It was time for our annual board retreat, when we set aside time to review the past year, assess, plan for improvement, and refresh itself to begin anew in the coming year. We considered the following questions for reflection:
Q: How are we doing as a board while pursuing our strategic mission and goals?
Q: Are our beliefs and values in alignment with those goals and that pursuit?
In performing its role, the school board has six areas that can help focus its efforts: (1) The State; (2) The Community; (3) The Students; (4) The District; (5) The Superintendent; and (most important) (6) The Board Itself.
1. The State – The school district and school board are both created by state law, which defines the board role, assigns specific duties and directs specific actions. Federal law includes non-negotiables such as protection of constitutional rights, and conditional inducements such as funding eligibility conditions. A board is legally responsible to the state.
Must do: Believe in a duty to obey state and applicable federal law.
What this means: The board must be fully informed of state and federal law that requires board actions and prohibits other actions, situations, or conditions.
2. The Community – Just as in the case of a business whose board works for stockholders – the owners of the company, a school board works for its community – the ‘owners’ of the school district. We must upend our normal view of the chain of command, which can be depicted as a triangle r with the board at the top and the district and community at its base. Unlike an organization in which the few (executives) are at the top and the many (workers) are at the bottom, in a board-community relationship the community (the many) is boss while the board (the few) work for that boss. We must adopt a new perspective, showing the board (servant) at the bottom and the community (boss) at the top s. This upended orientation reflects a different mindset, from one of patronizing boss to that of servant-leader.
Must do: Believe that the community is boss.
What this means: Beliefs and values are not directly observable. We can say what they are, but those are just words. The only way we can know this change has occurred is by observing the board’s behavior. If the board truly believes its community is the boss, the board must listen to the community to learn its values and its priorities, then act to put those values and priorities into practice.
3. The Students – Success for a school district is not measured by the initiation of flashy, progressive programs devised by district administrators, or even quality teaching techniques in the classroom, but by the learning that actually occurs for students. Good programs are helpful, and teaching excellence is certainly a key factor in success, but success itself is defined by the results we achieve for our students. We must focus on student learning when setting goals and measuring progress. Other goals are merely an exercise in public relations, with measures of activity rather than outcomes.
Must do: Believe that success is defined by results for students.
What this means: The board must define the district’s mission in terms of desired results for students, then prioritize district efforts toward accomplishing that mission. Any goals that define desired results for students are appropriate board goals. Other goals, while they may be important in strategic terms for how the district pursues its mission, are means toward an end and should be determined by the superintendent, since the board intends to hold the superintendent accountable for those decisions.
4. The District – Boards step up to the strategic level when they take complete and comprehensive ownership of the district mission with full responsibility for district success. When it holds the superintendent accountable for achieving results as defined in the district mission the board is stepping up to its “whole district” responsibility.
Must do: Believe that the board is responsible for everything in the district.
What this means: Doing so makes the board far less likely to micromanage any of the thousands of decisions that must be made by superintendent and staff, and thus avoids losing sight of the overall district mission. How does the board lead the entire district in all that it does or fails to do? It does so by working through the superintendent, assigning responsibility, giving guidance, monitoring for results, and ensuring accountability. The board must avoid piecemeal micromanaging within the district by keeping its eye on the distant future and the full district mission. View the district from a holistic, strategic level, e.g. from an elevation of 30,000 ft rather than a piecemeal, operational level, e.g. at ground level, (or as is often referred to as) “down in the weeds.”
5. The Superintendent – The superintendent is often referred to as the board’s only real employee. This is so if the board hires and supervises its superintendent, while the superintendent hires and supervises all other staff. This relationship makes sense, and aligns with the management principle of unity of command. Boards that have an urge to manage district work, are well advised to get more done by working through the superintendent.
Must do: The board must lead; and it must lead through the superintendent.
What this means: The board supervises the superintendent through thoughtful setting of expectations and monitoring to ensure compliance. #5 (the superintendent) is intertwined with #4 (the district) in that, if the board truly believes it is fully responsible for everything the district does or fails to do, the superintendent enables a board to see how it can manage its responsibilities in the face of the realization that it is fundamentally ill-equipped to do it all by itself. The board must hire the best candidate to be superintendent; it must clearly assign to the superintendent responsibility for getting the district job done; it must delegate sufficient authority and allocate sufficient resources to get the job done; finally, it must hold the superintendent accountable for district success.
6. The Board Itself – We must also take responsibility for ourselves. Through meaningful self-discipline, the board ensures that everything it does in supervising the superintendent, it also will do in supervising itself. If the board holds itself accountable to the state that created it and the community it represents then board performance will be held fully accountable in the same way that superintendent and staff performance are held accountable. Physicians who take their oath seriously know they must “do no harm,” and “heal thyself.” We must get our act together as a board, then return regularly to this responsibility through routines of self-assessment and planning for improvement.
Must do: The board must believe in a duty to hold itself accountable. The board must believe that what is good for the gander (the superintendent and staff) is also good for the goose (the board itself.
What this means: The board must first ensure its own effectiveness before performing its role of district oversight and accountability.The board must clarify its role; set standards for board performance; rigorously monitor board performance; and report to the community whether board performance meets those standards.
Rick Maloney, EdD has more than twenty years of experience as a local school board member and nine years as a director of his state school boards’ association. He is a board consultant and author of A Framework for School Governance (2017). and Putting Policy Governance to Work (2018). He can be reached at rmaloney@governance101.com or rick_maloney@hotmail.com
You compiled an excellent list that is well written! I would put students first on the list!
The local board should always review systemic data based on growth, improvement, equity, and standards. They should not be fooled by administration cherry picked data and special case presentations! They should also make sure all district goals focus on the students. Don’t let the administration substitute means for ends like technology goals and parent goals.
Also it would be nice if they could get big pictures of the strategic plans that show alignment among student goals, professional practices (teacher, principal, and district administrator), educational strategies, professional development/collaboration, and of course monitoring and accountability. Board needs to monitor implementation of a few aligned system-wide professional practices a long with monitoring student data.
System view of adult and student results should be published in easy to understand data visualizations that are system-wide!
Bill, I like your comment about boards not being fooled by cherry picked data. That’s one of my pet peeves.
My choice of sequence begins with the entities TO which the board is subordinate and must respond. So the state and the community are listed first because the board must be RESPONSIBLE TO them. Students come first among those whom the board is RESPONSIBLE FOR.
Thanks for the ideas about alignment also.