Nearly every school leader has recently faced the challenges that come with a tight labor market. While the COVID-19 pandemic is not the sole culprit, it did have an accelerating effect on the K-12 workforce. Join us as we delve into the depths of the workforce crisis and discuss strategies and best practices to help you strengthen your staff and differentiate your school to attract future talent.

Casey is a Relationship Manager in IMA Higher Education’s, Non-Profit, and Technology industry practice groups. Casey’s primary responsibility is to develop new client partnerships by utilizing his unique, entrepreneurial faith background to assist institutions to strategically drive down their net cost of risk – including customizing insurance and risk management solutions that empowers them to unapologetically pursue their mission and hold firm to their convictions.

Prior to joining IMA, Casey started and pastored City Life Church in downtown Wichita, KS for 9 years. He earned both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY. For the past 20 years, Casey has served in numerous roles of leadership, served on several non-profit boards, and facilitated executive leadership coaching.

Mission-aligned Hiring: Mining for Your School’s Gems -Thursday, Nov. 17 at 1 p.m. EST
For Division Heads, Arts, Athletics, Assistant Heads, Academic Deans

The importance of hiring the right people cannot be underestimated, and in today’s labor market, it can be increasingly difficult to find people who are sold out for the mission, culture, and values of your school. Building some innovative practices on the front-end of the hiring process, Justin Smith has prioritized the values of LRCA through the hiring process, which has allowed him to identify candidates who will grow and contribute to the mission of the school.

Dr. Justin Smith, Assistant Head of School - Dr. Smith shares an array of spiritual, educational, professional, and personal experiences with LRCA. A graduate of the University of San Diego, he earned his doctorate in Educational Leadership from Sam Houston State. He has led well in administration, teaching, and coaching. With a number of published articles, chapters, and peer-reviewed presentations on record, he also received such honors as the Excellence in Superintendency Program Award from Sam Houston State University and recognition as The Woodlands Preparatory School’s Most Inspirational Educator. Dr. Smith did his post-graduate work at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and is currently enrolled at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford earning a Diploma in Organizational Leadership. Dr. Smith, his wife Amanda, and their two children Gracie ‘25 and Raleigh ‘29 attend Fellowship Bible Church.

Mission and Message: Proactive Strategic Communications in Every Division
Tuesday, Nov. 1st from noon - 1 p.m. EST

With more than 14 years of experience in agency and corporate communications environments, Anna is passionate about assisting organizations to overcome internal and external challenges. Anna has been heavily involved in crisis work for a variety of clients—churches, colleges, public figures, ministries and more—through issues like privacy, reputation management, lawsuits, miscommunication, employment, social media and financial errors. She has also led PR efforts for clients including the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), Desiring God, Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, Hume Lake Christian Camps, North American Mission Board (NAMB), National Christian Foundation, Prison Fellowship and Upward Sports. As part of her work for the ACLJ, Anna coordinated an interview for Jay Sekulow with all five Sunday morning news shows in the same day—a rare feat. She also participated in the launch of the Museum of the Bible, as well as the communications planning around the passings of Billy Graham and several other notable Christian leaders. For several years, Anna has volunteered her services as media lead for Passion Conferences. In addition to issues management and media relations, Anna specializes in spokesperson training and development. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where she studied public relations and sociology.

For tuition-based schools, parents are customers by the very definition of the term! And that means you need to constantly understand what's on their hearts and minds. We'll explore the chief benefits of a consistent, rhythmic parent feedback system; help you understand your individual tendencies when it comes to collecting and processing feedback; and walk through some extremely practical (and unique!) methods for gathering feedback from this vital group of stakeholders. We'll also discuss the "feedback loop" and examine how to keep parents engaged in constructive, two-way dialogue.

Ryan Ermeling brings a unique entrepreneurial perspective to the educational space. A graduate of Concordia University Irvine (where he now serves on the Board of Regents and chairs the committee for Enrollment and Student Experience), Ryan founded Stretch Internet in 2003. During his 15 years as President and CEO, he grew Stretch into the largest video streaming provider in the collegiate athletics space, with a client base of nearly 600 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada (more than 40 percent of the market). Feeling led to create a business-inspired model that could benefit Christian schools and other faith-based organizations, Ryan staged a successful exit from Stretch in 2018, soon founding Parent Pulse. Ryan and his wife, Lyndsay, a musician and educator, have three daughters – Lexi (21), Tessa (18) and Grace (9).

