Administrative Resources

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The Independent School Chairpersons Association (“ISCA”) is thrilled to be partnering with NCAIS in support of NCAIS board chairs. Since its inception in the 1970’s, ISCA has recognized the instrumental and unique leadership role of the Board Chair and has developed programs, resources, mentoring and support to empower independent school board chairs to lead with excellence.

With over 350 board chairs in the ISCA community, members benefit from a robust network of peers both nationally and internationally. This dynamic network fosters shared learning, mutual support, and a sense of community among board leaders—ultimately contributing to stronger governance practices.

24/7 Online Discussion Forum
ISCA members stay connected through a dedicated online forum listserv, where they can post questions and receive insights from board chairs across the country. Archived discussions are also accessible, offering a wealth of knowledge on a wide range of topics.

Weekly Chair Post
Every Thursday morning, members receive the Weekly Chair Post—an informative and practical resource designed to support board chairs in their leadership role.

Webinars and Chair Chats
ISCA hosts two virtual learning opportunities each month: webinars and Chair Chats.

• Webinars feature subject matter experts presenting on timely, relevant issues
  that affect board chairs.
• Chair Chats are facilitated peer conversations led by experienced moderators,
  providing a space for chairs to share perspectives and strategies.

Annual Governance Conference
ISCA’s annual conference offers an in-depth exploration of a timely governance topic. Board chairs are encouraged to attend with guests such as fellow trustees, heads of school (HOS), or administrators. The conference is typically held virtually, with optional in-person gatherings.

New Chair at the Table
Offered each spring, New Chair at the Table is ISCA’s signature training program for incoming board chairs. Chair Elects gain essential skills and strategies to help them start strong and lead confidently in their new role.

New Chair/HOS Partnership Series
Following the spring training, new board chairs and their heads of school participate together in the New Chair/HOS Partnership Series. Held in the summer, this virtual program helps build a strong, collaborative foundation for their leadership partnership.

Peer Advisor Program
During their first year, new board chairs are paired with an experienced ISCA Peer Advisor who serves as a mentor and source of support, helping them navigate challenges and grow into their role.

To Join

• Visit the ISCA website at http://www.iscachairs.org/
• At the bottom of the page, click the "Join ISCA" button. This will allow you to select your membership category — ‘25 - ’26 Board Chair. Please reach out to Leah Lambert for the discount code.
  
  

Managing food and supply costs is an ongoing challenge for schools, and NCAIS is excited to connect you with Food & Supply Source,  a group purchasing consortium that helps nonprofit organizations assess their current pricing and identify potential savings on food, supplies, and services.

Schools can participate while keeping their current food service providers. Food & Supply Source will review your existing pricing and let you know if you’re already receiving the best rates. If there’s an opportunity for savings, they’ll provide guidance on how to work with your provider to access lower pricing through the consortium.

Brandi Sash
National Sales Director
bsash@foodandsupplysource.com
C: 615.714.4852   ●   F:508.336.6695
www.foodandsupplysource.com   

Personality and Behavioral Assessments

DISC is a personal assessment tool used to improve work productivity, teamwork, leadership, and communication. It measures an individual's personality and behavioral style. It does not measure intelligence, aptitude, mental health or values. DISC profiles describe human behavior in various situations, for example how you respond to challenges, how you influence others, your preferred pace and how you respond to rules and procedures.

The DISC assessment can be used in a variety of ways with both employees and student groups. NCAIS schools find the DISC useful in coaching, team-building, leadership development, student development, screening candidates and onboarding new hires,. The DISC report gives members of a school community an opportunity to learn something about themselves with the goals of self-improvement, personality enrichment and enhancement of their school community relationships.

The DISC has no right or wrong answers allowing faculty, staff, job candidates, and students to participate freely without fear of failure.  It is designed, in part, to increase awareness of one’s behavioral tendencies related to how one interacts with others. Results of these assessments actually increase the likelihood for professional growth, satisfaction, and success, which ultimately benefits the school as well.

The DISC may be packaged with a virtual or in-person feedback session with an NCAIS staff member.  This is particularly helpful with groups and can include support materials and action plans to help individuals and schools maximize positive outcomes.  Click below to view a sample DISC report.  One complimentary assessment and report per school are available for NCAIS schools considering a group administration.

DISC Leadership

Other Core Assessments available through NCAIS are Motivators, Social Styles, Emotional Intelligence, and Learning Style assessments. 

Click here to view to current pricing for DISC administration.  Please contact Stephanie Keaney (skeaney@ncais.org) for additional information or to schedule a time to offer the DISC at your school!

