Category: Operational Guidance

Guidance in the form of written policy or other directives provided by a board to the organization’s management, guiding ‘the work’ of the organization.

Question #43 – Does Your Board Set Criteria for Measuring Board Success?

Rick Maloney

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) High-performing boards are characterized by a number of observable behaviors. They know what their job is, and they do it efficiently. They plan their own work and perform their work at the policy level, focusing more on organizational outcomes than process. They are responsible for their own performance; they follow their own rules and deal fairly and consistently with staff and each other. They set the vision for themselves and the organization. They clearly understand Read More …

Question #36 – Does Your Board Delegate Authority and Provide Support to the Superintendent?

Rick Maloney

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) The role of trustees is to hold what approximates absolute power over the institution, using it operationally only in rare emergencies – ideally never. Trustees delegate the operational use of power to administrators and staffs, but with accountability for its use that is at least as strict as now obtains with the use of property and money…In essence, this view of the use of power holds that no one, absolutely no one, is to be entrusted Read More …

Question #35 – Does Your Board Set Expectations for Management?

Rick Maloney

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) Superintendent job performance will be monitored systematically only against the Superintendent’s job expectations, which are reasonable progress toward organizational accomplishment of the Fundamentals stated in Board Policy 1800 OE-1, and the organizational operation within the boundaries established in the other Operational Expectations set forth in Board Policy 1800. ― Mercer Island SD1 Written policies such as the example shown above direct and guide the superintendent’s actions on a continuous basis by establishing clear expectations. Read More …

Question #34 – Is Your Board Ready to Hire the Next Superintendent?

Rick Maloney

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) Prime evidence of flawed board governance has been high superintendent turnover. Between 1994 and 2004, 35 urban districts serving near 11 million students appointed 135 superintendents and interim superintendents. These turnovers usually resulted in further destabilizing districts desperately attempting to raise test scores and meet state standards. ― Thomas Glass1 If we are to judge its success a hiring process that ends with candidate selection and contract signature ends too soon. Many boards are Read More …

Question #33 – Does Your Board Define the Superintendent Role?

Rick Maloney

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) “To start the role clarification process, a board can adopt or revise policies that specify what the board can expect from the superintendent and what the superintendent can expect of the board.” ― NSBA1 Boards should periodically review the board-superintendent relationship. A breakdown in that relationship is inevitable when the superintendent’s role, and how it differs from the board’s role, lacks clarity. Clarity in her role starts with alignment of board policy, the contract, Read More …

Question #32 – Does Your Board Give the Superintendent Management Guidance?

Rick Maloney

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) …when district leaders are carrying out their leadership responsibilities effectively, student achievement across the district is positively affected. – Tim Waters and Robert Marzano1 In a landmark study of district leadership, Marzano and Waters reported a significant relationship between student achievement and certain district leadership factors, such as the goal-setting for achievement and instruction, the length of superintendent tenure, and delegation of authority in a manner that they call defined autonomy. Their lessons for Read More …

Question #31 – Does Your Board Facilitate Governance?

Rick Maloney

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) “Where previously such admonition from the chair had to come from that person’s own belly of conscience, this policy gives them fodder for the canon of board leadership, to call to task any trustee who has trodden from the path of policy proviso and gotten off into areas which the board has agreed are off limits.” ― Gene Royer1 The above is a description of board policy that grants authority to the board chair Read More …

Question #30 – Does Your Board Set Expectations for Governance?

Rick Maloney

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) The board is responsible for its own performance and commits itself to continuous improvement. The board will assure that its members are provided with training and professional support necessary to govern effectively. As a means to assure continuous improvement, the board regularly and systematically will monitor all policies in this section and will assess the quality of each meeting by debriefing the meeting following its conclusion. ― San Diego SD1 The above policy is Read More …

Question #29 – Does Your Board Define its Own Role?

Rick Maloney

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) The Board’s job is to represent, lead and serve the community and to govern the district by establishing expectations for district results, expectations for quality operational performance, and monitoring actual performance against those expectations. – Lake Washington School District1 In the brief statement above, the board succinctly defines its own role. Role clarity is one of two key conditions (the other being goal clarity) organizational consultants often assess to assure that “roles and goals” Read More …

Question #28 – Does Your Board Give Itself Governance Guidance?

Rick Maloney

(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) Historically, studies of school boards have tended to examine the behavior of members as individuals but not the behavior of the school board as a collective. ― Peter Cistone1 Boards don’t often think of whole board performance. Focusing on individual board members’ boardsmanship behavior, whether in designing training or in developing policy, is certainly necessary but it is not sufficient. The board must also remain aware of its governance performance, defining its expectations of Read More …