2026 Small Schools Summit

Small schools face a choice: compete like larger institutions or compete as something entirely different. Too often, they choose the former, borrowing tactics from big schools and attempting to prove they offer just as much. The result? Marketing that positions distinctive schools as scaled-down versions of their competitors. This keynote offers a better strategy. Drawing from a decade as Chief Brand Officer at Mount Presbyterian School and four years leading brand strategy for independent schools, Trey Boden reveals why small schools' inherent advantages (intimacy, agility, personalization) are precisely what today's families value most. You'll explore why "doing more with less" weakens your position rather than strengthening it, how to identify the strategic advantages only your school can deliver, and what effective communication looks like when resources are limited but clarity is not. Walk away with practical approaches to make your size your greatest differentiator and a positioning strategy that competes on your terms, not theirs.

Tuition alone can't sustain the full breadth of mission-driven programming many small schools aspire to offer. In this session, the head of school of The Fletcher School and executive director of The Rankin Institute at Fletcher School will share their plans to build alternative revenue streams that strengthen both financial sustainability and educational impact. 

Fletcher's leaders will share their journey: how they identified this opportunity at the intersection of mission and market need, built infrastructure to support community-facing programs while protecting their core academic operations, scaled services over two decades, and are working on plans to obtain sustainable revenue while maintaining quality and mission alignment. They'll discuss what's working now, lessons learned from programs that didn't take off as expected, and their strategic vision for the Institute's next chapter.

Session attendees will have the opportunity to participate, collaborate, and share with like-minded colleagues as they brainstorm their own goals and objectives.

• In small schools, leadership often means being head of school, admissions director, development officer, and crisis manager—all before lunch. This session acknowledges the unique pressures of multi-role leadership and offers practical strategies for thriving, not just surviving, in this reality. Join Beverly Fowler, Head of School at Salisbury Academy, to explore how to prioritize effectively when everything feels urgent, set boundaries that protect your energy and effectiveness, and build systems that create leverage even with limited staff. Through candid discussion and shared experiences, you'll examine when to delegate, when to let go, and how to communicate your constraints clearly to boards and stakeholders who may not fully understand the scope of your responsibilities. This is a space to name the challenges openly, learn from peers navigating similar terrain, and leave with concrete tools for managing role overload while staying connected to the mission-driven work that called you to small school leadership in the first place.

Small school marketing teams face an impossible challenge: deliver professional brand work with little to no staff, limited budget, and endless demands. AI has changed what's possible, but most schools don't know how to leverage it strategically. This session helps you build your marketing stack one brick at a time, choosing the right foundations, tools, people, and processes for your school's reality. You'll learn the essential brand standards that make AI useful instead of generic, how to think strategically about where to invest in people versus automation, and which tools deliver professional results without professional budgets. The centerpiece is a live demonstration of Claude for Teams, showing how to set up project instructions, use shared projects with your team, and turn them into plugins that scale your capability. Walk away with templates, a decision matrix for building your team, and a clear picture of which bricks you're already using and which brick to add next.