Board Governance Manual

Title

Contents

Preface

Advancing the educational outcomes of children requires that board members arrive at the table with a passionate, focused and shared purpose.

Board members must act as elected community leaders who have accepted a trusteeship role to govern on behalf of the electorate.

Boards must build a strong and independent governance structure if they intend to add value to the organization and earn the trust of their constituency.

The basic tenets of effective governance require that the board regularly clarifies who it represents, the purpose of its existence and its undisputed role and responsibilities.

Board members must bring conceptual, planning and organizational skills to the table along with a mastery of collaborative and consensus building perspective.

Boards must nurture and embrace a broad spectra of informed perspective as they advance the planning and decision making process.

Boards become credible when the exhibit the capacity to interactively communicate at all stratum and recognize the contributions that each individual brings to the organization.

Boards must focus on planning and improvement initiatives that advances their vision while rigorously monitoring progress toward targeted student outcomes and creating effective and meaningful employee accountability.

The governing body must also provide an impetus that fosters creativity, innovation, efficiencies and increased organizational effectiveness.

At the end of the day, the success of any school board must be measured by their contributions toward advancing the educational outcomes of children.

The structure upon which boards execute their responsibilities is a dynamic policy development and refinement process.

At one time, people thought of being on the board as a form of community service. Today, people are more apt to seek a board position because they intend to make a difference.

Headlines of business failures over the past several months validate that the public is not well served when boards fail to do their jobs. The lesson is clear, boards which may be selected, controlled or lead by management do not represent the owners well. Effective boards differentiate their responsibilities from that of management and recognize that board leadership is an internal board function.

Effective boards have well defined roles and responsibilities, retain administrators that share similar philosophies and delegate unto them as much operational authority as can be agreed upon and rigorously hold them accountable for results.

Boards should not focus valuable meeting time on operational activities, details and procedures which add little value to the organization.

This manual upon refinement and adoption can serve as a succinct description of the boards role and responsibilities and a clarification of authority which it chooses to delegate to management and the authority it intends to retain for itself.

This publication is intended to further improve board effectiveness through the encouragement of board leadership development, vision enhancement, organizational structure, operational guidelines and agenda planning.

D. L. Amundson, April 2002

Board Academic Beliefs

The Board firmly believes that it must:
* Focus the largest segment of its time and energy on improving opportunities for all children to experience educational success and to be challenged to achieve toward their potential.
* Advance initiatives that engage parents as important partners in the education of elementary children.
* Advocate processes that will assure that students are grounded and competent in the core knowledge and skills identified for mastery at each grade level.
* Promote a motivating climate in each of our buildings which is conducive to academic pursuit.
* Pursue a level of emphasis and recognition of academic excellence that rivals non-academic initiatives.
* Rigorously identify and address factors within the educational environment that contributes to children put at risk.
* Develop a reputation for pursuing an intellectual climate in our schools and boardroom which values core curriculum content and application.
* Face fiscal, academic and social challenges as opportunities to consider creative ways to improve student learning.
* Encourage and support initiatives that foster curiosity, creativity, independent thinking and leadership development in our students.
* Emphasize that meeting the needs of children is a higher priority than institutional considerations.

Board Beliefs About Community

The Board believes that:
* The family and local community are important influences on the development of the child.
* Parents should be integrally involved as co-educators of their young children.
* Community trust is built when interactive communication exists between board and community on issues of educational concern. The Board further believes that communications between itself and all citizens must exist free of
any fear of reprisal, threat or intimidation. A low tolerance will be exhibited for any violation of this principle.
* Conflict resolution of educational concerns is usually best resolved at the source of contention and that procedures exist to address concerns which require expanded involvement. It is the boards intent to remove itself from
conflict resolution issues to the greatest degree possible.
* Any future district initiatives which may impact on a segment of the community, its parents and children shall be constructed in such a way as to assure that appropriate opportunities for affected parties shall exist to have a
voice before decisions are made.
* The community should and does have high expectations of its schools.
* The Board is ultimately held responsible for the districts actions and decisions whether delegated or not.
* Enhanced utilization of our facilities as community learning centers should be encouraged.
* New ways of encouraging community volunteerism in our schools should be supported and explored.

Board Governance Beliefs

School boards are designated representatives of the state elected to serve in a trusteeship role to govern on behalf of the electorate. School board members represent parents, students and other community and are authorized to do all
things legal and reasonable to promote the cause of education.

The board in essence exists to exercise the owners authority by providing direction, definition and accountability to the organizations function of education the districts children.

The Board believes it must:
* Be committed to a governance process which shall have an unwavering focus on advancing student achievement and success that is measured by a multiple of indicators.
* Exhibit initiative, display courage, act unconventionally and unapologetically in encouraging creativity and innovation that leads to improved student outcomes.
* Be focused on the value it can add to the district by exercising its authority at the strategic planning, policy, oversight, assessment and fiscal level.
* Refrain from involvement in operational detail and avoid lists of activities in its job description which sabotage and diminish the governance process.
* Attempt to delegate as much managerial and operational authority to administration as can be agreed upon so as to free up the board to improve its performance, effectiveness and contributions to the district.
* Work toward an organizational environment that shares a unity of purpose and values trust, honesty and openness.
* Encourage and embrace a broad spectrum of informed perspective and alternative considerations into the decision making process.
* Subscribe to the belief that the depth of its debate and its capacity to reach consensus is a better measure of its effectiveness than the unanimity of its votes.
* Accept the responsibility of creating and annually defining a contemporary foundation of beliefs, principles and structure from which to guide and enhance the performance and effectiveness of the districts objectives. ( i.e.
the creation, refinement and adoption of a board governance manual)