In the rest of this section, we will turn to effective board functioning and culture. This begins with a robust agenda management process and effective board meetings, and ends with consideration of boardroom culture norms and behaviour.
Robust agenda management follows a fairly straight-forward chronological process:
In the rest of this section, we will turn to effective board functioning and culture. This begins with a robust agenda management process and effective board meetings, and ends with consideration of boardroom culture norms and behaviour.
Robust agenda management follows a fairly straight-forward chronological process:
Before the Meeting (Steps 1 – 5)
Board and board Committee mandates (charters, terms of reference) are established by the board, and then updated at the beginning of each governance year (November). These outline the board approved responsibilities and scope of each committee each year.
Based on these, annual work plans are drafted, mapping the responsibilities (and any objectives for this year) with the regularly scheduled meetings during the year. In this way, the Chairs, members and responsible staff can be confident in how and when each committee and the board will complete its responsibilities for the year.
Meeting agendas are then easy to draft, from the work plan and any new business items, which may be identified by staff or members.
Each agenda item should include:
- Problem statement
- Identify significance (update, information or decision?)
- State intended outcome
- Propose who is accountable on the management team
- Board/Committee package requirements
About two weeks ahead of the meeting, the board or committee Chair would usually meet with responsible staff (e.g. the Director of Education for the board; the CFO for the Audit Committee), and:
- Review the draft and finalize the agenda
- Assign time allotments
- Focus the presentations
- Confirm board/committee package expectations
- Communicate board/committee package and presentation expectations to staff or other individuals
- Co-ordinate board package distribution (usually one week ahead of the meeting)
All board members should then review and read board packages:
- Prepare questions that you plan to ask at the meeting, based on your own areas of expertise, skill, interest and affinity – where will you add value to the meeting?
- If you have fact-finding questions, you may want to ask these of the responsible staff member before the meeting, so that everyone’s time at the meeting is not spent on this. Check your communications protocol to see how board members ought to engage with staff between meetings.
Check for conflicts of interest, real or perceived, and flag these with the Chair or responsible staff as soon as you can.
At the Meeting (Step 6)
School boards hold three different types of meetings:
- Business meetings: The Education Act, 1995 and relevant regulations requires that school boards carry out their work
in public meetings using formal voting and recorded minutes.- Members of the public can be excluded from these meetings for improper conduct.
- An organizational meeting is required following elections and annually to select a chairperson and vice-chairperson and to confirm procedures.
- School boards should establish and publish regulations for delegations so that those wishing to make presentations to the board are treated consistently.
- Closed meetings: The Education Act, 1995 provides for closed or “in-camera” meetings so boards can deal with topics more appropriately discussed in private. These confidential meetings should be limited to sensitive issues relating to personnel matters, bargaining, or legal action. It is not necessary to take minutes during closed meetings, but if motions are required in relation to matters discussed in closed meetings, the motions must be made and voted on in an open business meeting.
- Planning meetings: School boards may meet for planning sessions, sometimes referred to as “committee of the whole board”. During planning sessions, the board may suspend the rules of procedure to engage in informal discussion or to meet with other groups.
The School Division Administration Regulations provides rules for the way a school board meeting must be conducted:
Voting in meetings must follow procedures prescribed by the Act:
- All questions are submitted to the board through a motion by the chairperson or any other board member and no seconder is required.
- Questions are decided by a majority of votes. The chairperson has a vote, and if there is a tie, the motion is defeated.
- If the chairperson and vice-chairperson are absent, the board members present may elect one of themselves to be chairperson for the meeting.
In addition to these, school board meetings follow commonly accepted procedures:
- The chairperson prepares the agenda, keeps the meeting on track, ensures that everyone gets equal time to speak, and ensures that meetings start and end on time.
- Decisions are made in accordance with established meeting rules. Some meeting rules are specified in The Education Act, 1995, or relevant regulations. For all others situations, boards can refer to standard rules such as Roberts’ Rules of Order.
- A recording secretary records motions and keeps an accurate record of votes.
Motions are presented in the positive, outlining action the board should take; not in the negative, stating actions the board should not take.
Asking Good Questions
If you want to be effective at meetings, master the art of posing great questions.
Questions are a staple of conversation, yet too often we see board members using far too few of them during meetings. Effective questions enable conversations, establish rapport, and better your understanding of the issues at hand. They help reduce confusion and misunderstandings, find solutions and bring clarity to deliberations.
The more thoughtful the questions, the higher the degree of respect and confidence, the higher degree of respect and confidence, the more trust there is…
The art of the question lies in knowing which questions to ask when.
Great questions should be direct and open ended so that everyone understands exactly what you want to know and it gives the responder the ability to elaborate on their ideas. Open ended questions usually begin with “why” “how” or “what” statements that lead to further exploration of the topic.
Thoughtful questions will improve engagement and trust with others, show your interest and help build up thoughts and ideas to form better solutions to complex problems.
The best meetings are full of strategically significant questions. Questions that probe the heart of the plan, not the details. They are more about the why and what than the how of things and should open dialogue on the risks and opportunities involved in the proposed solution.
