Transcript Board Business or Staff Business?

Board Business or
Staff Business?
An Agenda That Works
Good Morning. Please read the American
School Board Journal “Adviser” (handout)
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Your Turn
For the “Advisor”
article…
What’s the best
course of action
for the board?
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Agenda
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A ‘short course’ in governance
What’s wrong with board meetings?
What is board business? Staff business?
What would a ‘board’ agenda look like?
How do we make the change?
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What Governance Is
Board exercises owner authority - listens to community
A
community
of ‘owners’
selects
representatives
Board acts as one
Board hires CEO
CEO ‘runs’ organization
Board ‘stands in’ for ‘owners’
Board-staff relationship: command
Board exercises command
and ‘speaks’ via policy
Board monitors and evaluates results and compliance with policy
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The Appearance of Governance
District informs community
‘Stakeholder’
groups
elect
proxies
Board members act independently
CEO is already hired
Organization is
already in-place
Board allegiance to interest groups
Board-staff relationship: advice
Staff recommends, &
Board takes part in
management decisions,
but portrays them as
board decisions
Board monitors and evaluates the CEO’s actions & attributes
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Terms and Concepts
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Owner vs. Customer (and Stakeholder)
Speaking with One Voice
Management vs. Governance
Ends vs. Means
Proscribe vs. Prescribe
steps
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Management
Dollar Driven
vs.
Governance
Owner Driven
CEO
$
$
$
$
$ $
$
Board
$ vs Owner
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Your Organization
Governance
Owners
Board
CEO
Management
Staff
Customers
Owner vs customer
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Your Turn
From your
perspective…
What’s wrong
with board
meetings?
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Let’s Talk
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Some Problems With
Meetings
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Time Not enough (compared w/staff)
Priorities Whose? Misplaced Unfocussed
Relevance Pareto Urgent Trivial
Staff Prep agenda Staff focus Bd react
Public Politics Problem solving
Board Members Input Discipline
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Agendas We’ve Seen
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Call to Order/Flag Salute
Approval of Minutes
Consent Agenda – Hiring, Resignations, Voucher Approval
Special People – Recognition
Reports
Old Business
Most Meeting Time
New Business
Announcements
Adjourn
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Agendas We’ve Seen
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Call to Order/Flag Salute
Approval of Minutes
Consent Agenda – Hiring, Resignations, Voucher Approval
Special People – Recognition
Reports
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Old Business
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3.
4.
Most Meeting Time
New Business
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1.
2.
4.
5.
Announcements – Board End-of-year Reception
Adjourn
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Agendas We’ve Seen
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Call to Order/Flag Salute
Approval of Minutes
Consent Agenda – Hiring, Resignations, Voucher Approval
Special People – Recognition
Reports
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New Business
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1. DECA Business Club
2. Host School Report
3. Affirmative Action Report
1. Course Approval
Announcements
Adjourn
Board Initiative
Staff Initiative
Legal Mandate
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Agendas We’ve Seen
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Call to Order/Flag Salute
Approval of Minutes
Consent Agenda – Hiring, Resignations, Voucher Approval
Special People – Recognition
Reports
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New Business
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1. CEO’s Conference
2. New Principal Evaluation Form
3. Budget Status
4. Facilities Use Agreement
5. Food Services Contract
6. Textbook Adoptions
7. Salary Schedules
Announcements
Adjourn
Board Initiative
Staff Initiative
Legal Mandate
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Your Turn
From your perspective…
What is
“board business”?
and what is
“staff business”?
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Let’s Talk
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Board Business
Set direction for the organization
 Monitor organization performance
 Concerned with WHAT…
…is to be accomplished:
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 Academic
achievement
 Character
 Citizenship
END
RESULTS
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Staff Business
Achieve results
 Follow policy
 Concerned with HOW…to get the
organization where it must go:
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 Curriculum/Instruction
 Schedules
 Bus
routes
 Facility constr/maint
MEANS
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Definition of Board Business
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Identify desired results
ENDS the organization should achieve
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Monitor for results
Set policy (LIMIT STAFF MEANS)
Monitor for compliance with policy
Link with the owners
Board development
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Definition of Staff Business
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Means – Anything that isn’t an End Result
HOW the organization achieves its ENDS
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Means – ‘freedom with limitations’
Means must comply with limits set in policy
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Do Ends justify the Means?
