Even Superb Performance Won’t Save a Badly Eroded Board-Superintendent Relationship
When I walked in Rich’s office for our weekly project review meeting, I found him slumped at his desk looking distraught. When I asked him what’d happened, he just said “take a look,” handing me a form. It was the …
A Compelling Case for Board Engagement In External Relations
In my workshops for school board members, superintendents, and superintendent-aspirants – including the one I presented at the 2022 AASA National Conference on Education, I make a point of discussing the creative, productive role that board members can play in …
Superintendent Leadership on the Governance Front: An Emerging New Model
Over the course of my 35-plus years working with superintendents and their school boards, I’ve conducted hundreds of one-on-one interviews with superintendents, preparing for retreats and educational workshops. One of my standard questions relates to processes superintendents have put in …
Creating Board Development Champions
My February 25 post described two vehicles for developing your board’s governing capacity that we discussed in my pre-conference workshop at AASA’s National Conference on Education in Nashville. Both the daylong retreat and the task force that holds five or …
2 Powerful Board Development Vehicles: a Hot Topic at my 2022 NCE Workshop
“The Superintendent as Board-Developer-in-Chief” was one of the five presentation/discussion modules in the pre-conference workshop I presented on February 16 at AASA’s 2022 National Conference on Education in Nashville. Over the course of 45 minutes or so, workshop participants were …
Beating the Odds: Transforming the Culture of the Ithaca City School District
Kudos to the Board, Superintendent and Cabinet of New York’s Ithaca City School District for beating the odds by carrying out a successful decade-long cultural transformation initiative, which Board Vice President Sean Bradwell and Superintendent Luvelle Brown describe in the …
Blazing a Trail on the Board Engagement Front in Colorado’s Thompson School District
As my recent video interview with Board President Barbara Kruse and Superintendent Marc Schaffer indicates, Colorado’s Thompson School District is blazing a new trail in the area of board member engagement. Like many districts around the county these days, the …
Transforming Annual Budget Preparation Into a Higher-Impact Leadership Tool
I’ve never come across a superintendent who wasn’t pretty much an expert in the art of annual budget preparation by the time she first takes the helm of a district. This isn’t the least surprising when you think about it. …
Leaving Administrators Out of the Governance Improvement Loop a Costly Mistake
Mea Culpa! One of the more egregious errors I made early in my career as a K-12 governance consultant and coach was allowing myself to be pressured into facilitating a daylong board capacity building work session involving all board members …
The Chief Staff Liaison: Lynchpin of a High-Performing Board Committee Structure
While preparing for a four-hour Zoom work session recently with the superintendent and cabinet of a large Midwestern school district, focusing on preparation for the launch of a new board committee structure, I reflected on a seminal learning experience early …
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