2026 Small Schools Summit

Small schools don’t have the luxury of inefficiency. Every program choice, every hire, every enrollment decision reverberates across the whole institution. The margin for error is thinner, but the opportunity for clarity is greater.

Serving as a senior leader or trustee of a small independent school is deeply rewarding – and undeniably demanding. This work, best done in strong partnership between board and leadership, has become more complex in an increasingly dynamic landscape, with the headwinds of growing budget deficits, declining enrollment, compounding operational expenses, and rising expectations from families.

In this engaging and practical keynote, Sadie Albertyn of Mission & Data invites participants into a shared understanding of what true sustainability requires. Drawing on Mission & Data’s national work with independent schools from coast to coast and from big to small, this session explores how schools move from viability to stability and ultimately toward long-term financial and organizational sustainability. Along the way, we’ll examine the core concepts, key indicators, common pitfalls, and data-informed strategies that help leaders align enrollment, staffing, program design, and financial modeling into a resilient institutional engine.

Grounded in both theory and real-world practice, this session pairs clear frameworks with practical examples tailored to the unique pressures facing small schools, equipping leaders with the language, perspective, and tools needed to make disciplined, mission-aligned decisions for the long term.

Setting tuition each year is one of the most consequential decisions independent school leaders and boards make. It sits at the intersection of mission and market, requiring schools to balance affordability, accessibility, competitiveness, and long-term financial sustainability. And the stakes are high: for most independent schools, tuition is the single largest driver of financial health.

In every school’s financial model there are small levers and big levers. Leaders spend enormous energy adjusting the small ones – managing expenses, refining staffing allocations, trimming program costs. Those matter, but tuition strategy is one of the biggest levers a school has. Getting it right, now and over time, has an outsized impact on sustainability.

In this practical breakout session, Sadie Albertyn of Mission & Data explores how schools can think more strategically about tuition pricing and financial aid in order to strengthen Net Tuition Revenue, the financial engine that powers most independent schools. We’ll examine how pricing decisions, discounting strategies, enrollment demand, and financial aid policies interact to shape overall financial and organizational sustainability.

Mission & Data has worked with more than 225 independent schools across the United States and internationally, as well as with 25+ state, regional, national, and international school associations. This work provides a broad perspective on the challenges schools face today and creates opportunities to cross-pollinate effective practices from across the sector. In this session, participants will hear what is working – and what isn’t – at schools around the country, while gaining clear frameworks, key metrics, and a shared language to help leaders and trustees approach tuition and financial aid strategy with greater clarity, confidence, and discipline.

Small schools face a critical challenge: staff retention and recruitment consistently rank among the top concerns for school leaders. Yet recent SAIS research on early-career educators reveals that culture – not just compensation – is what keeps talented teachers engaged and committed in the long term. This session explores how to intentionally build and sustain a school culture that becomes your strongest recruitment and retention tool.
Drawing on findings from SAIS research, you'll discover what today's educators truly need to thrive.

This session will guide you through practical, research-backed strategies, and we will discuss how to create multi-tiered support systems, build recognition practices, design feedback mechanisms that give educators voice and agency, and foster the relationships and sense of belonging that keep people rooted in your community. Whether you're facing high turnover or proactively building retention, you'll leave with a clear action plan to make your school a place where educators don't just work, they choose to stay, grow, and build careers.

Use strategic futures tools to clarify long-range vision and make bold decisions with confidence. Participants will use scenario planning to stress test strategic objectives over the next 1–3 years.

When enrollment dips or budgets tighten small school leaders quickly turn to development as a solution. But development is not a rescue plan, it’s a long-term revenue strategy.

In this session, Jill Goodman, founder of Jill Goodman Consulting, will reframe development as a core component of financial sustainability rather than a hopeful fix for budget shortfalls. Jill will bust the myths that undermine development efforts, including overreliance on events, unrealistic goal setting, and the search for the one big donor who will solve all problems. She will also share development truths through practical examples and real-world case studies. Participants will learn how to reframe their thinking about development by

1. Diversifying revenue streams beyond tuition dependence.
2. Building leadership giving relationship pipelines.
3. Aligning finance and development around shared strategy.
4. Eliminating activities that cannibalize time and revenue capacity.
5. Investing wisely in development to cultivate long-term partnerships.

