In Parts I and II of this post, we considered questions rarely (maybe never) asked by Board members regarding orientation and professional development of board members, the full Board, and its Superintendent/staff. This third part will deal with questions about some strategic Board-level functions:
About Planning Strategic Board Functions
- Strategic planning.
Q#1: Does the Board take responsibility for strategic planning?
The Board is likely to answer this question in the affirmative, as this is something the Board does pay attention to, but it is critical to its effective performance that the Board pay attention to the right things – what is truly important in strategic planning. It is an inconvenient truth that boards seldom plan their own work in strategic planning. Sure, they preside when staff members bring them a plan for board approval, then react by injecting their own thoughts into the process. But boards seldom take charge of the process; rather, they are usually preoccupied with reacting and ratifying what the staff bring to them.
Follow-up Q: How can the Board plan for strategic planning?
When a Board is merely “going along for the ride” in a strategic planning effort, its Superintendent will treat the Board as just one among multiple other stakeholder groups. Here is a different way to think about and do strategic planning: Instead of treating each “new” strategic planning effort as a one-time event that is renewed every three or four (or more) years, or each time a new superintendent is hired, strategic planning should be converted into an ongoing process of greater permanence, tying the current (or previous) strategic plan into district accountability as a predicate (baseline) for carrying out the Board’s annual accountability process. Continuous maintenance and enhancement of the strategic plan should become an integral part (the final step) of the Board’s annual district accountability/evaluation cycle.
Topics to review in leading overall district strategic planning efforts include: The role of the Board in goal-setting – establishing, reviewing, and refining desired outcomes; The role of the Superintendent in planning the strategies for how the district personnel and other resources will be employed to achieve those outcomes; and The role of the Board in monitoring/evaluating the success of those superintendent-developed strategies based on their actual results/outcomes over time.
- Budget planning.
Q#2: Does the Board take responsibility for budget planning?
As in the case of strategic planning, we can expect the answer to be “Of course!” But budget planning, too, can benefit from an honest review of the overall process to distinguish what the Board thinks it is doing and what it is really doing. As in the case of the typical strategic planning process, most boards take a back seat to their superintendents, content in reacting to staff input, complacent because it insists on being the final authority. Here’s an idea: The Board should own budget planning by being the first authority, establishing before-hand its own clear expectations and nondebatables about any budget that will be brought to the Board for approval.
Follow-up Q: How?
Topics to consider in planning for budget planning: The role of the board and that of staff in budget planning; Board priorities that must be incorporated into budget planning; Desired results for students that are established by the Board as its long-range (not year-by-year, but closer to permanent) strategic goals; Strategies – programs and initiatives designed by the Superintendent (who remains empowered to change such strategies based on their demonstrated success or failure, and therefore remains accountable for their success or failure); Resources aligned with those strategies – again, the Superintendent should be empowered to set and adjust those resources, and should remain accountable for those resource decisions; Ensuring there is a plan for resourcing the work of the staff and board work, including professional development to enhance the Board’s capacity for effective governance.
Next: Questions Many Boards Never Think to Ask (Part IV)
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