Overview
This article contains embedded video recordings of all sessions for the Veracross Connect 2020.
Table of Contents
Academics and School Year Management
- A Registrar’s Guide to COVID-19 Planning: How Lausanne School is Preparing for the Start of School
- Creating a Roadmap for Reopening Campus: How The American School in Japan Created a Plan For a Safe Return to School
- Rethinking Student Engagement: Ensuring Student Success During Challenging Times
- Rethinking Student Engagement During a Pandemic: Using Data to Measure Engagement (Part 2)
- Student Health in a COVID-19 World: Compliance and Risk Management Considerations
Admissions
- Re-envisioning Your Applicants’ Journey (Part 1): Top of Funnel Strategies
- Re-envisioning Your Applicants’ Journey (Part 2): Lessons Learned from Spring Virtual Visits
- Re-envisioning Your Applicants' Journey (Part 3): How Durham Academy Designed an Application Process with Their Families in Mind
- Re-envisioning Your Applicants' Journey (Part 4): Strategies for Effective Communication in a COVID-19 World
Communications
Development and Advancement
- Fundraising and COVID-19 (Part 1): Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on Your School's Development Revenue
- Fundraising and COVID-19 (Part 2): Targeted Outreach for Better Results
Technology Office
VC Pay
Academics and School Year Management
A Registrar’s Guide to COVID-19 Planning: How Lausanne School is Preparing for the Start of School
From reduced class sizes to contingency planning for multiple learning modes and scenarios, registrars are spending much of their time this summer implementing plans to ensure learning continues at their schools. Attend this webinar to hear from Carla Sampuda, registrar at Lausanne School in Memphis, Tennessee, about the tools and process her school is taking to best prepare for a return to school this fall.
Creating a Roadmap for Reopening Campus: How The American School in Japan Created a Plan For a Safe Return to School
Schools all over the world are exploring various way to implement health and safety protocols while also preparing for multiple learning models. Watch this webinar to hear how The American School of Japan developed a detailed roadmap for reopening their campus. The roadmap includes:
- How ASIJ applied core values to inform their strategies
- Three models for learning and safety implications for each
- Health screening and physical distance plans
- Plans for athletics and extra-curricular activities
- Strategy and plans for communicating roadmap to families.
Rethinking Student Engagement: Ensuring Student Success During Challenging Times
Student engagement has historically been measured by grades, attendance, and participation in extra-curricular activities. As schools plan for distance or hybrid learning this fall, they necessarily must develop new ways to measure and evaluate student success. Join Rob Brisk and Brendan Laughlin from the Wellington Initiative as they explore five themes each school should consider as part of their start school planning.
You can view the slide deck used during this session here.
Rethinking Student Engagement During a Pandemic: Using Data to Measure Engagement (Part 2)
Schools are great at collecting academic data on student progress from the time a student enrolls until they graduate. However, they often do not have a strategy or process for analyzing this data. This analysis is even more important as traditional learning modes have been disrupted by COVID-19.
In this presentation, Buck Crockett, Director of Technology at Almaden Country Day School demonstrates simple strategies for analyzing large sets of academic data and how the patterns found in the data helped informed his school's grading program.
Student Health in a COVID-19 World: Compliance and Risk Management Considerations
Independent schools are preparing for the day when students staff, and faculty return to campus. Schools are faced with collecting health forms remotely, developing protocols for tracking, and adhering to many additional compliance requirements related to the wellbeing of their community.
Join us as we bring together private school leaders to discuss their strategies for returning to school in light of these new compliance and risk management considerations. We invite you to submit your questions in advance (insert survey) for our panel to discuss. While the situation continues to evolve and much is still unknown, our aim is to provide a platform for thoughtful discussion and information exchange.
Admissions
Re-envisioning Your Applicants’ Journey (Part 1): Top of Funnel Strategies
Veracross is partnering with the Enrollment Management Association to discuss new strategies as your department responds to the challenges created by COVID-19. This is part 1 of a four part "Revisioning Your Applicant's Journey" webinar series.
