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Charter School Institute
Main Line: 303-866-3299
Fax Line: 303-866-2530
Email: csi_info@csi.state.co.us
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CSI School Board Newsletter
Summer 2018
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Dear School Board Members,
The end of the school year has arrived, and the official first day of summer is quickly approaching. It’s always surprising when you look back at the year and realize how much work was accomplished and how many challenges were overcome, not to mention how quickly it all came and went. With the arrival of summer, both school leaders and boards of directors can and should take a deeper look at their leadership and governance practices to determine what is working and what improvements need to made. CSI's School Support Liaison
John Brendza
has put together five summer practices, along with resources compiled by CSI Director of Legal & Policy Initiatives
Trish Krajniak
, that will help your board start the coming school year off right.
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Five Summer Practices for Charter School Boards
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Evaluate your performance
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There is never a shortage of tasks to get done in leading successful charter schools, but a good starting point is to review the performance of your school leader and the performance of the board of directors.
As the board, you are legally required (
per Colorado SB 191
) to evaluate your head of school annually, and you have a responsibility to give your school leader feedback on his or her performance. Each school board decides what process and format to use, but in the end, you should be able to identify the areas your leader performed well that you'd like them to continue, and what areas you would like to see improvement. If you’ve already completed your school leader’s evaluation, awesome. If not, set the goal to have it accomplished before June 30, 2018.
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Reminder:
Even if your school has a waiver from the state model evaluation system (which you probably do), your school leader evaluation should meet the
intent
of SB 191. Meaning, half of your school leader evaluation should be tied directly to student learning and outcomes over time.
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For boards of directors, this is also a great time to complete an annual evaluation of how well your board performed this year. Be sure to evaluate how the board conducts its business practices and governance responsibilities as well as the performance of members. This can become challenging, but there are resources available for boards from the Colorado League of Charter Schools and CSI that you can use to evaluate your work as a legal governing body. In addition to board self-evaluations, make use of the feedback mechanisms that already exist at your schools. If you have a parent satisfaction survey, include questions to get at perceptions about the boards effectiveness through the eyes of your constituents. It never hurts to know what your parents are thinking regarding your leadership.
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Identify your strategic priorities
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The summer is a great time to consider the direction the board intends to take next school year. Simply put, “strategic priorities” are those goals the board set out to reach annually. The process of setting strategic priorities will include identifying goals for both the board and school leader.
If you have (or are developing) a strategic plan, then you are well positioned to move forward. Spend time reviewing that plan and the progress you’ve made to achieve your goals this year. Consider what still needs to be accomplished and who is responsible, and use that as your foundation for planning next year. Set your timeline for managing the steps to achieve your goals, and clearly identify and communicate what your school leader will be responsible for completing.
If you do not yet have a strategic plan, then take the time to create a plan for next year. Focus your efforts on the most critical needs of the school and be sure that your leader is clear on what you expect them to accomplish. Your goals should at a minimum focus on the school’s financial health, student performance, and operational efficiencies. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Connect with your school leader to understand the academic goals they are setting within the Unified Improvement Plan (UIP) for the coming year. If the board knows what their strategic priorities are for the coming year, you can focus your energy on governing and monitoring progress to accomplish your goals.
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Reminders and Tips
Your strategic plan should be written in alignment with your school’s mission and vision. When developing your strategic plan priorities, be sure to review your most recent CARS (CSI Annual Review of School) report and UIP to ensure that you are addressing the most critical issues.
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Develop your annual board calendar
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Knowing what topics will be discussed each month can greatly improve the overall effectiveness of charter school boards. To do this, begin by reviewing this past school year’s board calendar, then determine what key agenda items recur annually in a specific month. For example, the board should expect to receive a comprehensive report on the results of your student performance on state assessments early in the fall. Knowing that the state releases these to school leaders (generally) in August, the board should expect a report in September. Another example would be the development of the school budget. Most charter school boards begin the process mid-year. By having this identified as an ongoing annual topic to be discussed in January, the board will have plenty of time to work with its school leader and CSI to meet this annual requirement. Other areas that may be considered include property lease negotiations, critical policy reviews, the head of school’s annual evaluation and your school’s CARS report.
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Identify and schedule professional development
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Schools, like any high performing business, are only as good as their leaders. And like leaders at high performing businesses, school leaders should invest in their professional growth. School leaders and board members alike need to have a clear idea of what skills they need to develop and a means by which they can access the training and supports to develop these skills. A school leader may need help in evaluating student performance data and many training opportunities are offered by CSI, the League, and Colorado Department of Education. If the board needs governance training, the summer is a great time to discuss your needs and timing for such training. Some boards take time over the summer months to access training while others wait until fall when they know they have all new members seated. Once you know what you need, gain the commitment from all members to participate and schedule the training.
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Note:
CSI conducts 4 meetings per year (3 regional meetings, and 1 All School Leaders Meeting), during which board training is also provided. All CSI School boards have access to support provided by CSI Governance Consultant, John Brendza. In addition, CSI continues to grow its suite of resources for CSI Schools. All written materials are available
here
.
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Build your relationship with school leadership
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The importance of a trusting and transparent relationship between the school leader and board cannot be overstated. To evaluate where you are in this area, consider the following questions:
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- Did you evaluate the school leader this year?
- Has the board reviewed the head of school job description to ensure it aligns with current strategic priorities?
- Do you have a clear understanding of the responsibilities that fall to the board versus those that fall to the school leader?
- Does the board avoid micromanaging the head of school and staff?
- Do the board and head of school operate as a unified force focused on the mission and vision of the school?
- How often does the board president communicate with the school leader?
- Has the school leader discussed the mission and vision with the staff?
- Has the board identified and communicated the annual goals for the school leader?
- Do you approach both successes and failures as an opportunity for the school leadership to grow and move forward?
- Do you trust one another?
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Although some of the answers to these questions may generate sensitive discussions, it is work that must be done if the organization is to reach its goals. In leadership, you have to have candid discussions about performance. You will never be able to reach this level of leadership if you don’t have a solid working relationship. The summer is a great time to explore this area of need and to try to identify what is working and what needs to improve. One of the most effective ways to begin this is by spending time together doing something unrelated to school. Go for a hike together, play golf, have a leadership team picnic. By breaking the ice and relaxing or playing together you can better position the board and school leader to be willing to honestly talk about your relationship. In the absence of a trusting, honest relationship, no school board and leader will reach their full potential.
By investing energy into these five practices over the summer, you can jump into the coming school year with a leadership team and board moving in tandem and with focus to support the success of the school. Every charter school community deserves that.
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Recent CSI Policy Revisions
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As a reminder, all draft policies are posted in our monthly newsletter to provide our stakeholders notice of the proposed changes and an opportunity to comment in advance of any board consideration. If you have any questions on these policy revisions, please contact
Trish Krajniak
.
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CSI continues to build upon the resources available to CSI school board members. Some of the key resources are highlighted below:
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CSI maintains a webpage dedicated to resources for CSI school board members. Materials will be regularly updated and added to throughout the year, so bookmark this page, and return to it often! These materials are maintained by CSI's Director of Legal and Policy,
Trish Krajniak
.
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CSI maintains a BoardDocs website, which houses information regarding CSI's Board, materials for Committee and Board meetings, and a library of CSI policies. These materials are maintained by CSI Communications Coordinator and Board Liaison,
Amanda Oberg
.
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CSI specific guidance and resources on a variety of policies, including Attendance, Enrollment, Grievances, Safety, etc.
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Charter School Institute
1580 Logan St., Ste. 210
Denver, CO 80203
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