March 19, 2024

For fifteen years I’ve attended Board meetings at several different schools with different meeting formats. Board members are usually volunteering time, usually during their business hours. And often, we’re not making good use of that time. In the past two years I’ve started to realize how much time is being spent not working in board meetings. In one example, even though we received board reports in advance of the meeting, often a quarter or more of each meeting was spent simply listening to recitations of the board report. Once the data was discussed, about halfway through a given session, the real work began—the question asking, the option generation and weighing and so on. 

Current condition

In our dynamic school landscape Boards have to develop and deploy strategy at high speed and with a minimum of extra steps or delay. Heads need to find ways to get more out of Board meetings and out of the precious time when the Board can get to the work of strategy. 

Goal

To accelerate the development of strategy at the Board level, Heads can partner with the Board to reformat Board meetings and get more done. They can also use…