Boosting the Governing IQ of the Superintendent-Aspirants in Your Cabinet
Last August, sitting in on a Cabinet governance work session that Ehren Jarrett, Superintendent of the Rockford (Illinois) Public Schools, was facilitating, I observed a consummate board-savvy chief executive in action. Over the course of four hours, Ehren and his …
Deb Henton: An Award Winning Superintendent’s Successful Transition to Association CEO
As you’ll learn from the video interview that Deb Henton and I recorded recently, she brought in-depth, wide-ranging K-12 leadership experience to her new role as Executive Director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators when she took the helm …
3 Quick Fixes That Won’t Corral the Rogues on Your Board
I’ve met more than a few “rogue” board members over the course of my 35 years as a governance advisor. I define these board members as trouble makers who march to their own governing tune at their own tempo, with …
Governing Is Truly a Team Sport
A little over six years ago I was guilty of an error of judgment that taught me a couple of valuable lessons. I’d been retained by a mid-size Midwestern school district to assist in planning, facilitating, and following up on …
Board Standing Committees Supercharge Virginia Beach City Schools Governance
In the recent video interview I recorded with them, Board Chair Carolyn Rye and Superintendent Aaron Spence of the Virginia Beach City Schools make a compelling case for employing well-designed board standing committees to assist the school board in carrying …
Your Board President: a Primo Stakeholder You Neglect at Your Peril
The special board work session had been scheduled to consider a key recommendation coming out of the daylong board-superintendent-cabinet governance retreat three weeks earlier: replacing the board’s dysfunctional silo committees (e.g., curriculum and instruction) with committees aligned with the board’s …
The Right Mindset is a Must For Building a Solid Partnership With Your Board
A staple of my one-on-one governance coaching sessions with superintendents in recent years has been the critical role that what I call “Mindset” plays in building and maintaining a close, positive, productive and enduring board-superintendent partnership. What am I talking …
From Building Principal to Superintendent of the Bloomfield Hills Schools: Patrick Watson Meets the Change Challenge
As you’ll learn from the video interview I recently recorded with Patrick Watson, Superintendent of Michigan’s Bloomfield Hills Schools, Pat has achieved quite a feat: making the challenging transition from building principal to highly effective chief executive officer of one …
President Jennifer Adair and Superintendent Talisa Dixon: the Columbus City Schools’ Dynamic Leadership Duo
The Columbus City School District is fortunate to have a dynamic, cohesive leadership team at the helm in the person of Board President Jennifer Adair and Superintendent Talisa Dixon. Among the several reasons why this partnership at the …
Solving the Board Development Puzzle: the How
Our readers might recall that the March 25 post at this blog dealt with two pieces of the board development puzzle: WHAT does board development mean? WHY is it critical that the superintendent spearhead board development, wearing the Board Developer-in-Chief …
Recent Comments