Boards Matter – Part I
Board members sometimes wonder: “Am I prepared for this job?” “Can the board contribute anything of importance to the mission?” “Does the work of a board matter?”
In the film Mr. Holland’s Opus there is a scene in which the school board, in a budget-cutting move, votes to cut the arts program, eliminating the music teaching job to which Mr Holland (Richard Dreyfus) has dedicated his adult life. The board is portrayed as dimwitted and shortsighted bean-counters, perhaps reluctant to play the villain but nevertheless incapable of the kind of enlightened thinking the community deserves. You know – the same school board depicted in practically every other media portrayal of the past fifty years.
I’d like to paint a slightly different picture based on research and real life as played out in tens of thousands of board meetings every week in communities all across America, with a headline you’ll never see because it doesn’t sell newspapers: “Boards matter!”
The board is uniquely situated to govern.
There are 3 ways in which the work of the board matters:
- The board takes responsibility on behalf of its community.
- The board influences student learning.
- The board contributes to the stability of the system.
Part I of this three-part blog entry explores the first of the three.
The board takes responsibility on behalf of its community.
Although governance is inevitably complicated by the indirect and apparently remote connection between what boards do in the board room and what students achieve in the classroom, the board’s area of responsibility covers everything from management to instructional leadership to instruction to learning, and its actions affect them all. So, are board members prepared for this responsibility? Does it make a difference if we are not professionals in this field?
The truth is, most boards are made up of ordinary people. They are grandparents. They are little league coaches. They are next door neighbors. And they are often volunteers who have nothing to gain from sitting on a board other than taking part in a learning experience and knowing that they are contributing to something important.
– Patrick Lencioni
Board members are citizens first.
Board members are not expected to be, and should not aspire to be, (education) superheroes, placed on this earth to leap tall (school) buildings or do
| A Citizen’s Skillset
“…willingness to listen, to share their thinking, to deliberate as a member of a governing team, to form opinions based on data, to take a stand based on personal convictions informed by those deliberations and opinions, and to support governing decisions once they are made.” |
extraordinary (curricular or instructional) deeds. They may not be able to outrun a speeding bullet, but they have their own version of superpowers. They are citizens who are willing to step up to the challenge of governance, and that is what matters. Individual board members do not need to be governance experts upon taking office, and they should not impose on themselves such an expectation, even after one or two terms in office. The board member role is designed for citizens who are willing to step otherwise unprepared into the role and operate with a citizen’s skill set: a willingness to listen, to share their thinking, to deliberate as a member of a governing team, to form opinions based on data, to take a stand based on personal convictions informed by those deliberations and opinions, and to support governing decisions once they are made.