And remember to listen attentively to the answer to gain a full understanding. A follow up question that builds upon the answer is a great way to further the idea and get a better solution. An easy way to build is to simply say “go on” to urge a greater depth of response, listening deeply allows you to make great follow up questions.
Here are examples of specific content questions on agenda items for you:[1]
- Describe the issue or problem we’re trying to solve?
- What are you asking us for?
- What is your recommended solution and why?
- How does this fit with our strategic plan? With our budget? With our policies?
- Why are you proposing this vs. alternatives?
- What alternatives did you reject and why?
- What are the key risks? How have these been mitigated/addressed?
- What are your key assumptions? How have you tested these?
- Who are the key stakeholders?
- What are the implications for: Student learning; Community and public; Financial; Human resources; Legal and legislative; Political environment; Reputational and social policy?
After the Meeting (Step 7)
There are still a few steps left after the meeting has ended. You will want to:
- Agree on how to deal with (and what you may or may not say) about sensitive or confidential items dealt with in closed session. Having speaking points prepared for board members is often a helpful suggestion.
- Check that a system is in place to record and diarize outstanding action items for follow up or inclusion in ongoing agendas for the board or committee. Have these been properly authorized? Resourced? Documented? Monitoring targets or milestones put in place?
- Carefully review the Minutes of the meeting: these are the formal, legal, public record of both decisions and deliberations of the board.
Boardroom Culture and Behaviour
Governance effectiveness can be viewed as the interplay among three aspects: governance structure, behaviours, and culture.
Having a good governance structure is important. Aspects like process, board functioning, compliance, oversight, control, the board’s approach to strategy, and finely tuned documentation are all significant contributors to good governance structure. An immense amount of time is invested by School Boards in ensuring a well-oiled governance machine is in place.
But governance is about more than just good structure. The competence and character of the individuals on the board, and how directors and management behave in the boardroom are just as important.
And, even deeper, lying at the very foundation of the competence, the behaviours, and the structure, lies governance culture. Understanding that underlying culture – those unwritten, often even unspoken norms upon which all else is built—is critical to governance success.
Governance culture deals with the context of the boardroom and leadership (senior management) power drivers. Every board and leadership team has a set of unspoken and unwritten norms—and this cultural context is king. These norms usually are never articulated but they exist nonetheless.
It is not a bad thing—in fact, it is both inevitable and essential—to have cultural norms: it is only a negative if those norms keep boards from being fully effective in fulfilling their governance responsibilities.
Is your governance culture healthy and adding value, or unhealthy and obstructing effectiveness? Does it need tempering or re-balancing, through dialogue, a change in leadership style from the Chair or CEO, or recruiting more diverse board members?
Cultures can—and need to—be changed: but this is a daunting task that takes perseverance, championing, and time. Understanding culture is one thing. Changing it is quite another. Real cultural change requires change at the heart or very core of the boardroom.
Ultimately a healthy boardroom culture will:
- Practice participative leadership: These boards are not “personality” driven. Board members keep their “egos” in check, while the chair draws on all members of the board—not just those he/she knows best or who speak the loudest.
- Share responsibility: There is full engagement of all board members.
- Remain aligned with purpose: Together, these boards act in the best interests of the School Board and all students—not in representative interests, and not in their own.
- Ensure a high level of communication: Communication is open and transparent, with full disclosure, no unmanaged conflicts of interest, with every board member having equal access to the same information.
- Concentrate on the task of the board: These boards concentrate their efforts on the work of the board, respecting the line between the board and management. They are able to move beyond their interest in operational tasks to School Board results, to putting students first.
- Focus on the future of the organization: These boards are firmly focused on and guided by the vision and mission of the School Board. Their focus is made clear through the lens of fact-based, historical performance, objective and clear present realities, and well-reasoned projections.
- Use the creative talents of the board and management team: Boards that have respect for the skills, experience and attributes of one another, the Director of Education and management team, coupled with a desire for innovation bring the best out of one another. This healthy interpersonal performance translates to healthy organizational performance.
- Respond rapidly to the needs of the organization: When boards are attentive to policy, risk, best practice and the right performance measures, they are better poised for a rapid response when one is called for.
You may also want to consider these eight characteristics of an effective school board:[2]
- commit to a vision of high expectations for student achievement and quality instruction and define clear goals toward that vision.
- have strong shared beliefs and values about what is possible for students and their ability to learn, and of the system and its ability to teach all children at high levels.
- are accountability driven, spending less time on operational issues and more time focused on policies to improve student achievement.
- have a collaborative relationship with staff and the community and establish a strong communications structure to inform and engage both internal and external stakeholders in setting and achieving district goals.
- are data savvy; they embrace and monitor data, even when the information is negative, and use it to drive continuous improvement.
- align and sustain resources, such as professional development, to meet district goals.
- lead as a united team with the superintendent, each from their respective roles, with strong collaboration and mutual trust.
- take part in team development and training, sometimes with their superintendents, to build shared knowledge, values and commitments for their improvement efforts.