Jeffrey Shields Innovation in School Business Operations Award

This award recognizes NBOA member schools that have demonstrated innovation in school business operations, through approaches, programs and/or practices that may serve as a model in our independent schools community. Innovation may be demonstrated in the areas of strategic finance, long-term sustainability, tuition modeling, fundraising, information technology, human resources, facilities, operational efficiency and expense reductions.

Criteria

Awarded projects will demonstrate:

• The innovation’s long-term effects for recipient schools and their constituents, which could be students, faculty, staff, community, parents or the campus itself.
• Projects that positively "shake up" organizations by implementing new ideas, creating new models of management, and transforming organizational culture.
• Potential for far-reaching impact, appeal to multiple stakeholders within and across the organization and/or the community.
• The measurability of benefits in terms of current and future marketplace demands as well as school needs.

Nomination Questions:

• Share in your own words why this nominee program is deserving of the Jeffrey Shields Innovation in School Business Operations Award. Please make sure to include how impactful the innovation has been on the school or its constituents and how the innovation serves as a model for other schools to replicate. Please give specific examples.

Recipients

The award may recognize multiple schools in any given year. To accompany the award recognition, each school will be given a monetary prize in support of their annual fund or selected gift category. The award(s) will be presented at the NBOA Annual Meeting.

2025 Recipients

Graland Country Day School

Denver, CO

Sphere Compensation System

Graland Country Day School, a preschool through grade 8 school enrolling more than 700 students in Denver, Colorado, developed and advanced a distinctive banded compensation system. Graland moved their faculty compensation system from a step-and-lane salary scale, which rewarded teachers solely on education and years of experience, to a system that more fully reflected what the school values in its teachers. A task force developed criteria that defined faculty excellence and empowered teachers to steer their professional growth and associated compensation. The resulting “sphere” model of four compensation bands was launched in 2019 and revised in 2023 based on teacher feedback to include more support for faculty seeking to move up bands and transparency about financial rewards. Among many excellent innovations in faculty and staff compensation models, Graland’s stood out and its impact on the school has been measurable.

Read a case study of this initiative that came of NBOA’s Mission-Anchored Compensation Strategies research. 

The Kinkaid School

Houston, TX

Strategic Blueprint for AI

The Kinkaid School, a preschool through grade 12 day school enrolling 1,470 students in Piney Point Village, Texas, has been a pioneer in integrating AI safely across the school for several years. Kinkaid has been considering best practices in AI since 2019, leading to a current adoption rate of the technology by 90% of faculty and staff. The school has long integrated AI across academics and operations, alongside thoughtful risk management policies, including a set of AI principals as well as family and employee policies within their respective handbooks. The school supports a faculty and staff research group, provides access to professional development and vetted tools, and encourages “purposeful play” staff and faculty wide. Kinkaid’s seven steps to adopting AI systematically may be replicated by other schools.

Read about Kinkaid’s work in “Think Before You Ask: Managing AI Risk.” 

Past Recipients

NBOA has given out the Innovation in School Business Operations Award since 2021. View the award's past recipients.

Sponsors

The following business partners have generously sponsored the award:

About Jeffrey Shields

Jeffrey Shields, FASAE, CAE, has served as President and CEO of the National Business Officers Association (NBOA) since 2010. Jeff, an active member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), is a member of the 2008 Class of ASAE Fellows (FASAE) and earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation in 2002. Under his leadership, NBOA has expanded its membership, strengthened the breadth and depth of professional development programs and cemented its standing as one of the most prominent associations serving business officers, controllers, human resource professionals, facilities professionals and other business office staff at PK-12 independent schools. He currently serves as a director for the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), as well as, a trustee for One Schoolhouse, an innovative online school offering supplemental education to independent schools, and he formerly served as a trustee for Georgetown Day School. He holds a BA from Shippensburg University and an MA from The Ohio State University. In 2020, the NBOA Board of Directors created this award to recognize his 10 years of exemplary leadership of the association.