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BOARD-SAVVY SUPERINTENDENT

I learned some hard lessons working with school boards as a superintendent. Prominent among them was inviting persistent issues to resurface due to my failure to persuade my boards to adopt formal governance structures and processes to guide our work.

As a result, my annual evaluation was more dependent on the board’s current mood, instead of a coherent function of our purposeful, authentic and continuous interaction based on our shared and agreed understanding of my role and theirs.

The absence of formal governance structures relegates us to operate in the ambiguity of grey areas that expose governance teams to conflict and a weakened bond between a school board and superintendent.

I’ve captured three missteps for governance teams to avoid.