EXPLO Elevate shares good ideas, practices, and wisdom to help
schools and their communities flourish.

Dear Friend,

Parenting Anxiety

Two weekends ago I was running an in person informational meeting for our boarding and day academic + career connected enrichment programs. One area I always highlight in these meetings is that we believe in the power of real-world connections, hands-on experiences, and the joy of being fully present. That’s why we have been a proudly unplugged program for years – no cell phones, smartwatches, and other mobile devices. With this declaration I had a parent ask if she could put an Apple airtag on her child. She was not kidding. The anxiety was palpable. Given my own experiences working with children and their parents over the years, I had lots to say on the subject. But I had also just finished reading a galley copy of my friend Meredith Elkin’s new book, Parenting Anxiety: Breaking the Cycle of Worry and Raising Resilient Kids. 

Meredith is a clinical psychologist, a director of the McLean Anxiety Mastery Program, and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. Her book, just out this past week, is a warm and practical guide for parents who struggle with anxiety themselves and/or have anxious children. The challenge for so many parents is that “influencers have responded with an explosion of content, which is awash in cultural narratives around what makes a ‘good’ parent. But much of this guidance encourages parents to actually increase the risk of child anxiety in the long term.” Meredith’s book is a genuine road map on how to balance compassionate support with healthy boundaries and great advice on how to give yourself grace as you grapple with the pressures of modern parenting. 

I’m also proud to say that Meredith and I serve together on the Inly School board of trustees and over the past couple of years we’ve spent hours discussing this topic. We’ll be continuing the conversation more publicly on February 19 at 8p ET. Meredith and I will discuss parental anxiety, child anxiety, and the actionable strategies to help break the cycle. We hope this will be a helpful conversation for parents, faculty members, and anyone who works with parents and kids. Please join us. The webinar is free and open to the public. 

The Lessons Hiding in Your Last Strategic Plan

Most schools move from one strategic planning cycle to the next without realizing they're sitting on a goldmine of institutional wisdom. Buried in your last strategic plan – in the priorities and initiatives that succeeded and the ones that stalled – are critical insights about your school's actual capacity to execute change. Why did that new program launch successfully while another initiative with equal board and community enthusiasm never got off the ground? What enabled some priorities to gain momentum while others quietly disappeared from leadership agendas? The patterns reveal more than you think: they expose gaps in how you resource initiatives, convert strategy to action, monitor progress, and hold people accountable. In The Strategic Plan Post-Mortem: Your Most Important Pre-Planning Work, I dive into the work to be done before you mobilize your community for another strategic planning cycle by mining these hidden lessons through a rigorous retrospective. The schools that do this work don't just plan better, they build the institutional muscle for honest assessment and adaptive learning that separates thriving schools from those that stay perpetually busy without making real progress.

Does "Rigor" in Your School Mean Excellence or Exhaustion? 

The word rigor carries wildly different meanings: to some, it signals careful scholarship and deep learning; to others, it conjures rigid rules and miserable pressure. This ambiguity isn't just semantic – it can derail board meetings, create false consensus, and leave your school community talking past each other while thinking they agree. In his latest piece, Ross reveals why your school's most important conversations might be failing because you haven't defined your most important terms. The cost of this oversight? Strategic plans built on misunderstanding, and students caught in the crossfire of what "rigor" really means.

The Enrollment Catalyst Hidden in Plain Sight

While your admissions team hosts open houses each year, your athletic department is running many more whether you realize it or not. Every home game brings visiting families onto your campus, forming impressions that no marketing campaign can replicate. Yet most schools treat these events as purely competitive contests rather than the authentic admissions opportunities they represent. In an era of fierce competition for students, can your school afford to overlook the crowd in the bleachers? Jay Watts, Athletic Director at Girls Preparatory School in Chattanooga, TN reveals how a shift in perspective – and some strategic collaboration between athletics and admission – can transform your existing athletic calendar into a powerful recruitment tool.

Miscellenia

Last January we published a piece on evaluating experience and comfort with change that many told us was of real help during the interview process for senior leaders. Thought it might be useful to bring it back around.

Enrollment in public middle schools is shrinking with an exodus of wealthy, white, and Asian students headed to homeschooling and private schools. The wealthiest districts are seeing the biggest declines.

Newly minted college grads with computer science and computer engineering majors have some of the highest unemployment rates according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Check out the chart – some fascinating information there.

Need help?

Not sure how to approach your next move? Have an idea but need a fresh pair of eyes to help take a look? We're here for exactly these moments. Whether you're wrestling with a strategic challenge, exploring a new initiative, or simply want an experienced perspective on your plans, reach out to start a conversation about how we can support your school's work.

Ross, John and I will be in Seattle at NAIS Thrive and we hope to see many of you there. Please reach out. We’d love to chat with old friends and meet new ones.

Wishing you all the best in this new year,

Moira

Join us:

ISCA Annual Governance Conference | Designing the Path Forward: The Board’s Role in Leading with Strategy (Virtual) | February 10, 2026

What Good Looks Like: Planning and Distinction and Relevance
Moira Kelly

NAIS Thrive Conference, Seattle, WA | February 25-27, 2026
Navigating the Precipice: Assessing Your School’s Distance from the Cliff
John Barrengos and Michael Peller

The DEFCON Scale for Independent Schools: Strategic Response Through Clarity
Ross Peters and Dr. Damian Kavanaugh

Was The Propeller forwarded to you? Get your own regular dispatch of fresh ideas, practical insights, and relevant news by subscribing today. Subscribe here.