwing out the same old, same old and wondering why nobody wants to bid on any of those items?

If you're doing the same thing over and over again and having mixed results or getting negative results, uh, [00:10:00] that tells you you got to do something different. let's look at your strategies. Let's think about right now with your teams, with your committees, what is it we're doing? What is it we're hoping to accomplish?

What do we have lined up? and if there's things that you need to change, do that now. It's not too late. Now, obviously, if when you listen to this, uh, this podcast, your fundraiser is tomorrow, yeah, it's a little late to change something this late in the game. But if your event is not for another couple of months, You have plenty of time right now to make those adjustments to make sure that this event is going to be a successful one for your school community.

If your events aren't planned until the spring, I know a lot of schools have golf events or things like that in the spring, this is the time that you're several months, six months out from that event taking place that you really want to make sure that you're securing those, uh, sponsorships up. Get your tickets starting to be sold for those things.

A lot of schools I see wait too late and people aren't able to make the plans necessary. Put those things on people's calendar now so that they know, hey, this is the event that, uh, that has [00:11:00] taken place on this day so that they can request off for work or make sure that they have the, a babysitter or whatever the case might be.

But you want to make sure that you're telling people about the event in plenty of time. Now, I mentioned the annual fund before. If your school does not have an annual fund, let me make sure that I please stress this enough that that that is something I really, really recommend that you're doing. A lot of schools will call it no fuss fundraising, an annual fund, whatever the case might be.

That is something that you should be doing at your school, and and I know that first year can be a little bit scary, it can be a little bit, I don't know about this or how to do this, you know, get some help with that, work with somebody, get, get in touch with your diocesan offices, uh, to see if they have anything, or if you want to reach out, hey, give me a call, we're happy to, to walk you through what that looks like to make sure that that, Annual fund is a success, but you need to get started somewhere with that.

So if you're doing an annual fund at your school, by now, I'm going to guess that your first mailing has already gone out, or it's probably pretty close to [00:12:00] having gone out. you know, for your first mailing of the year for your annual fund. If that hasn't happened yet, I hope it's happening here really, really soon.

Uh, if it has gone out, I hope that you're seeing a lot of fruit coming back from that annual fund mailing and really helping to tell your story about what's happening at your school. So, your first thing that you want to be looking at in terms of this annual fund and this annual physical, I guess I should say is the better wording for it, is How is your enrollment going?

Are you ahead or are you behind? When we get to talking about your advancement efforts and your fundraising efforts, how are we doing? Are we ahead or are we behind? Because those types of trends right there are going to help you track out to the end of the year. And when you look at how your budget is going to finish up at the end of the year, Uh, it's going to tell you whether or not you're in the black or whether or not you're in the red.

And as we all know, that creates some very difficult decisions for every school and every school leader. and I'd rather you be looking at those now as we listen to this podcast rather than having May or [00:13:00] June hit here and go, Oh boy. We're coming up 50, 000 short. I don't know what we're going to do from this.

Now, let's talk about budgeting a little bit. And I know that budgeting is something that gives everybody gray hair and it creates a lot of stress. But I'm going to encourage you to start thinking about that budget for next year now. You say, wow, we're so far away from the the next budgeting cycle. But looking at your budget now is going to really give you an idea of what next year can look like.

You know what this year is projecting to be. If you're coming out in the black, that's great news. You see you're coming out in the red, maybe not so good news and you need to make adjustments. Now, what we've got to realize when we're talking about budgets is there's only so much that we can ask our families for in terms of tuition increases.

If your budget is running a shortfall and you are doing the same things over and over and over again and expecting different results and then passing on to families a 20 percent tuition increase, [00:14:00] You're probably going to continue to see limited success or probably even a bigger hole because families are going to walk away from that.

A tuition increase of that nature is not something that's realistic and it's not sustainable. That's what families are asking is if I'm enrolling my child right now in your kindergarten class, Am I going to be able to afford to be here when they're an 8th grader, or 5th grader, or whatever your school might run up to?

They want to make sure that if they start somewhere, that they can finish there. And so, looking at next year now is a great place to start. Start having those conversations internally about what is our teacher salary scale going to look like next year? Are we going to have a raise? If we are going to have a raise, what percentage are we going to be?

Are we going to be a 2? Are we going to be a 4? Are we going to be a 6? Are we going to be a 3? You know where your school is at, you know how you do those kinds of things, but start having those conversations now. with your finance group because that helps you when you look at what you want your salary structure to be, when you look at what you think [00:15:00] your enrollment is going to be projected for next year, that helps you to look at a realistic tuition number for next year.

