Tag: K-12 governance
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 …
Training a Weak Tool for Boosting Board Performance
David Brooks’ column in the January 1 issue of the New York Times, “We Just Saw How Minds Aren’t Changed,” reminded me of a superintendent coaching session I conducted several weeks ago. Brooks, observing that 2020 was a year …
Recruiting a Really Board-Savvy Superintendent
Experience has taught me – and I’m sure many if not most of this blog’s readers – that the more board-savvy its superintendent, the more effective a school board is likely to be as a governing body and the more …
The Lynchpins of a High-Performing Board Committee Structure
While preparing for a four-hour Zoom work session later this week 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 …
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 …
Implementing is a Far Cry From Authorizing in the K-12 Governance Business
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 and the …
Kick Off 2020 By Updating Your Superintendent Governance Strategy
Preparing for a recent superintendent coaching session, I fine-tuned the process that I’d developed several years ago for updating the Superintendent Governance Strategy. All really board-savvy superintendents know that governance (encompassing the work of the board and the board- superintendent …
Southern Fairfield County (CT) Superintendents Explore the Governance Frontier at Their High-Impact Governing Work Session
The daylong “High-Impact Governing Work Session” hosted by the Southern Fairfield County Superintendents Association on October 26 opened with a discussion of the wild and wonderful “field” of K-12 governance, which actually is still far from being a full-fledged field …
Dueling Boards: a Cautionary True Story
The tension in the conference room was palpable, as the superintendent and her board president at one end of the table glared at the educational foundation CEO and his board chair at the other end. I sat in the middle …
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