I recently got to be a part of a meeting of APS principals as they began to think about the structure of the local governance bodies that would be in place as the Atlanta Public Schools moves towards applying to become a “charter system”. The principals were grappling with questions about what the size of the governing body should be, what the composition should look like, and what role the school principal should play on the body. As I listened to them weigh the pros and cons of different approaches, I thought about the fact that ANCS—and most other charter schools—have been living out the experience of local school governance for many years and have lessons that we’ve learned that might be applicable and helpful as these schools start down a similar path. From my own experience, here are a few points I think are key to getting local school governance right:
The governing body must focus on governance and let the school leader focus on running the school—but that’s easier said than done. In my eight years at ANCS, I’ve been fortunate to work with some tremendously talented and thoughtful board members. In the past few years especially, as our school has matured, the board has been committed to focusing its time and attention on matters of governance while allowing me and our principals to take the lead on running the school. But it takes regular and open discussion of where that line falls. The graphic below gives a good indication of where we try to make the distinction between governance and management for the ANCS board:
Clearly, there’s lots of room for interpretation within these areas. There are times when I may disagree with some members of our board and vice versa about whether an issue is more within the board’s purview or mine. But for the past two years we’ve used a simple but useful practice at the end of each board meeting of discussing as a group the question “Did our meeting discussion stay within the bounds of governance?” This conversation has helped us to move closer to consensus about where the line falls, and I appreciate our board’s willingness to engage in this dialogue each month.
The board chair and school leader have to work closely together. I’ve seen some schools where the school leader and board chair operate according to their own separate agendas, others where the school leader basically runs the board meetings, and still others where the board chair is seen as the “boss” of the school leader. In my view, none of these approaches sets a school up for effective local governance. The board chair and school leader have to work together as partners to manage the board and its business. Again, this doesn’t mean the board chair and school leader will always agree on what the board should focus on or how it should go about its business, but they have to willingly engage in honest and collaborative conversations about both. At its best, the board chair and school leader see the running of the board (or whatever the local governing body is called) as their shared responsibility, not one person’s more than the other’s.
As your school changes, the needs for your governing body should change too. Our board is currently in the process of recruiting new board members, and we are strongly considering what role non-parent community members might play with our board. This isn’t because we want to move away from having a majority parent governing board—we don’t—but because as we’ve developed more sustainable processes and a demonstrated record of success as a school, the board’s focus now should be different than it was several years ago. We’ve been working with a well-respected charter school governance support organization called Board on Track, and the graphic below represents what their experience has shown as the ideal evolution of a charter school governing board:
Thinking more strategically about the long-term success of the school requires having skills and perspectives that can come from individuals who can see beyond the time when their own students are in the school. Getting the right mix of people is something our board will be thoughtfully assessing over the next several months.
Unless you’ve served on the ANCS board, I’m not sure anyone can fully appreciate all the considerations the members of our board must make to carry out the work of the board in crafting policies that impact over 600 students and over 90 employees and overseeing a $7 million budget. It’s not usually easy and it can sometimes be messy, but they are all working to make sure that our governance practices are ones that will allow us to be a successful school led by skilled principals, teachers, and staff.