And I think setting that tuition number sooner rather than later does nothing but give your families that transparency that they so badly want and the faith that they have in the leadership of your school to know that things are on the right trail. So, one, check your enrollment. How's your enrollment doing right now?

Ahead, behind, makes a big difference right there. Two, fundraising, advancement efforts. Uh, when we go back to enrollment as well, I will say this. If you have 10, 15, 20 less students in the school, that's also less families that can participate in your advancement efforts. And so, you know, obviously, to have a successful advancement program, you gotta have students in the school.

And so, we're looking at those things. One is your enrollment. Gotta have a healthy enrollment. Two, a great, robust advancement effort, uh, complete with an advancement plan, [00:16:00] timelines of what you want to accomplish, when you want to accomplish them. Thank you. Uh, and something just to kind of give you that roadmap of, of how to get to and how to reach your goals.

And three, is your budgeting. Looking at your budget now, how are you projecting to finish for this year? It's not too early to start thinking about those things and, and start, uh, maybe have to say, Hey, let's, let's, we had this much budgeted for this, but we got to kind of pull that back a little bit or whatever the case might be.

Uh, but now is the time to start having those conversations to allow you to set your tuition for next year, And to really look at where your enrollment goals are realistically going to be. I know this can be overwhelming. you'd say we just got started into the school year. We're not even at a Christmas break yet.

And we're already talking about enrollment and fundraising and, budgeting for next year. Yeah. Yeah. Because guess what? Gaining an additional 10, 15, 20 students for your school for next year, for many schools, is a complete game changer. Think about what your enrollment is today, [00:17:00] okay? And I hope that's a number that's probably pretty quick for you to come up with.

Think about what that looks like with an additional 10 students in your school building. And I'm gonna guess that for a lot of schools, that doesn't mean having to add an extra teacher. We're an extra faculty member. Uh, you probably have spaces within your classrooms right now. And so an extra 10 students in your school just generates additional revenue for your school to allow you to create more opportunities for your school and create more opportunities for your students to, just have an outstanding, outstanding education, Catholic education at your school.

So if I can help you with any of these things, I would love to have a conversation with you. Uh, feel free to reach out at elementaryadvancement. com forward slash advancement. Uh, that's my website and I would love to set up a time and just talk about what your goals are, bounce some ideas off of each other, and just to see if I can help you with those.

We also want to make sure that you know our mastermind groups are, uh, really, [00:18:00] really in, in full gear. it's a great opportunity if you are looking for people that are like minded, uh, as you, and who deeply care about Catholic education, whether that you are a Principal, an Advancement Director, an Enrollment Director, or an Aspiring Administrator in the future.

These are great groups, and they bring together people who are like minded and want to see catholic education succeed. So if that's something that you feel would be beneficial to you, let's have a conversation about that. visit elementaryadvancement. com forward slash masterminds and just, set up a time with me.

We can have a conversation if it's something that you feel is, is, is beneficial to you. What you need, we'd love to have you be part of those and, and just to, to get the benefits from that. Iron sharpens iron, and I think it's something our, our Mastermind, group members really, really find beneficial.

So, in closing today, just gonna remind you one more time as we close up the, the annual physical, okay, your checkup today. [00:19:00] Here is your checklist of things that you The doctor is telling you that you need to look at today at your school. Number one, how's your enrollment doing? Number two, how is your fundraising?

How is your advancement on, track right now? How was it tracking out toward the end of the year? And three, are you starting to look at your budgeting for next year already and getting those things in place to make sure that not only this year finishes well, but that next year is set up for success. I know it can be overwhelming.

I know it's a lot. And I know sometimes this is the stuff that principals really don't enjoy doing a whole lot, that business side of education. But if I can help in any way, please don't hesitate to reach out, elementaryadvancement. com. Uh, there's a lot of great resources on there as well about some of these topics as well, and so I encourage you to reach out.

There's a lot of blogs on there. Uh, and connect with me on social media, both on LinkedIn and on Facebook, Elementary Advancement Solutions. Thank you so much for listening. Again, if you have an opportunity, I would really, really [00:20:00] appreciate it if you could just hit the little button down there and take all of a half a second to leave a quick five star review.

And if you have the time, 30 seconds, just to, uh, share your thoughts on, on this podcast and, help it reach other people. I would be so grateful. If any of this content is something that you feel somebody that is in your network could benefit from, please share it with them. Uh, that's what we're supposed to do here as, as Catholic educators in our vocation is to help each other grow and to help each other grow Catholic education in our respective school communities.

So, Let's not go at this alone. share it out with, with people that you think would find it beneficial. And, uh, continue to check out all the great resources that we have. Thank you so much for listening today. Really appreciate it. And, uh, know that you're in my prayers as this school year continues.