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YES…define Means success – ENDS achievement
NO…POLICY identifies unacceptable Means
Any reasonable interpretation of policy is acceptable
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Ends/Means Distinction
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Ends identify results for beneficiaries
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What good…for Whom (at what Cost)
“All Students will achieve level 3 on the state test”
“All Students will demonstrate successful job skills”
BOARDS prioritize (obsess on) ENDS
Means are everything else
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“organization budget will maintain 5% reserve”
“Instruction will not deviate from adopted curriculum”
“Transportation costs will not exceed state-funded
amounts by more than 15%”
BOARDS only set boundaries on STAFF MEANS
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Focus on Board Business
Agenda prepared by staff can
reasonably be expected to orient on
Staff business
 An Agenda prepared by the Board
should be expected to orient on
Board business
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Your Turn
If the board
prepared its own
agenda…
What would it
look like?
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Let’s Talk
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Preparing the Board Agenda
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How can the board prepare its agenda?
After all…
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Limit the board’s scope
Expand the board’s vision
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Part-time board, full-time staff
State-mandated agenda items
Annual (and longer-range) time frame
Each meeting – follow annual agenda
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Annual Agenda
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An Agenda a Board can plan
Plan Monitoring of Ends/Means
Plan Linkage with the owners
Plan Policy Review
Policies that guide staff – ENDS, EXEC LIMITS
 Policies that guide board – GP, B/SR
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Annual Agenda
Board
Bd/CEO Rel
Ends
Limits
July
1,2,3,4
2
August
8
1,3,4,7,8
September
11
9,10
October
November
2
13
13,14
December
1,2,3,4
January
5
11,12
February
17
March
5,6,7
April
12
May
9,10
June
18
3
5,16
1
5
15
6
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Annual Agenda
Linkage
Board Development
July
August
CEO Contract
w/ Citizen Assn
Board Retreat
September
October
Other
Staff Day
Ends
November
State Conference
December
January
Citizenship
February
w/ Students
March
w/ City Council
April
May
June
National Conference
w/ Businesses
Awards Dinner
Graduation
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Strategy for Board Meetings
That do the Board’s Business
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Use time to maximum advantage
Obligations
1.
2.
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Means
3.
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Represent the Ownership
Accountability to the Ownership
Policy – for #1 and #2
How do meetings address these 3?
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Strategy for Board Meetings
That do the Board’s Business
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Owners – The real boss
Board ‘stands in’ for owners
 Listens to the owners
 A board is only a board when it meets
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Accountability – Monitoring
“Organization does things the boss checks”
 Monitor data as called for in policy
 “Don’t ask how things are going until
you’ve said how things ought to be”
 Evaluate data against criteria for success
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Strategy for Board Meetings
That do the Board’s Business
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Policy – Board’s Means – Gives direction
Directs the CEO thru policy
 Directs staff thru the CEO
 Expectations
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Achieve policy result
 Comply with policy boundaries
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Board gives as much guidance as needed
– and not one word more
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Board-Controlled vs
Staff-Controlled
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Agenda Prepared by the Staff
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Approval to repair a roof
Accept bids on a school remodel
Budget review and approval
Agenda Prepared by the Board
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How are students performing?
What do ‘owners’ (taxpayers) think of our schools?
