In fall 2020, I attended a keynote webinar at the Association of Colorado Independent Schools Leadership Conference called “Educational Inertia, the Pandemic, and Change to Come.” The presenter, John Gulla, president of the E.E. Ford Foundation, began by referencing the Fall 2012 Independent School article “What Dead Schools Can Teach Us” by Jim McManus and asserted that we were entering the third great extinction of independent schools. My initial enthusiasm for this session waned and was replaced by an increasing sense of dread. I was in the thick of leading a school through the COVID-19 crisis and admittedly was not feeling energized. Still, he reminded me of what inspires me most as an independent school leader: working in a sector of education that meets challenges with innovative ideas and has the courage to implement them. Although he acknowledged the exhausted state of school leaders, he nudged us to look at this moment as a time to embrace change—not just small alterations around the margins but a significant adjustment to the entirety of our schools’ financial model, including class size, pricing, and faculty compensation.

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