Notes on Financial Stability for Montessori Schools
During COVID-19 – or Any Time
By Charlie Biggs, Executive Coach/Consultant
for Nonprofit Organizations and Independent Schools and Preschools
Financial stability depends on keeping a balance between income and expenses —
with at least a little more income over time so your school can survive and thrive. This
can be difficult under any circumstances. It is especially challenging during a situation
like the current COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some thoughts on how Montessori schools
can achieve financial stability – looking first at income, second at expenses, and finally
at developing and sharing contingency budgets to help with your planning and keep
your staff and families in the loop. Some of these suggestions are specific to COVID-19.
Others are more general and could apply any time. Each of these points could
easily be a whole article unto itself, but I want to outline them all here to give you
a wide range of things to think about as you and your school grapple with how
to sustain and strengthen your work through this strange and difficult time.1
VOLUME 22 ISSUE 4 • 2020 | WWW.MONTESSORI.ORG/IMC | ©MONTESSORI LEADERSHIP
INCOME
To get through the current crisis and
ensure the long-term financial stability
of your school, I would encourage you to
do the following.
• Continue educating your students,
supporting their families, and charging
tuition even if your physical facility has
to close. At some point, or perhaps several
times, over the coming year, your
local or state government and/or Health
Department may order you to close your
physical facility – either because of a case
in your school community or because of
an increase in cases in the broader local
community.
If this happens, you should continue
educating and supporting your students
and their families through home-based
instruction, and you should definitely
keep charging your full tuition. There
are at least three reasons for this, all of
which you can and should explain to the
parents at your school.
1. Closing your physical facility is
not your choice or your fault. You
are following guidelines set by local,
state, and/or federal authorities –
guidelines that are designed to ensure
the health and safety of your students,
families, and staff. So, hard as it may be
for parents to understand, your closing
actually benefits them and their children.
2. By continuing to educate and
support your students and families
through at-home learning, you are
doing everything you can under
the circumstances. In fact, based on
what I’ve heard from Montessorians in
Tennessee and across the country,
you’re probably doing more than most
of the other schools in your area. You
and your staff are undoubtedly working
harder than ever and putting in even
longer hours than usual. You all have a
right to be paid for this work, and you
have a right to expect parents to keep
paying tuition in return.
3. By continuing to charge tuition,
you are ensuring that your school will
still be there for your students, families,
and staff when the pandemic
finally ends. If parents stop paying,
you will have to lay off your staff, causing
real hardship for them and possibly
forcing them to look for other jobs. Unless
you have substantial reserves, you
also probably won’t be able to pay your
fixed operating expenses, such as rent,
utilities, copier fees, etc. On top of all
that, your parents might lose confidence
in your school and take their children
to other schools that can support them
1 The ideas I’m sharing here come from my experience in nonprofit management and fundraising and as Director of the Knoxville Montessori
School from 2009-2017, from webinars on various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic that I’ve attended, and from insights gleaned from
individual and group conversations with Montessori teachers and administrators in Tennessee and across the country. I am particularly indebted
to the participants in the ongoing series of Zoom meetings on the pandemic organized by the Montessori Alliance of Tennessee and to the
participants in the weekly Zoom meetings that the Knoxville Friends of Montessori has been holding since April 2020. Any errors and omissions
in this article are, of course, my own. Everything I say here is intended as a suggestion, and you should be sure to check with your lawyer,
accountant, business advisor, etc. before adopting any of these ideas.
/IMC