In the fall of 2021, NCAIS launched the Independent School Collaborative Multiple Employer Retirement Plan (MEP) in conjunction with TIAA, Pentegra, and Compass Financial Partners which has since become the fastest growing K-12 MEP in the country.  MEPs, fairly new to the non-profit arena, bring incredible value to schools and their employees. As a member of the ISC MEP, your school will be able to provide world-class investment options at a low cost to participants, enhance the financial literacy of employees, reduce costs to your school, eliminate practically all of the workload for your business office, and offload fiduciary liability.

The ISC MEP is available to all NCAIS schools, regardless of your current record keeper.  Schools that are already with TIAA will find this to be a relatively easy transition with huge benefits.  Schools currently without retirement plans will find this to be a simple and cost-effective solution, enhancing recruitment and creating a solid path to retirement for employees.

For a brief overview of Multiple Employer Retirement Plans, Click Below.  To find out more about the ISC MEP, please contact Linda Nelson at lnelson@independentschoolcollaborative.org

NCAIS has established a relationship with Lisa Gordon Stella, PLLC to provide consulting services on legal issues pertinent to independent schools. 

NCAIS schools may direct their general NC law/independent school questions to Stephanie Keaney for assistance.  For questions pertinent to an individual school situation, schools may contact Lisa Gordon Stella directly to discuss services and costs.  NCAIS schools are eligible for one complimentary 30-60 minute consultation and will receive preferred pricing when engaging with Lisa. Click Here for more information about Lisa Gordon Stella and her areas of specialty.

(919) 274-5719 | lisa@lgstellalaw.com
4325 Swarthmore Rd.
Durham, NC 27707

Please note: All information provided by Lisa Gordon Stella on this site is available as a courtesy to member schools. NCAIS makes no representation, guarantee or warranty whatsoever regarding legal accuracy, relevance, or completeness of the information. 

NCAIS has established an agreement with Marsh McLennan Agency to off our special commercial insurance offerings to our members. Through joint work, a purchasing alliance has been created with United Educators, who is a premier education liability carrier. By leveraging the size of the group, we have been able to negotiate preferred terms, pricing, and limits. Given the challenging education landscape, the partnership with MMA and United Educators continues to prove as a valuable resource for Independent school in North Carolina. United Educators continues to offer up to $30M in excess coverage capacity, including abuse & molestation, which are some of the highest limits offered in the marketplace and with most carriers only offering $10M or $15M. The negotiated program also includes ProResponse (PR) benefits, coverage for armed security or SRO’s, and a litany of other coverages specifically tailored for independent schools.

As we continue to see increasing claim trends including, but not limited to the below, it becomes increasingly more valuable that we leverage and negotiate these group programs to be able to provide NCAIS members with access to the best terms and conditions possible.

Marsh McLennan Agency also represents all major education markets and is able to place specific coverages as necessary. Given the varying property characteristics/challenges across the state, we attempt to leverage the size of the group with common carriers, but also provide quotes from multiple carriers where it makes sense to capitalize on cost savings.

Claim Concerns;

• Property Losses
• Anti-Trust Lawsuits
• Abuse & Molestation
• Athletic Injuries
• Cyber Losses
• Slip, Trip, and Falls
• Auto Accidents
• Worker’s Compensation
• Discrimination and EEOC claims
• Embezzlement
• Active Assailants

Marsh McLennan Agency has dedicated claims advocacy teams, risk management teams, benchmarking, partnerships with Praesidium (abuse training/policies), and education tailored service teams to make sure that we continue to help NCAIS members navigate a challenging insurance marketplace.

Please reach out to Murphy Holderness, Murphy.Holderness@MarshMMA.com, 980-242-9348, with any questions or to learn more.

NCAIS has partnered with Marsh McLennan Agency to offer a unique employee benefits platform to our members. Through multiple years of planning, an ancillary benefits consortium was created in 2015 to provide schools with a package program for dental, vision, life, disability, and supplemental insurances. The program is currently managed by UNUM, the largest life and disability carrier in the country, and Ameritas, one of the top Vision carriers in the state.  By leveraging the size of the membership, we have been able to negotiate preferred school specific contract language, pricing, and renewals. With the competitive education market and pressures on annual budgets, this benefits partnership with MMA and UNUM has allowed Independent schools in North Carolina to provide an enhanced benefit program for their employees. Each school in the ancillary consortium has a customized benefits package that suits their needs and pricing but uses the size of the combined group to leverage the market.  

The continued rise in benefits costs has caused schools to have to react annually to large increases with decreases in coverage and have continued disruption every few years by having to change carrier partners in order to keep pricing in line.  With programs like the NCAIS ancillary partnership schools are able to remain with the same carrier partner to minimize disruption for employees, bend the cost curve, keep their benefits program in line with their budget, and stay competitive against the public education system benefits program.

