Improving Local School Governance
Digging deep into the art and science of school governance
Slow Learner.
I have been a school board member since 1995, minus a 4-year break. You might say that I am a slow learner. The truth is that I am a deliberative, slow and steady learner. It took me several years to learn the role of an individual school board member beyond the surface level knowledge received in my initial school board training. I supplemented the training by reading, initially books such as Becoming a Better Board Member. By the end of my first 4-year term I felt like I had an in-depth understanding of the knowledge, and practical experience with the skills, of an individual board member. These individual competencies I refer to as boardsmanship. But there was more to learn. They made me capable of contributing to the work of the board as an individual, but they did not make me competent in the area of the collective work of the board-as-a-whole.
It Takes Time.
Beyond the individual competencies of boardsmanship it took me nearly another 4-year term - aided by more training, more reading, and an accumulating body of on-the-job practice to develop in-depth knowledge and skills that could help my board develop the collective competencies of a school board acting as a single body. These competencies I refer to as governance. My reading had progressed to such work as Key Work of School Boards, Five Habits of High Impact School Boards, Boards That Make a Difference and others picked up at conference bookstores.
The Problem.
The problem with this lengthy period of orientation, training, onboarding, and reflection is that the tenure of the average school board member in the United States is only about 4 years. What results for most of us is an inevitable deficit in the knowledge, skills, and experience of the average board member. This deficit contributes to an imbalance in the most important relationship in the leadership of local school districts. Because the board has its authority on one hand, and the superintendent has education background knowledge and experience on the other, this mix of authority and competence is inherently unstable in what is often referred to as a partnership. The result is an imbalanced partnership that is potentially harmful to both parties, and as a result one that is harmful to the entire community. The board finds itself influenced toward becoming the junior partner, dependent on the good graces of a benevolent superintendent, or it is motivated toward independent status, rejecting the appearance of dependency by lurching toward the role of a reactive, petulant tyrant. Neither is good in a situation calling for a deliberative, transparent and collaborative leadership process whereby the board asserts an authoritative role, leading through an interdependent relationship with its chief executive.
Remedy.
What is needed in moving through the stages from dependent to independent to interdependent is a stable board-superintendent relationship, something that has undergone a maturation process like that described by Stephen Covey in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. As the source of authority in the partnership, the board must refrain from settling for the status of junior partner (shedding a childlike dependency without somehow becoming the rebellious, independent teen) and emerge as the inter-dependent yet senior partner - an adult partner - in the relationship. This kind of development requires more than the individual learning journey of the board’s individual members. It requires a collective learning journey of the board-as-a-whole, wherein individual members, no matter how new to their own role, benefit from and contribute to the growing competence of a mature board, whose bank of knowledge is institutionalized and serves as a ready and growing repository of corporate board knowledge and skill.
For My Part.
I have acquired considerable learning over time and intend to continue serving my local community as long as I can apply that learning in a productive way by contributing to our district’s mission as described in our district’s strategic plan: to produce competent, contributing citizens. I also am in a position to contribute to successful governance by other boards, in my state as a member of our state association board of directors, nationally as a governance author and consultant, and internationally as a member of Govern for Impact, an international association of people committed to effective governance by a board of directors.
Focus.
Our largely successful efforts at the local level to improve our governance capacity and maintain long-term stability in our governance efforts have benefited by deliberately focusing on our own work as a board, at the local level. This focus directs our attention primarily inward, attending to our own board and our own board work, that which we can directly control. Although we have authority over the superintendent, school leaders, staff, and students, we do not directly control them, but we can control what we do in the boardroom, identifying community values to be enacted in policy, setting strategic goals in terms of desired student outcomes, and monitoring performance. If we draw a circle around these priority issues and people, we can consider this our circle of control.
Beyond this, still within our reach, we have our circle of influence, encompassing issues and people that we can at least indirectly influence, and to which we are therefore willing to devote time, attention and resources. Our circle of influence includes the superintendent, district staff, school leaders, teachers and school staff, students, community members, and (to a lesser extent) policymakers outside the district. For those inside the district our means of influence are primarily in the area of policymaking and monitoring. For those (both within the community and outside the community) who are outside the district’s direct authority our means of influence are primarily in the area of public outreach and advocacy.
Recognizing the outer limits of our energy, attention, and resources, we choose to exercise discipline as a board by avoiding the many distractions from issues that constitute our circle of concern. There are many such issues that, while of interest to us and our constituents, remain outside our direct control or even indirect influence. Author and governance consultant A.J. Crabill categorizes such issues that are outside a board’s control or influence by calling them adult interests, noting that they serve to distract the board from what really matters. In the case of school boards, what really matters are the community’s desired student outcomes. Crabill advises that we not let adult interests distract us from student outcomes. Interests that align with student needs are where we choose to focus our attention.
Origins.
Although the philosophical origins of this thinking are as old as Epictetus, the three ideas circle of control, circle of influence, and circle of concern were popularized by Stephen Covey. These ideas apply very well to the practice of school governance. Through the discipline of sticking to our school board role and focusing our efforts on what we can do best while guiding school professionals with the community’s values, we establish a foundation for our own effectiveness and set the stage for nurturing the best performance in others, starting with our CEO, the superintendent.
Goal.
This is the first of a series of articles describing how boards can - and how some boards do - excel. I will be sharing our own board’s experience, as well as that of others with whom I have worked, in governing to assure the community’s desired student outcomes are achieved. Although more remains to be done, we have experienced considerable success in the only way that matters: achieving what our community wants for its students. Over the past several decades we have progressed from what I called a “Lake Woebegon” type of community - a place where Garrison Keillor might say “all the students were above average” - to a school district that consistently produces top-tier student outcomes, even while our demographics have grown in poverty and diversity to more closely resemble that of neighboring urban and suburban districts. It is through mutual sharing of lessons learned, emphasizing what works regardless of how old and traditional or how new and innovative it may seem, and persisting in that pursuit, that we can collectively achieve what matters most, so that our students gain the greatest benefits over time.
Rick Maloney