Does the curriculum need to change due to advances
in technology? (re: The World is Flat)
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Board Meeting Agendas
Before PG
Random Q & A
After PG
Monitoring / Linkage / Ends Development
Structured Q & A
Consent Agenda
(Issues #1 to #12)
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More time on key issues
More time discussing owner’s opinions
Improved focus on CEO monitoring reports
GP 8
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Agenda Prepared by Board
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Call to Order/Flag Salute
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Assurance of Organizational Performance
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5. Joint Meeting with City Council – E-3 Citizenship/Character
Policy Review
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1. CEO Update
2. Ends Monitoring – E-3 Citizenship/Character
3. Board Response to Monitoring – EL-17
4. Board Self-Monitoring – GP-3
ownership Linkage
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Approval of Minutes
Announcements/Comments
Consent Agenda
6. Governing Style – GP-2
Announcements
Adjourn
Board Initiative
Staff Initiative
Legal Mandate
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Your Turn
If we want our board
meetings to focus on
“board business”…
How do we
make the
change?
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Let’s Talk
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Policy Governance (PG)
A strategy for accomplishing board
business by prioritizing board
time/effort
 PG distinguishes board business from
staff business
 PG principles support the board doing
board business by systematically
NOT doing staff business
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PG: Board’s Purpose
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The Board stands in for ‘owners’
 It’s
primary linkage is with ‘owners’ (not
staff)
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In meetings…
Board links with ‘owners’ to learn
their values and priorities
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PG: Governing Style
The Board speaks with one voice
 The Board directs only through policy
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In meetings…
Board acts by voting on policies –
Board majority ‘speaks’ via policy
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PG: Board SelfAssessment
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The Board evaluates whether it
complies with its own governance
process policies
In meetings…
Board assesses its own performance
at the end of each meeting
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PG: Board Job Description
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The job of the Board is to ensure the
organization achieves what it should
and avoids doing what is
unacceptable
In meetings…
Board does its job by linking with the
ownership, setting policy, and
monitoring to ensure performance
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PG: Monitoring Performance
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The Board monitors organization
performance: achievement of ends
written in policy, and compliance with
policy limitations
In meetings…
Board monitors organization
performance and compares data
against policy criteria
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PG: The Chair’s Role
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Chair is responsible for ensuring the
Board follows its own policies
In meetings…
Chair ensures the Board follows its
agenda
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PG: Agenda Planning
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Contents of Board’s annual agenda:
Linkages – Listen to the owners
 Monitoring – Judge organization performance
 Policy Review – Entire set reviewed each year
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In meetings…
Parts of meetings – planned linkages,
scheduled monitoring, and policy review
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PG: Annual Board Agenda
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Besides Linkage/Monitoring/Policy
 Board
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development
In meetings…
Board schedules opportunities to
inform its members and to improve
its capacity to govern
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PG: Monitoring
Documents
Report of ends achievement…
 Report of means compliance…
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 …based
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on criteria written in policy
In meetings…
Board judges achievement/
compliance and prepares written
responses that build an annual
evaluation of the organization
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PG: Board Member
Conduct
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Guided by Governance Process
policies
In meetings…
Chair is responsible for compliance,
and is assessed at the end of each
meeting
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PG: CEO Evaluation
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The Board monitors organization (CEO)
performance data against written policy
criteria
The only measurement of success:
Did the organization achieve desired Ends?
 Did the organization comply with Executive
Limitations?
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In meetings…
Valuable board-CEO performance
discussion is extensive and lasts all year
long
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Policy Governance
Ensuring Effective Meetings
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Time – More time for board business
Priorities – On board’s work
Relevance – What boards can do
Staff – Focus on responding
Public – Is represented & consulted
Board Members – Do what they are
capable of doing
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Board Meetings: Board Business
Old:
 Link with staff
 Receive staff reports
 Approve staff work
 Agenda prepared by
staff, ad hoc items
added by board
New:
 Link with ‘owners’
 Monitor performance
 Revise policies
 Agenda prep by
board in annual plan
and written in policy
Q: “What’s going on?”
Q: “What’s
important?”
or “How did we do?”
Strategic
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In Summary
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By taking control of the board agenda,
you spend the board’s meeting time on
board business, and…
…you produce an agenda that WORKS
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Take Another Look
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ASBJ Adviser
Board Business…
…or Staff Business?
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Questions?
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Policy Governance Associates
 Bob

Hughes & Rick Maloney
Website:
 http://www.policygov.com
 Slides/Handouts/Reference

Material
Email:
 [email protected]
 [email protected]
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