School leaders will leave with a clearer understanding of how to move from reactive fundraising to a disciplined, multi-year financial strategy that positions their school for sustainable growth.

Small schools rarely have dedicated PD budgets or full-time professional learning staff. Yet educators still need meaningful opportunities to grow. This session features a small school leader who has successfully built a robust professional development culture without breaking the bank. You'll discover creative, low-cost strategies that deliver real impact for teacher growth and student learning.

Learn how to leverage free and affordable resources including professional learning networks, online communities, and open-source materials. Explore collaborative models like peer observation cycles, teacher-led workshops, and book studies that build expertise from within. Discover how to maximize conference attendance through strategic selection, team debriefs, and cascade training. You'll also learn how to cultivate partnerships with nearby schools, universities, or organizations to share costs and expand access to expertise.

When everything feels important, it can be hard for small-school leaders to know where their time is best spent. This session will examine how heads of school and leadership team members can develop clearer systems, better priorities, and more effective working rhythms so they can lead with greater focus, support their teams more effectively, and reduce unnecessary bottlenecks.

You've spent the morning gathering insights from breakout sessions on the unique challenges and opportunities of small school leadership. Now it's time to make those ideas stick. In this first role-based cohort meeting, you'll join fellow colleagues in similar roles to process what resonated most, tackle real challenges together, and plan concrete next steps you can take back to your schools.

This collaborative session is designed to help you move from inspiration to implementation. You'll debrief key learnings from the morning's sessions and identify which strategies are most relevant to your specific context and role. Working with peers who share your day-to-day realities, you'll engage in collaborative problem-solving around the challenges you're currently facing, whether that's stretched budgets, enrollment pressures, faculty retention, or balancing strategy with daily operations.

You'll also have the opportunity to build accountability structures with your cohort, including planning peer audits or school visits that extend your learning beyond the summit. Leave this session with actionable commitments, peer partnerships for ongoing support, and a clearer sense of what you'll tackle first when you return to campus. This is where connection turns into momentum.

You've spent the morning gathering insights from breakout sessions on the unique challenges and opportunities of small school leadership. Now it's time to make those ideas stick. In this first role-based cohort meeting, you'll join fellow colleagues in similar roles to process what resonated most, tackle real challenges together, and plan concrete next steps you can take back to your schools.

This collaborative session is designed to help you move from inspiration to implementation. You'll debrief key learnings from the morning's sessions and identify which strategies are most relevant to your specific context and role. Working with peers who share your day-to-day realities, you'll engage in collaborative problem-solving around the challenges you're currently facing, whether that's stretched budgets, enrollment pressures, faculty retention, or balancing strategy with daily operations.

You'll also have the opportunity to build accountability structures with your cohort, including planning peer audits or school visits that extend your learning beyond the summit. Leave this session with actionable commitments, peer partnerships for ongoing support, and a clearer sense of what you'll tackle first when you return to campus. This is where connection turns into momentum.

You've spent the morning gathering insights from breakout sessions on the unique challenges and opportunities of small school leadership. Now it's time to make those ideas stick. In this first role-based cohort meeting, you'll join fellow colleagues in similar roles to process what resonated most, tackle real challenges together, and plan concrete next steps you can take back to your schools.

This collaborative session is designed to help you move from inspiration to implementation. You'll debrief key learnings from the morning's sessions and identify which strategies are most relevant to your specific context and role. Working with peers who share your day-to-day realities, you'll engage in collaborative problem-solving around the challenges you're currently facing, whether that's stretched budgets, enrollment pressures, faculty retention, or balancing strategy with daily operations.

You'll also have the opportunity to build accountability structures with your cohort, including planning peer audits or school visits that extend your learning beyond the summit. Leave this session with actionable commitments, peer partnerships for ongoing support, and a clearer sense of what you'll tackle first when you return to campus. This is where connection turns into momentum.