In the classical school, all elements of school life reflect the leader’s vision, including scheduling, recruitment, enrollment, budgeting, and facility management. This course takes current and prospective school leaders through some aspects that you need to consider when operationalizing a vision for a school, including delegating strategically. This is by no means a comprehensive treatment of all the operations of a school—some elements are emphasized more heavily than others. However, this course is meant to give you a glimpse into some of the most important daily, monthly, and/or yearly needs of a school, as well as a chance to reflect on your operational sensibilities as a leader.
You will engage with ancient and modern voices, such as Shakespeare, Donald Cowan, and Peter Drucker. You will also meet several successful headmasters in the Great Hearts network and read about their unique approaches to the operations of their respective schools at the time of the interviews. The course will culminate in a 30-60-90 day plan as it might relate to your task as a headmaster. You will present your plan to your peers at the end of the course.
Important dates: The course runs from 1/8/26 - 2/19/26 with the live synchronous sessions on 1/29/26 and 2/12/26 from 3:30-5:00 (AZ time).
Required texts:
- Cowan, Donald. Unbinding Prometheus: Education for the Coming Age. Dallas Institute Publications, 1988.
- Drucker, Peter. The Effective Executive. HarperCollins 2006.
Facilitator: Jason Doughty
GH Employees: use voucher code ghemployee (case sensitive) and your school email address at checkout.
GH Partner Schools: use voucher code ghpartner (case sensitive) and the email address associated with your Brightspace account at checkout.
