Foundation of School

SCENARIO: Foundation Schools

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Foundation Schools is the largest provider of special needs education in the United States. Though it’s physical reach extends only to three California cities, it is nonetheless heralded as a world leader in special needs programming. The Foundation administrators and staff are strongly dedicated to a life skills approach, and their success in teaching life skills has enabled many Foundation students to find jobs, even live independently in group homes. It‘s not unusual for directors of other special needs schools to request visitation for the purpose of observation and wisdom, and to subsequently model their own schools on Foundation‘s approach to learning and development.

Each Foundation School campus employs a local director, teachers and teacher assistants who provide students with a 3:1 student/teacher ratio. All three schools are served by one eight-person Board of Directors and an executive director. The Board and executive director are responsible for funding, 90 percent of which is tuition fees from the approximate 40 cities whose students attend the schools. Donations make up the remainder of annual funding of about $50 million. In the past two years, Foundation Schools has met all of its financial targets, and new Board members have been chosen for their ability to continue to improve the schools’ effectiveness and expand the enterprise.

Currently, the schools serve about 1000 students, and enrollment increases by roughly 5 percent per year. The Board of Directors believes that number could be higher, that the school could serve even more communities across the United States. Along with the school’s executive director, the Board has adopted a new strategy that uses business development as the model to increase funding sources and revenues. The three-year strategic program plan includes a number of new projects to help realize this new vision. The first year of the plan has...