As Board President or Chair of the Committee on Trustees, consider a periodic review of your school’s charter as a matter of due diligence. Many leaders assume that, once their school has been incorporated, there is never anything else to think about in that regard. If you are fortunate, that may be true.
But it may not.
A school becomes a legal entity when its charter is accepted by the appropriate government agency for filing. This fundamental document, also known—depending on the state—as a Certificate of Incorporation or Articles of Incorporation, sets forth the purpose of the corporation. Traditionally, this document defines, limits, and regulates the powers of the school, its Board of Trustees, and its officers.
Planning Your Annual Summer Board Retreat
Your Board of Trustees experiences little “down time,” constantly dealing with challenging issues, from Head evaluation and donor cultivation to crisis management and policy setting. The Board can easily lose sight of its primary responsibility—to uphold the essential character and integrity of the school, and to ensure that your school remains viable to serve the children of today’s students. The annual summer Board retreat provides time for a devoted effort for planning.
To make your current process more effective, ask and answer the following nine key questions to guide your thinking.
The Board’s Fiduciary Responsibility: The Audit Committee and the Finance Committee
We often hear the phrase “the Board has fiduciary responsibility.” This phrase merely means that each Board member has the legal responsibility to act solely in the best interests of the school they serve. To facilitate good fiscal stewardship, ISM recommends two finance-oriented committees to assist the Board in this crucial area: the Finance Committee and the Audit Committee. Let’s explore the roles of the two committees.
Facility Design and Strategic Planning
School Heads and Boards of Trustees must pay attention to both the operational and strategic elements of facility planning and design. Facilities might more typically be thought of as operational—while the Board approves the development of new facilities and engages the designer, the school works with the designer to establish needs and solutions. However, both you as School Head and your strategic partner the Board President might take a closer look at this process, which needs more integration than this simple separation of roles assumes.
The Board’s Education Committee: Justifiable?
As Board President, you are aware that a perennial question discussed by school leaders is the “validation” of a school’s student programs: curriculum, cocurriculum, pedagogy, vertical alignment, and other components in a private-independent school’s mission-delivery system. After all, any school’s mission has its strongest impact in classrooms and on playing fields.
How to Prepare for a Financial Crisis
Considering our fragile national economy, it’s prudent to include a financial contingency plan for your school’s worst-case scenario in your strategic planning documents. While each school’s particular situation determines the plan’s specific details, there are common characteristics each private school should include. As Board President, charge an ad hoc committee to craft your plan. ISM suggests the following example for inclusion in your document.
School Choice Programs in Private Schools
In a previous issue of The Source for Trustees, we discussed the caveats of private school vouchers. Further research supports ISM’s position—that private schools should not look to government vouchers to balance their budgets or address enrollment issues.
How to Write Great Action Minutes
Action minutes are a good habit to get into not only for Board sessions, but for all kinds of meetings—committee, management, faculty. Effective action minutes serve as a “to do” list. They define the task and who will carry it out, set a deadline, and include any pertinent suggestions for strategy—without stifling the individual’s or committee’s initiative. Consider the impact an action minute has in the following situations.
What the Contract Said
A family at the Montessori Children’s House of Durham (NC) had enrolled their daughter for first and second grade, but wavered on having her attend third grade. The parents were concerned about class size and the teacher time students received. The family eventually re-enrolled the girl, signing a tuition agreement that required the family to pay $12,610 in tuition for the upcoming school year.
Your Summer New-Trustee Orientation and Planning Session
As Board President or Chair of the Committee on Trustees (COT), you work to refine your Board’s structure and function. Consider the advantages of a summer retreat that combines your new-Trustee orientation with development of the coming year’s work plan. Holding your orientation session on a Friday evening allows your new Trustees to hit the ground running on Saturday morning—when your full Board reviews and finalizes its annual Board agenda, its Board meeting calendar, its committee structure, and its committee charges. This can become the centerpiece of your Board’s organizational cycle—an exciting, time-and-energy-efficient culmination of one year’s work and launch of the next.