Some private schools today, looking for ways to alleviate budget demands, have turned to government vouchers to supplement tuitions. The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice found that Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin are currently the top states in which private schools are accepting vouchers; 27 states have some variation of vouchers. Catholic schools serving inner-city and low-income neighborhoods comprise most of private schools participating in voucher programs.
Board-Level Diversity
Start your school’s diversity efforts at the Board level. Here, diversity can be addressed without the kind of direct costs usually associated with achieving socioeconomic or socioethnic diversity in your student body, or diversity in your administration, faculty, and staff. As Board President, your starting point is in your planning document, every iteration of which should call for a Board profile to be developed to fit the strategic or long range plan. Open the way for a Board discussion of diversity, even for a broad topic like “Increase the socioeconomic and socioethnic diversity on the Board of Trustees.”
The End of School Leadership
In The End of Leadership,1 Barbara Kellerman writes, “Leaders of every sort are in disrepute … we don’t have much better an idea of how to grow good leaders, or of how to stop or at least slow bad leaders, than we did a hundred or even a thousand years ago … that followers are becoming on the one hand disappointed and disillusioned, and on the other entitled, emboldened, and empowered.” She continues, “When everyone is exposed to the point of being vulnerable—no matter their status or station—the gap between leaders and followers shrinks to near the vanishing point.”
Emerging Technologies in Schools
Private-independent schools must always consider how technology can be best used in the classroom. Your Board, controlling the purse strings through the strategic financial plan, must be mindful of the school’s needs concerning emerging technologies.In a competitive landscape, parents often consider how a school integrates computers and other learning technologies for their children. You don’t want your school to be perceived as “antiquated.”
The Importance of Attending Board Meetings
As a Trustee, you are expected to carry out your due diligence roles—particularly when it comes to Board meetings. In your service to the school, your participation in Board functions is imperative. The Board acts as an entity, not as a collection of individuals. Your attendance and participation are vital to the success of the Board and its actions.
Revisit Your Bylaws: How Strategic Are They?
Successful Boards of Trustees govern from an intentional strategic perspective—i.e., focused consistently on multiyear financial viability and long-term organizational excellence. But many of those same Boards neglect to update their bylaws, which often remain relics from a distant bureaucratic past. The following article provides discussion and examples of the kinds of updates and modifications that you, as Board President or Chair of the Committee on Trustees, might consider.
This discussion and its examples are illustrative only. Involve your school’s attorney before adopting any bylaw changes.
The Board of Trustees’ Role in Your Annual Fund
The Board of Trustees is the champion of all your fundraising efforts, through their leadership roles in campaigns as well as their own financial support. As a development professional, School Head, or volunteer development leader, you know that the annual fund is one of your most important fundraising programs, providing the platform for developing a culture of philanthropy at your school. Trustees are the school’s volunteer leaders and fiduciary stewards, and therefore play a pivotal role in ensuring that your annual campaign achieves its goals.
Board Confidentiality: A Cautionary Note
As Board President, if you have not experienced the frustration of leaks of information about sensitive matters, your situation is rare. Probably, you are already familiar with the sinking feeling of discovering that a delicate Board discussion has become general knowledge among either students or parents, perhaps within 24 hours.
The Committee on Trustees and Supportiveness
The Committee on Trustees (COT) continues its critical task of ensuring the Board is well-staffed and can deliver on your school’s strategic plan/strategic financial plan by monitoring the committee process. Without this monitoring function, the committees may not carry out their charges effectively and thus would render the Board unable to take effective action. The Board Committee Support and Accountability Instrument (Tool Four in our series) provides a format that helps to both define and limit the COT’s task.* The following illustrates those parameters for the COT Chair.
Indicators of School Crime and Safety for 2015 Boards
In July, the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) released its annual report, "Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2014." The report includes research on bullying and cyber-bullying, weapons on school property, victimization, teacher injury, and other crime and safety-related topics—all of which should be priorities for the Board to anticipate and address.