Governing Effectively via a Framework for School Governance
(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the Read More …
(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) Scenario: Bianca and Sal lingered in the Balboa School District parking lot after a meeting in which next year’s calendar was a hot topic: start and end dates, holidays, the timing of semesters, graduation, etc. In addition, many decisions were made about hiring, contracting for maintenance, and procurement of equipment and supplies. A relative newcomer to the board, Bianca observed that “We never seem to get around to discussing what the community wants us Read More …
(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) Over the course of the next several months, questions 12 thru 22 will explore the board’s responsibility to provide a strategic voice on behalf of the community it serves. That voice is expressed through vision and values that guide the organization as it seeks to assure the community’s desires for student learning. Vision is a component of the board’s responsibility to provide guidance about outcomes desired for students well into an extended future. Questions Read More …
Strategic approach as a prerequisite for board readiness To be ready to exercise governance responsibilities on behalf of its community a board must take a strategic approach. Governance readiness depends on more than having the right governance mindset. Not only must a board assure that its thinking is strategic, it must also assure that its acting is strategic – developing routines that set the stage for effective work. To be fully ready the board must have the right governance approach Read More …
Governance mindset as a prerequisite for board readiness A governance mindset is one necessary component of board readiness, the other being a governance approach. An effective governance mindset has several features, including two elements that make up a servant-leader mindset, and two elements that make up a growth mindset. Davis and Fullan1 describe a governance mindset as something that enables the individual board members to transcend their boardsmanship role to contribute to the governance role of the whole board: The Read More …
At this point, having reviewed the first 11 questions (the total number will be 49) and having considered at least a partial answer to each, let’s observe their connections, each with one another, and how they combine to illustrate the broader category of board readiness. Questions 1-11 deal with the board’s need to be ready with a foundation of knowledge, skills, and dispositions that enable it to carry out broad governance functions: One perspective from which to view board readiness Read More …
(49 Questions to Ask Your Board) The school board meeting is the community’s window to the school system. The public often will assume schools are run the same way school board meetings are run. ― Gemberling et al1 This caution from the Key Work of School Boards reminds us of the importance of treating board meetings seriously. Like policy, meetings have the potential to be truly strategic or merely operational. The board meeting minutes from a $60 million district showed Read More …
This article in American School Board Journal is the second in a series of articles about knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed by a new school board member.
Boardsmanship skills include connecting with the community, advocating for students, contributing to board meetings, referring issues for action, balancing confidentiality and transparency, each in appropriate situations, complying with law, etc. Other skills involve contributing to effectiveness in the board’s governance capacity.
(49 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 Read More …
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)