Healthy Boundaries Make for Good Governance: So Why Is It So Difficult Sometimes

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Healthy Boundaries Make for Good Governance So
Why Is It So Difficult Sometimes?

• Marc T. Frankel, Ph.D.
• Senior Consultant

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www.ta-stl.com

• Slides are online at

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Sources of Incendiary Material Bases of Power
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Four Paradoxes of School Governance

• Those most likely to serve (parents of current
  students) are also those most likely to sweat the
  small stuff.
• Business leaders on the board may (surprise!)
  insist that the school run like a business.
• Board members are recruited for a specific area
  of expertise and then become single-issue
  trustees.
• Too often, the board consists of a lot of very
  smart, highly educated, and extremely successful
  people who, collectively, fail to add much value
  to the school.

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Governance Boundary Crossings

• ...by the Board e.g., micromanaging or bullying
  the head or misreading the culture of schools
• by Parents/Alumni e.g., assuming a stockholder
  posture politicizing demands the telephone
  call to the trustee All the parents (or alumni)
  think.
• To Avoid The e-mail caucus
• New banner policy for schools Having your
  say does not equal getting your way.
• Parental Signed Covenants and Parents on
  Probation
• by the Head e.g., free-lancing on policy or
  getting out too far in front of the troops You
  must always cultivate the favor of the
  inhabitants. Machiavelli
• by the Faculty e.g., subverting administrative
  or board policies, undermining collegiality, or
  ignoring the quid pro quo with parents.

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Three Levels of Trusteeshipfrom Richard Chait

• Level One Fiduciary (oversight and assessment of
  mission finance)
• Level Two Strategic (less management/more
  governance via scanning and planning)
• Level Three Generative (shared leadership, RD
  orientation for imagining and experimenting).

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What the Board Should Do

• Focus on what matters most.

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The Bottom Line

• A board or committee without a focus is a
  dangerous thing to have.

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6 Board Conversations

• GlobalizationWhat sort of K-12 education is
  advantageous for students living in the global
  future? (flat world or tribal warfare)
• DemographyHow will likely demographic changes
  affect our community in 5, 10 and 20 years?
  (demography geography)
• TalentWho will teach and how will the best
  schools find and retain them? (Many workers,
  little talent)
• EconomicsWhat strategies prepare you for
  continuous turbulence? (scenario planning)
• Market SegmentationWho will buy and why?
  (MindBase)
• TechnologyWhat are the world-class examples of
  how to use technology to transform teaching and
  learning? (classroom unfixed)

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An Analysis

• The problem board conversations too frequently
  descend into the weeds, drawn there by members
  questions and stories from the field.
• The solution build board agendas around
  essential topics forego committee reports
  reduce frequency of meetings monitor tenor of
  the conversation (e.g., have we deliberated in
  all three modes tonight?)

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