Case Study

Discuss this case study and the questions that follow with your board.

It was the first day of the regular school year at Children’s House Montessori School. Amid all the excitement, the four founding board members sat on a bench and watched their kindergartners play together on their “last first day” of school at Children’s House. It was hard to believe that by the following summer they would be too old for Children’s House and would have to move on to first grade at a new school.

“Maybe we don’t have to send our kids away next year,” Robin Scott said. “Maybe we can expand Children’s House to go up to third grade.”

During the following two weeks before the board meeting, the four founding board members discussed Robin’s idea further and grew increasingly excited about the prospects of expanding the school. But when the founders presented their idea to the rest of the board, it was not met with the enthusiasm they expected. “The mission of our organization is to teach children independence and thinking skills so they will have a head start in elementary school,” board member Curtis Washington said. “If we expand the school, we will be changing the mission of our organization.”

“There are a lot of logistical concerns that come along with this,” another board member added. “We would have to move to a new space, hire more certified teachers, and come up with enough students to fill three classes. To cover all these expenses, we would most likely have to increase tuition. I doubt the parents of the younger children would appreciate a higher tuition to cover expenses for the older children.”

“But who better to make decisions about the future of the school than the parents themselves?” Leslie said. “The parents are the ones choosing to pay tuition to send their children to preschool and kindergarten here because they think it will benefit their children more than public school would. And as a parent, I can tell you that the parents would be willing to pay higher tuition if it meant that their children could stay at Children’s House through the third grade.”

Questions

• In general, what are valid criteria for changing the mission of a nonprofit?
• How would expansion of Children’s House affect the organization’s mission?
• What are the ramifications of having parents on this board?

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