Category Archives: School Leadership

Academic and Career Planning: The New Post-Secondary Plan

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Part 1

Written by Grey Davis

The Paradigm Shift

There is a change happening in the way young people and their parents in the United States view the purpose of education. Previous generations saw bachelor’s degrees as a means to economic achievement and a way to secure a better future than their parents. In that climate, a college prep focus in high school was coveted. From 1950 to 2010, the percentage of people in their twenties with a bachelor’s degree grew from 7.7% to 31.7% in the U.S. (Horowitz, 2018).

More recently, the proliferation of college degrees and the lack of practical application for many majors results in college graduates filling low-paying, unskilled positions or retraining for useful trades. At the same time, salaries in skilled trades are rising due to a shortage of workers in these fields. Critical skilled job hiring in the U.S. could be more than 20 times the projected annual increase in net new jobs from 2022-2032 (McKinsey and Company, 2024). Continue reading →

Foundations for a Strong Staff Culture

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Written by Charles Galecki

A positive, strong staff culture requires ongoing meaningful investment from school leaders and staff members.

The devil works tremendously hard to create and tear open cracks in our schools that distract us from our mission. We need hard work and God’s blessings to keep our strong foundation. The goal of this blog is to equip the reader with practical tools to invest in their staff culture to better serve the Kingdom. Staff culture is divided into three areas:

  1. Spiritual Foundation
  2. Fellowship Foundation
  3. Professional Foundation

Continue reading →

Putting on Our Own Oxygen Masks First

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Strengthening the Foundations of Spiritual, Emotional, and Physical Health

Written by Greg Schmill

The Plane
I imagine most of us have been there. We are sitting on a plane waiting for take-off and half-listening to the flight attendant’s speech. Then we hear the familiar statement, “In case of an emergency, put on your own oxygen mask first before you try to help others.”

We understand that makes sense. It will be impossible to help others if we have blacked out due to oxygen starvation. But we’ve heard that speech before and it barely registers, and who knows how we would respond in a true emergency. In the midst of the turbulence, would we remember to put on our masks first, despite the clear reminder? Continue reading →

Teaching Students with Challenges: The Importance of Parents’ Perspectives

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Written by Jane Mose

Ten years before I became a parent, I was a teacher. With my master’s degree in special education and considerable experience working with children and adults with disabilities, I saw myself primarily as the person to whom parents of children with special needs could turn for information. I would share my knowledge and expertise with parents and guide them.

Then my husband and I became the parents of six children.

Three of our children were born into the family, and three entered through adoption. Suddenly I was a mom to children with a variety of trauma backgrounds, physical disabilities, and learning differences. And I learned just how much I had not understood about the lives of my students and their parents! Continue reading →

Income Planning for Sustainable Schools

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Written by Dr. Jeff Lemke,
VP of Admissions and Marketing, Bethany Lutheran College, Mankato MN

How many budget meetings have you been to? Now, how many income planning meetings have you been to? You’ve likely been to lots of budget meetings, but few, if any, income planning meetings.

The business plans for ministries are heavily weighted toward conversations about spending priorities with a goal of reducing expenditures to balance the budget or to afford a new budgetary item (Pue, 2013).

Often, the assumption is that income will remain the same, unchanged, or increase at the rate of inflation. School costs typically rise at a higher rate, about 5%, than general inflation, about 2% (Pue, 2016). With rapidly increasing inflation upon our ministries, it is time to look at that side of the budget that gets little attention, the income side. Continue reading →

Church and School Working Together in Unity

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Written by Dr. Phil Huebner

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! (Psalm 133:1)

Partnering in Ministry
What a joy it is when God’s people live and work together in his kingdom. How good and pleasant when teachers, principals, early childhood directors, pastors, and all other gospel servants live and work together in unity! When church and school are on the same ministry page, it is a joy for all involved, and many blessings follow. (For the sake of simplicity, the word school in this blog post will be representative of a Lutheran elementary school, early childhood center, or both.)

But where there are blessings, Satan seeks to rip them away. When there is joy, Satan seeks to bring heartache and heartbreak. And where there is unity, Satan surely seeks to provoke division.

Sadly, too many have experienced this in ministry. It can happen so fast that it’s hard to see it coming. But once division enters the scene, it’s easy to see some of the signs and symptoms that church and school are not on the same ministry page. Some examples: Continue reading →

Principals Really Matter

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Written by Dr. John Meyer

If your school has a principal, be thankful. Many Lutheran schools began this year without one. One in eight Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod schools have an interim principal, such as a retired teacher, a pastor, or a teacher team filling the void (Rademan, 2021). That’s too bad because according to a recent Wallace Foundation report, “principals really matter” (Grissom et al., 2021, p. 43).

Principals Affect Student Achievement
The Wallace Foundation study examined research from the past 20 years, and found that a principal’s effect on student achievement is nearly equal that of the classroom teacher. However, a teacher impacts the students in her classroom for one year, while the principal affects all students in the school every year. Thus, a top performing principal’s students learn nearly three months more in math and reading than a low performing principal’s students (Grissom et al., 2021). Continue reading →

Connecting Children and Families to God’s Word Through ECM

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Written by Annalies Brander

Ideally, all families connected with our early childhood program or Lutheran elementary school (LES) would be actively involved not only in the school, but in the church and community as well. Often, church attendance and retention in the LES beyond early childhood tends to fall short. These are areas that we can seek to change. Maria Ginés (2017) researched outreach to families connected to early childhood ministry and noted that, “in the 2010/2011 school year, 320 children were baptized . . . after involvement with a Wisconsin Ev. Lutheran Synod (WELS) early childhood program” (p. 8). While these numbers may sound exciting, Ginés explained that, “the child baptisms represent about 3% of enrolled young children” (p. 8), meaning there’s still plenty of work to do in connecting children and families with Jesus. Continue reading →

Developing a Growth Mindset in Churches and Schools

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Written by Aaron Markgraf

It’s no secret. Many Lutheran churches and schools around the country are struggling to find ways to grow. They see many of the long-time members of their congregation go home to heaven. They’re trying to find ways to replace large graduating classes with equal or greater incoming classes. They’re competing with other churches that offer more “modern” worship styles. They’re battling other private or even public schools with updated facilities and numerous extracurricular offerings. So what do we do?

It starts with leaders.
I’ve had the chance to be a part of many different ministry teams in my life, and one thing about successful, growing ministries always holds true: solid leadership. It’s people who focus on relationship building and working to make sure that students and their families are connected to Jesus through the work of the church and school. It’s people who understand education and what students need to be successful. One person alone cannot carry a ministry on their back with these things alone. Rather, it takes an entire faculty, staff, and ministry team that buy into this mindset. Continue reading →

Serving Families in Crisis:

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Understanding What Is Needed in Light of the ‘One Thing Needful’

By Dr. Joshua Mears, Christian Family Solutions

A child suddenly loses a parent. A teen begins acting out after years of abuse. Chronic illness. Suicide. Divorce. Addiction. All of these situations shake individuals to the core and threaten to destroy the foundational units of society—our families.

Called workers often have the distinct opportunity to minister to families in their times of greatest need. I want to encourage and embolden you, “and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

While assessing needs and intervening with appropriate treatment is the work of a clinical counselor, called workers can be an important support. Clinically trained Christians in the counseling vocation see called workers as important partners to serve families in crisis. Continue reading →