Course overview
Aligning Mission & Finances: Advanced Principles of Financial Management
This advanced course is designed for experienced school leaders and board members ready to strengthen the alignment between their school’s mission and its financial strategy. Through four differentiated modules (4 hours/week), participants explore complex financial topics such as revenue-cost analysis, multi-year compensation and budgeting, capital development, and data-informed budgeting.
With asynchronous learning and three live cohort sessions, the course offers opportunities to reflect on your school’s current practices, compare them with best-practice principles, and identify strategic next steps.
Ideal for Heads of School, experienced directors, board members, and leadership teams, this course supports deeper collaboration across roles to ensure that financial decisions advance the long-term health and vision of the school.
With asynchronous learning and three live cohort sessions, the course offers opportunities to reflect on your school’s current practices, compare them with best-practice principles, and identify strategic next steps.
Ideal for Heads of School, experienced directors, board members, and leadership teams, this course supports deeper collaboration across roles to ensure that financial decisions advance the long-term health and vision of the school.
What you are going to learn
In a Nutshell:
Impact Course Outcomes:
- Utilize fiscal resource allocation principles and determine how effectively your school’s fiscal resources deliver on the mission.
- Draft an action plan with related steps for strategically aligning fiscal resources, including communication and collaboration components.
- Begin several steps of your plan to accomplish your objectives.
- Reflect upon the learning, utilizing the collective expertise and experience of the group, to promote leadership growth within ourselves and others.
Dr. Alan Knobloch
Head of School, International School of Hamburg, Germany
About:
A former supervisor commended Alan for being someone who can translate school finance to the educators and the business of education to board members. Dr. Alan Knobloch has over 25 years experience as a school administrator working in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the United States. He has worked with Board Finance Committees at four different schools and, as a Deputy Superintendent at the Shanghai American School, was named Chief Budget Officer in charge of an annual budget in excess of $100 million. Alan is the current Head of School of the International School of Hamburg in Germany. Previously, he served as the Director of the International School of Dakar. During his tenure, ISD significantly improved staff compensation, completed a $7.5 million construction project, while increasing the school’s financial reserves due to effective long-range financial planning and strong internal controls.
Course reviews
Alan is an awesome facilitator. Throughout the course he provided excellent resources and also a few good laughs at random times with funny emails (which were appreciated!). Even after the course finished, we've been in contact as I am currently developing various budgeting scenarios for next year and he has offered very detailed thoughts.
Alan was a wonderful sounding board and conducted sessions with humor and deep knowledge, he was highly responsive and has deep knowledge of this subject. I will definitely recommend this course to others.