Said Business School (University of Oxford) professor, Dr. Thomas Powell, suggests the definition of strategy is "the art of creating superior performance." During this session we will explore Powell's thoughts on strategy as diligence, on creating impressive performance over time, and on the forces at play when seeking to create impressive performance. Such ideas as the theory of equifinality, the rule of multiplicative performance, and understanding resource allocation when implementing strategic initiatives will be discussed.

Tim Wiens is the Head of School at Mount Paran Christian School. Mount Paran serves approximately 1300 students and is the largest independent school in Cobb County, Georgia. Wiens previously served as the Head of School at Delaware County Christian School outside of Philadelphia, PA and as founding Headmaster at Boston Trinity Academy, a school serving a diverse population of students within the city of Boston, MA. Wiens has also served as the Co-chair of Vanderbilt University’s Peabody Professional Institute for Independent School Leadership and the ADVIS-Penn Independent School Leadership Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. Tim is the co-founder and served as the Executive Director of the Council on Educational Standards and Accountability (CESA) from 2009-2015 and was an assistant professor and visiting scholar at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Married to Dr. Kathryn Wiens, who is the Executive Director of CESA, they have one son, Eliot, and two Great Danes, Lena and Jordi.

School Parents as Customers: Implications for the Paradigm Shift
Friday, Oct. 21 at 1 p.m. EST
For Admissions, Marketing, Communications

For tuition-based schools, parents are customers by the very definition of the term! And that means you need to constantly understand what's on their hearts and minds. We'll explore the chief benefits of a consistent, rhythmic parent feedback system; help you understand your individual tendencies when it comes to collecting and processing feedback; and walk through some extremely practical (and unique!) methods for gathering feedback from this vital group of stakeholders. We'll also discuss the "feedback loop" and examine how to keep parents engaged in constructive, two-way dialogue.

Ryan Ermeling brings a unique entrepreneurial perspective to the educational space. A graduate of Concordia University Irvine (where he now serves on the Board of Regents and chairs the committee for Enrollment and Student Experience), Ryan founded Stretch Internet in 2003. During his 15 years as President and CEO, he grew Stretch into the largest video streaming provider in the collegiate athletics space, with a client base of nearly 600 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada (more than 40 percent of the market). Feeling led to create a business-inspired model that could benefit Christian schools and other faith-based organizations, Ryan staged a successful exit from Stretch in 2018, soon founding Parent Pulse. Ryan and his wife, Lyndsay, a musician and educator, have three daughters – Lexi (21), Tessa (18) and Grace (9).

Most schools and leaders believe in the importance of organizational culture, but not many have explicitly defined it and worked it into the DNA of every element of their operations, which results in significant lost opportunities. Explicitly defining your culture has the power to transform your operations and improve the outcomes you produce. Culture is the oxygen your community breaths, do you know the contents of the cultural air your community is breathing? Whether yours is healthy or ailing, come learn how to better define your culture to transform every element of your school’s operations. This session is designed to be completed by leadership teams including Heads of School, Principals and Spiritual/Community Life Directors.

Mr. Christopher Rutz served as Head of School at Providence School in Santa Barbara, California and Capistrano Valley Christian School in San Juan Capistrano, California from 2012-2022. Under his leadership, both schools experienced a dramatic increase in enrollment and market position through focused strategic initiatives to improve all facets of operations, leading to greater mission accomplishment and community impact. Mr. Rutz began his career as a history, government, and global studies teacher in Oregon before transitioning to school leadership in California where he served for seven years as Assistant Head of School at Calvary Christian School in Pacific Palisades, California.

Mr. Rutz earned a B.A. in History from the University of Minnesota, a B.A. in Secondary Education from Western Oregon University, and a M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from the University of Oregon. He completed his teacher credentialing program at Western Oregon and his administrative credentialing program at the University of Oregon. Mr. Rutz is a founding board member of the DeepRoots Bible Curriculum, a dynamic K-8 curriculum designed to instill a love for God’s word and teach apologetics and Christian worldview through a comprehensive Old and New Testament scope and sequence. In 2022, he founded Rutz Educational Consulting, a firm dedicated to supporting school leaders to achieve greatness through increasing levels of professional competence and confidence. While he has extensive experience in strategic planning and execution, development, and school improvement, Mr. Rutz’s primary passion is cultivating dynamic school cultures that transform communities because he has seen firsthand the power culture has to impact mission achievement.

Mr. Rutz has been married to his wife, Kristan, for 27 years. They have two daughters, Keara, who currently attends Florida State University and Noelle who attends Point Loma Nazarene University.