Marsh McLennan Agency represents all benefits carriers in the market and is able to carve out anything specific that needs to be customized to each school.  Because medical insurance is one of the largest cost items a school has in their budget, Marsh McLennan Agency also has exclusive access to the ISBC (Independent School Benefits Consortium) to help specifically with medical insurance.  

Participants of the NCAIS ancillary program with Unum receive the following:

• Enhanced connectivity with various benefits administration platforms, including but not limited to ADP, UKG, Employee Navigator, and PlanSource.  In some cases, we are able to build a technology system for schools at no additional cost.  
• Life Insurance contracts with enhanced guarantee issue levels that do not reduce until age 70 vs industry norm of age 65 
• Disability contract designed to meet the unique needs and compensation structure of private schools
• Enhanced maternity benefit for Short Term Disability
• Supplemental Health benefits, such as Accident, Critical Illness + Cancer, and Hospital Indemnity to offset out of pocket medical expenses
• Multi-year rate guarantee and block renewal approach that leads stability when it comes to manage costs

Marsh McLennan Agency has dedicated claims advocacy teams, bench marking capabilities, exclusive partnerships with ISBC (Independent School Benefits Consortium), and education tailored service teams to make sure that we continue to help NCAIS members navigate a challenging benefits marketplace.

Please reach out to Ryan Wilcox, Ryan.Wilcox@MarshMMA.com, 336-339-7680, with any questions or to learn more.

Savi simplifies the complex process of navigating federal loan forgiveness programs, guiding users to the best options and helping them stay on track—potentially saving thousands over time.

By signing up, your school can give employees access to Savi’s platform and personalized support. The cost is less than $75 per person per year, and schools can choose whether to absorb the cost or pass it along to employees.

Not only does this program apply to those with their own student debt, but also to parents who took out PLUS loans to help put their children through college.

We could save our educators tens of thousands of dollars! Savi sees an average saving of $187 per user per month with an average projected forgiveness of over $40,000. Considering many early-career educators aren't making much more than $40,000, this could be a recruitment and retention game-changer for your school.

This is a fantastic way to support your current educators—and a compelling new benefit to offer prospective hires!

Contact:
Tony Raffa, Director of Development Strategy
tony@bysavi.com

Marsh McLennan Agency and Markel have developed a shared Active Assailant insurance policy for NCAIS schools, providing affordable coverage for our member schools. (We understand that not all schools work with Marsh McLennan Agency. This policy can be placed separately from the school’s other coverages and does not require moving all coverage to Marsh McLennan Agency to participate.)

Unfortunately, across the country, we continue to see Active Assailant incidents in educational institutions. Despite our best safety efforts, these incidents can still occur anywhere at any time. An Active Assailant event is a physical and malicious attack by a person who is actively engaged in attempting to kill or cause serious harm to at least one person. An Active Assailant can make use of various types of handheld weapons, not just firearms.

An Active Assailant policy provides affirmative coverage for:

• Physical damage to first-party property
• Business interruption following property damage and/or bodily injury
• Third-party liability
• Ancillary support services including;
  • Medical and dental costs
  • Counseling costs
  • Funeral costs
  • Crisis management services- Post-loss support included. Pre-loss services are available upon request.
  • Employee retraining costs
  • Clean-up costs
  • Rest and rehabilitation costs
  • Student in Transit Coverage
• Providing liability coverage due to an Active Assailant Event and/or Hostage Event occurrence that takes place at a minimum of 650 feet from the Insured’s premises on a School bus in Transit.
• Educational Institution Off-Site Coverage

Coverage is extended to apply to an Active Assailant Event that occurs at an off-site activity, but only with respect to bodily injury directly caused by an Active Assailant to any of your students or employees attending such off-site activity.

This policy will be shared amongst NCAIS members who elect to participate. Individual policies are available in the marketplace, but the shared policy allows us to help keep the cost down for each member. Each occurrence will have a $1,000,000 limit, and the policy will have a $5,000,000 aggregate limit, meaning that there could be five incidents amongst our member schools in the policy year before the limits would be depleted. The policy will have a $10,000 deductible for property damage and business income, as well as a $25,000 deductible for liability claims.

NCAIS will be the official policyholder, with each participating school being endorsed on the policy. The premium per school will be a flat $3,500 annually, with an additional premium exception available for schools with multiple campuses or more than 1,500 students.

To join this policy, the underwriter will need:

• A copy of your school’s statement of values (should be readily available as part of your school’s current property policy).
• Student Count
• Confirmation of no previous incidents or claims.

If interested in participating, the information or questions can be sent directly to Murphy Holderness, Murphy.Holderness@MarshMMA.com.