Author: Rick Maloney

Question #10 – Does Your Board Take a Strategic Approach to Policy?

Rick Maloney

(Questions to Ask Your Board) Boards should avoid spending time on routine operating policies, but they should be deeply involved in the development of reform policies, policies designed to change the district, in fundamental ways to improve student achievement and district operations. ― Don McAdams1 School boards should spend their finite available time primarily on what are clearly strategic policies rather than routine operating policies. A strategic approach to policy elevates the policy-making function, enabling it to make a difference Read More …

Question #9 – Does Your Board ‘Act’ in a Systematic Way?

Rick Maloney
Systematic, step-by-step

An effective board exercises discipline in a systematic approach to deliberation and decision-making, fitting each board action into a recognizable pattern of governing action that ensures the board’s structures and routines are guided by intentional decisions made in alignment with its strategic role. – more – (click on the image above)

Question #8 – Does Your Board ‘See’ With a Systems Perspective?

Rick Maloney

(Questions to Ask Your Board) Governing with a systems perspective means understanding not only that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but that each of the parts is essential…effective governance flows from understanding and paying attention to all of these elements. – Katherine Gemberling et al1 A systems perspective enables a board to take a strategic view of the whole district before it acts. It ensures that the board considers how decisions targeting one part, or Read More …

Question #7 – Does Your Board Take a Strategic Approach?

Rick Maloney

(Questions to Ask Your Board) Boards are powerful. They select; evaluate; and, if they choose, terminate superintendents. They set goals, allocate resources, create policy frameworks, and oversee management and are the bridge between districts and the publics they serve. – Don McAdams1 The above succinctly describes the school board’s role and broadly outlines a strategic approach to carrying out that role. The effective board has a clear sense of its purpose. It distinguishes the strategic work of the board from Read More …

Question #6 – Does Your Board Have the Work Ethic Needed for Growth?

Rick Maloney

(Questions to Ask Your Board) On the most basic level, members have to keep up with continually changing state and federal mandates and laws, something that district staffers generally help with. They also need to keep up with promising initiatives to raise student achievement in and outside their district as well as continually evolving systems for monitoring data and engaging the community in school improvement. New board members especially need training in their roles and responsibilities and in laws pertaining Read More …

“Foundation of Knowledge” Article in the American School Board Journal

Rick Maloney

An article that offers advice on orientation/onboarding of a new school board member, focusing on a foundation of essential knowledge about the job, was printed in the August 2024 issue of ASBJ. Providing newcomers to your school board team with helpful knowledge informs them about serving in their role with knowledge that is critical to their success. It encourages that was take advantage of opportunities for learning and reflection about that foundation of knowledge over time. This article is the Read More …

Question #5 – Does Your Board Believe in Growth?

Rick Maloney

(Questions to Ask Your Board) I remember often being praised for my intelligence rather than my efforts, and slowly but surely, I developed an aversion to difficult challenges. Most surprisingly, this extended beyond academic and even athletic challenges to emotional challenges. This was my greatest learning disability – this tendency to see performance as a reflection of character and, if I could not accomplish something right away, to avoid that task or treat it with contempt.1 In the above story, Read More …

Question #4 – (In Order to Serve) Is Your Board Willing to Lead?

Rick Maloney

(Questions to Ask Your Board) The most fundamental discipline of a board of directors is to direct the organization for high performance. Directing is a proactive discipline, focused on the future. But an alarming problem exists with many boards: they refuse to direct! – Jim Brown1 The above observation is a clear consequence of the fact that, while it is hard enough for individuals to prepare for a leadership role, it is even more difficult for a board of 5, Read More …

Question #3 – (In Order to Lead) Is Your Board Committed to Serve?

Rick Maloney

(Questions to Ask Your Board) The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. – Robert Greenleaf1 According to Greenleaf, those aspiring to leadership must choose first to serve, then to lead. This servant-leader Read More …

Question #2 – Does Your Board Have a Governance Mindset?

Rick Maloney

(Questions to Ask Your Board) The development of a governance mindset in our view is the most important characteristic of effective trustees…Having a governance mindset is understanding the role and responsibilities of the governing board and how individual trustee leadership can enhance the positive, value-added impact of the governance process. – Davis Campbell and Michael Fullan1 It is not enough to acquire knowledge (what to know) or skills (what to do) for governance. Boards must as a first priority develop Read More …