Setting up a school and sharing your vision with the world about education can be a fulfilling career choice. But where do we start? Between developing a comprehensive curriculum, negotiating non-profit legal status, and finally opening your school, there is planning that is critical to all the steps in the process of setting up a school. See Step 1 to learn more about setting up your own school from scratch.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Developing the Curriculum
Step 1. Build a compelling educational vision
An attractive vision is important to guide you through the initial and subsequent phases. Your vision will result in decisions and steps taken in the short and long term. Imagine your school. Consider the answers to the questions below:
- What kind of education would you like to provide?
- Who do you want to serve?
- What will your school provide that other schools cannot provide?
- What kind of academic and social experience would you like to give your students?
- What will your school be like 5 years, 25 years and 100 years from now?
Step 2. Write the curriculum
When writing a curriculum, you need to consider the day-to-day organizational issues, as well as the scope and sequence of learning that you hope to achieve at your school. A well-programmed curriculum will cover the following categories of information:
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Daily Operation
- How long is one lesson?
- How many lessons in one day?
- When do lessons start and end?
- How is the lunch arrangement?
- How is the teacher's schedule arranged?
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Learning Process Assessment
- What do students need?
- What is the student's learning goal?
- What criteria will be used to assess the learning process?
- How will students be tested?
- What are the graduation standards from school like?
Step 3. Prepare a teaching statement
Describe what kind of teaching the teachers in your class want to use, understand and develop. Will the school often hold exams? Written based? Focus on discussion? Describe how teachers handle student learning and how they manage the classroom.
For teaching statements, try and write words that will attract the best, brightest and most enthusiastic young teachers your school can have. Can teachers choose their own books, or choose from several school-approved books? Consider ways that can make your school an attractive choice for creative teachers
Step 4. Get approval for your curriculum
To be certified and eligible for state budget, your curriculum needs to be approved by the School Board in your country, which may include auditing your curriculum and company/institutional documents. A time-consuming process, but not difficult if you do some planning and follow the right steps. Contact the Department of Education in your country to learn what you need and prepare for an audit.
Step 5. Consider forming a montessori, charter, or religious school, contact the legal entity for your desired organization and get additional help and guidance to get your school approved according to the organization's regulations
Part 2 of 3: Company Form
Step 1. Prepare a business plan
The business plan will explain your school's goals, and the reasons for achieving those goals, and how you plan to achieve them financially. A business plan is essential for starting fundraising and meeting the steps needed to set up a school.
Consider a feasibility study to determine if establishing a school is a viable option. Early on in your formation, it's very important to really see your vision and determine how best to make it work. You need to determine how your students enroll, budget, operating budget, maintaining the school, and all aspects of school operations that need to be determined to be successful
Step 2. Assemble the board of directors
You can't do it alone, so one of the first steps in setting up a school is to appoint like-minded administrators to form a board of directors who with you will make financial and operational decisions, hire teachers, and oversee the school.
In general, no school is run by a "leader" alone. While it is important to build good leadership by a group, a school is more like an organization or company and not like a dictatorship. To find a good board of directors, you can invite members of the local education community who are dissatisfied with local education and are interested in a more forward-thinking school, like yours
Step 3. Apply for the establishment of a company/institution in your country
The board of directors needs to draw up the articles of association that will be based on and registered as a non-profit educational institution. Often there is an office or bureau that can assist you with obtaining a permit. Usually there is a fee of several million rupiah for this service.
Step 4. Register your organization as a not-for-profit institution
By registering as a not-for-profit institution, you will be able to receive grants, grants, and other types of financing that would not be provided to for-profit organizations. To gain nonprofit status, your organization must be organized and operate exclusively for religious, educational, scientific and other social purposes and meet the following requirements:
- Net income may not be for the benefit of any individual or shareholder.
- There is not a single activity related to legislative influence and political campaigns.
- The goals and activities of the organization must not be against the law or violate basic public policies.
Step 5. Get your TIN or tax-exempt status
Visit a local tax or office website to apply for a TIN. In the US, you can apply for an EIN (Employer Identification Number) and can fill out an online form here.
Applying for tax-exempt status will take a lot of time, and you can consult a lawyer to discuss the procedures and make sure you are following the procedures correctly. To obtain tax-exempt status in the US, fill out Form 1023 from the IRS here
Part 3 of 3: Opening Your School
Step 1. Secure your school financing
Depending on how you set up your business model, you may be able to raise tuition, apply for state grants and funding for nonprofits, or run a fundraising campaign. Either way, you need to start raising as much money as possible to open schools and first year operations.
Apply for funding for your school and use the funds to implement your vision
Step 2. Develop school facilities
You can rent a place or build a new study place, the acquisition and construction of facilities is a significant undertaking. Start looking for a suitable location for your students to study, or plan to renovate and construct a new building.
Start early. Rentals, renovations and construction tend to take longer than planned. In addition, whenever possible, design a physical space to facilitate your school's mission
Step 3. Hire good administrators
If school leaders are not in the founding group on the board of directors, look for strong leaders with experience in the same field and a vision that fits your own. Good leadership is very important for all schools and very critical for new schools.
Step 4. Hire great teachers
The teachers will determine the quality of your school. Teachers will be the most important main factor in shaping the quality of school education. Those qualities will determine the success of your school. Attract and recruit teachers who are passionate about education and passionate about their students.
Step 5. Market your school
Design a powerful impression, marketing and public relations plan, and execute it with passion. Good marketing is not always expensive. What's important is knowing your market and what you need to do to successfully attract a certain number of students to sign up.
Step 6. Recruit and register students
Find students who are happy and willing to join your school. When the legal matters are over, you can share your vision with enthusiastic parents, teachers and students to facilitate the teaching and learning process. Invite them to your school and enroll students to make your dreams come true.
