How to Improve Your Charter School Governing Board...One Month at a Time

 

One of the critical roles of a board is to strengthen their own governance practices (Download your roles and responsibilities cheat sheet below).

I believe that to be effective, boards should schedule, as part of their agenda, 15-30 minutes each month for getting better as a team. Here are 12 exercises to strengthen your board's governance practices, one for each month of the year. 

Download Your Governance Strengthening Exercises

Your Most Important Board Meeting: The Annual Retreat


 

This lesson will cover what I believe to be the most important board meeting of the year, the annual meeting!

I cover the six questions to organizational clarity that I utilize to lead this meeting and create clarity in the organization's mission, vision and everyones' role to the goal! 

Be sure to download your Roles and Responsibilities Cheat Sheet, Six Questions and Annual retreat packet using the button below the video.

Download Your Retreat Packet
Go to the Next Exercise

How to Develop and Lead Purposeful and Effective Board Meetings


 

The board should be focused on WHAT REALLY MATTERS! The information presented and discussed should directly align with the goals of the organization as a whole. If it doesn’t inform the board on WHAT REALLY MATTERS and support the board in achieving the organization goals…It should not be discussed in the board meeting.  This video and resource will share how to ensure each board meeting is focused on the most important issues and leads to effective action and oversight.


Go to the Next Exercise

How to Establish Clear Roles and Responsibilities


 

To support board members' understanding of Governance vs. Management, develop a document that clearly defines the separate roles of a lead administrator and board members when it comes to the learning organization.

Articulate and develop a document depicting the job description and role of the head of school, board members and officers of the board. 

Use the criterion to develop/bolster the tool for evaluating the school’s lead administrator and each board member’s effectiveness.

Establish and adopt as policy; Performance Expectations for Individual Board Members, including clear roles and responsibilities which should be signed by each incoming board member. Use this document to develop a board self-evaluation tool. 

Download Your Roles and Responsibilities Resources
Go to the Next Exercise

How to Create Effective Standing Committees 


 

Effective standing committees are crucial to a board’s overall success. They complete the majority of the board’s work, freeing the full board for attention to matters like responding to emerging critical issues, strategic planning, major policy development and long range financial planning. This video will talk about the key committees you should adopt and how to structure them in a healthy way that creates action towards excellence. Download our Governance Structure e-Book and other committee resources on the button below.

Download Your Board Structure e-Book
Go to the Next Exercise

Five Budgeting Strategies for Charter School Fiscal Success and Oversight


 

Budgets are plans that help you to prioritize where your money should be spent. By building a budget, it minimizes frivolous spending and creates a uniformed plan that everyone should follow. Public charter schools receive millions of dollars annually in public taxpayer money. Since we know that the number one cause of charter school closings is based on fiscal mismanagement, I want to share with you five strategies for fiscal success in charter schools.

Download Your 5 Tips Document