At a moment when perceived value, affordability concerns, and demographic pressures are reshaping family decision making, savvy pricing strategy has never been more important. Strategic alignment across finance, enrollment, and governance not only strengthens a school’s ability to optimize net tuition revenue but also advances broader financial and organizational sustainability. Participants will explore how Business Office leaders, the Director of Enrollment Management, the Head of School, finance committees, and full board of trustees each play distinct yet interconnected roles in shaping tuition strategy, discounting, and net tuition revenue decisions. Drawing upon behavioral economics, emerging family perception data, and real-world independent school examples, the session will include both successes and pitfalls to avoid.

Who will reign supreme in the spreadsheet showdown? Watch two contestants tackle real-world data challenges live in Google Sheets. Attendees will learn practical tips, clever formulas, and creative problem-solving approaches as they see multiple ways to solve the same task. You’ll pick up tricks you can use immediately in your own Sheets, enjoy some friendly competition, and maybe even help decide who emerges victorious! Even Excel users might learn a few tips!

Schools rely on hundreds of digital tools—but how do you know which apps meet your privacy standards and are safe to use with students? Join this panel lead by our Data Architecture Consultant Shandor Simon to explore practical frameworks for app vetting, using Data Privacy Agreements (DPAs), and balancing innovation with compliance.

Technology teams are often seen as the crew that keeps WiFi alive rather than the mission thriving. This session explores how one technology director has used everyday challenges - from navigating AI’s emergence to improving capital projects and campus scheduling - to build trust, solve institutional problems, and reposition the department as a strategic partner in school life. We’ll share an honest look at the messy, ongoing process of shifting from reactive service to proactive partnership, and how leveraging relationships - inside and outside the school - can accelerate that growth.

Independent schools are operating in an era of accelerating change. AI, data governance, staffing pressures, shifting family expectations, and increased board scrutiny are reshaping decision-making across institutions. Yet many strategic planning processes remain reactive, backward-looking, and disconnected from day-to-day technology and operational decisions.

In this session, Mike Cobb draws on his work as Senior Innovation and Organizational Excellence Strategist at Mission & Data, Futurist in Residence at Landmark School and Forsyth Country Day School, and decades of leadership experience in education to introduce strategic foresight as a leadership discipline rather than a prediction exercise.

The session focuses on how schools can build internal capacity to sense change early, interpret weak signals, and make better long-range decisions, particularly around technology, governance, and institutional priorities. Rather than chasing trends, foresight helps schools remain mission-anchored while becoming more adaptive and resilient.

Are you tired of "innovation" being a buzzword that stalls at the pilot phase? Join Mike Cobb and Jason Kern for a session designed to help you move your school from 0 to 60 by building a high-performance system for sustained change. Drawing from our foundational work at All Saints Episcopal School, groundbreaking work at NEOM and expanded through our strategic consulting with schools across the country—we are diving in on how to build an innovation engine that doesn't just start, but continues to run well into the future.
This isn't a sit and get; it’s a tuning session for your school’s innovation efforts.

The Admission/Enrollment Office produces a strategic dataset that has a significant impact on the entire school. Admission applications, financial aid awards, and enrollment contracts are channeled through a variety of platforms. Enrolled student data flows downstream to the student information system, impacting academics and student life teams, and ends up in the Advancement Office, where family and alumni relationships are cultivated. If there is one area where technology leaders and institutional researchers can have the most positive influence on the data culture of the school, it is the Admission/Enrollment Office. Join Mission & Data as we map out the low-hanging fruit in admission data, outline actionable strategies to build a dynamite Tech - Admission/Enrollment partnership, and share best practices in our work with schools from around the country.

In a landscape marked by rapid change, political polarization, and increasing pressure on independent schools, the strength of the partnership between the head of school and board has never mattered more. For heads, navigating moments of uncertainty—both anticipated and unexpected—requires not only sound judgment but also intentional and strategic communication with the board.

Hear from Buckley's head of school and chair of its Committee on Trustees, along with our very own Anne-Marie Balzano, as they share how purposeful structures, clear processes, and just-in-time communication have helped their school navigate complex, high-stakes challenges—from public scrutiny and political pressure to market shifts shaped by wildfires, labor strikes, AI, and declining birthrates.

Cliff King will be speaking at the 2026 NWAIS Business Officers Conference.

https://nwais.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1996139&group=

Mike Cobb and Jason Kern will be diving into how to take “innovation” from a trite buzzword into the foundation of a system which leads to immediate and continued growth.

https://stlinatl.com/schedule/

Mission & Data’s Ari Betof, along with EMA’s Christina Dotchin, will be presenting on “Financial Insights: Family Perceptions of Value and Affordability” in Magnolia 10-12

https://www.nboaannualmeeting.org/annualmeeting2026/program/schedule