Whether you are pivoting to online instruction in the fall or you are reopening campus under social distancing guidelines, this admission cycle will be unlike any you've seen before. This session will explore a different approach to filling the top of your admission funnel. We will uncover your two 'unfair advantages' and describe a process for you to leverage them to help draw families to your school.
Re-envisioning Your Applicants’ Journey (Part 2): Lessons Learned from Spring Virtual Visits
Watch this webinar to hear from Pulaski Academy, Taft School, and the Enrollment Management Association about lessons learned from this past springs virtual visits, and how these lessons can be applied to this upcoming admissions season.
Re-envisioning Your Applicants' Journey (Part 3): How Durham Academy Designed an Application Process with Their Families in Mind
Schools are being forced to reshape much of their admissions process in response to COVID-19. Watch this webinar to hear how Durham Academy rethought their process to simplify the experience for parents, streamline workflows for their staff, and reinforce the school's unique values throughout.
Re-envisioning Your Applicants' Journey (Part 4): Strategies for Effective Communication in a COVID-19 World
Thoughtful and strategic communication with your prospects is essential as families make difficult decisions about enrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hear from Nija Meyer, VP of Enrollment Management at Woodward Academy, and Brennan Stark, CEO at PeerPal, about effective ways to engage with your families.
Communications
Keeping Your Community Informed: Using Portals as Your Communication and Information Hub
Schools have always wrestled with the best way to communicate important information to staff, faculty, parents, and their students. Effective communication was made even more challenging as schools were forced to pivot to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. We invite you to attend this webinar to hear from current Veracross schools about how they use Veracross Portals to share important COVID-19 resources, how they are developing a communications strategy for the summer, and have begun structuring their portals for the return to school next fall.
Development and Advancement
Fundraising and COVID-19 (Part 1): Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on Your School's Development Revenue
As advancement offices form strategies for the 2020-2021 academic year, it is imperative they understand the impacts of COVID-19 on their donors. Christine Andrade, former Development Database Manager at Saint Mary’s School (NC) and current development consultant shows us how to unearth important trends and insights from your data using Veracross fundraising tools.
Fundraising and COVID-19 (Part 2): Targeted Outreach for Better Results
As advancement offices develop strategies for the 2020-2021 academic year, it is imperative they understand the impacts of COVID-19 on their donors. Christine Andrade, former Development Database Manager at Saint Mary’s School (NC) and current development consultant shows us how to effectively segment data for more targeted, personalized, and effective outreach.
Technology Office
Leading With Your Tech Team During Crisis
With the onset and subsequent aftermath of COVID-19, schools are relying on their tech teams more than ever. Tech department leaders and aspiring department leaders are being challenged to be thoughtful and strategic contributors to the school’s operations team. Learn from some of the top thought leaders involved with the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools about how they served as steady leaders for their schools during uncertain times and what resources they leaned on to keep their fingers on the pulse of the swiftly moving environment.
Technology Considerations for Reopening Your Campus
Technology department leaders across the country are playing an invaluable role in the reopening of their independent schools’ campuses. Whether planning for an in-person experience on the physical campus, a continued virtual delivery, or a hybrid approach, tech leaders are evaluating a wide-ranging set of questions and concerns. This session explores a comprehensive list of considerations for tech leaders to evaluate, including how to manage and evaluate tools, how to reflect on what worked (and what didn’t) in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic shut-down, and how to keep your school’s community healthy as we emerge from the stay-at-home orders.
This session was accompanied by these slides:
ATLIS Veracross 2020 Tech Reopening Considerations.pdf
VC Pay
Improving Your Parent Experience and Streamlining Reconciliation: Why MMFS transitioned to VC Pay
With the start of the 2020-2021 schools year, many schools are closely evaluating ways to protect their most important source of revenue – tuition. Simplifying tuition payments for parents and expediting reconciliation for the business office is critical as school’s closely monitor their financial health. Watch this webinar recording to hear about Mary McDowell Friends’ School’s transition from SMART to VC Pay.