Welcome to the Frontier!
I opened the video webinar I recently presented for the board and superintendent of a Northern Virginia school division by observing that K-12 governance is frontier territory. Far from being a mature, fully developed field, K-12 governance is characterized by …
On the Eve of Independence Day
The following essay is excerpted from a post that originally appeared in this blog some four years ago. On the eve of our 2020 Independence Day celebration, I think it is appropriate to reflect on the meaning of this national …
The Retreat as a Board Capacity Building Vehicle
Experience has taught me that a retreat involving your school board and senior administrators can be a powerful tool for building your board’s governing capacity and strengthening the board-superintendent partnership. But – and it’s a really big caveat – you’ve …
Rockford Superintendent Ehren Jarrett: Finding a Silver Lining in Crisis
As the video interview I recorded with Dr. Ehren Jarrett, Superintendent of the Rockford Public Schools (Illinois), indicates, he has been a consummate Energizer-in-Chief and master of crisis management during Covid 19. Working closely with his Board, administrators and faculty, …
Highline Superintendent Susan Enfield: Energizer-in-Chief Extraordinaire
Our readers will recall that the March 31 post at this blog, “Crises Demand Energizers-in-Chief at All Levels” (https://boardsavvysuperintendent.com/crises-demand-energizers-in-chief-at-all-levels/), describes chief executives such as superintendents who wear the Energizer-in-Chief hat in tackling the twin challenges of education and …
Virtual Board Standing Committees: More Than Just a Half-Way House
“Could our five-person school board be realistically divided into two, much less three, standing committees? Wouldn’t a committee with only two board members lack credibility?” I expected the question, which came right after I’d presented my slides on board standing …
Energizer-in-Chief Redux: Stakeholder Relationship Management
“Incredible. We must be talking about 40 or more stakeholders.” This was one of the responses to the question I asked in the daylong governance work session I was facilitating, after the breakout group dealing with stakeholder relations had completed …
Crises Demand Energizers-in-Chief at All Levels
“The fog of despair hung over the land. One out of every four American workers lacked a job. Factories that had once darkened the skies with smoke stood ghostly and silent, like extinct volcanoes. In October the New York City …
Top-Flight Performance Won’t Always Keep the Relationship With Your School Board Healthy
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 …
Making Superintendent Evaluation a Relationship Adhesive
As always, I learned as much as I taught from the superintendents participating in the preconference workshop I presented on February 12 at AASA’s National Conference on Education in San Diego – “Cementing the Board-Superintendent Governing Partnership.” The diverse, high-level …
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