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A Message From The President
Greetings!
Vancouver is finely having its long anticipated summer weather, with temperatures in the mid-80's F and climbing. This means that our cherry trees in our back yard are bearing their delicious fruit. Last night while we were enjoying our dinner on the patio, a family of racoons wandered into our yard and proceeded to climb the cherry tree and enoy themselves as well. Ahh, summer in the country.
As you may know, HEG divides its work between helping clients start new schools and supporting established private schools to improve their operations and leadership (Of course, our services extend into other education-sector related services as well). Working with hundreds of clients globally, there is a common element that we assist with; ensuring that there's an effective working relationship between the board and the school's senior leader. Research indicates that effective schools have strong leadership with a clear vision and a plan to achieve it, which is jointly achieved through a partnership between trustees and the Head of School.
Does your organization have a clear constructive working relationship with the board and the CEO? Today
I want to share with you the essentials of strong and healthy Board-Head relationship. Please read on to find out more.To
your success, Doug
Halladay President Halladay Education GroupP.S. Don't forget to go to our secure Online Store to invest in our Strategic Planning or Start-A-School Toolkits.
  
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Where's HEG Working Right Now?
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 Many of you ask where and what our HEG team is working on right now. So here's an update:
- Strategic Plan for a Private PreK-12 IB School in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
- Market Study and Business Plan for a new PreK-9 IB Private School in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Feasibility Study and Business Plan for a Private PreK-12 IB School in Panama City, Panama
- Feasibility Study and Business Plan for a new Private PreK-12 Tribal School in Alabama
- Feasibility Study and Business Plan for an Independent Grade 9-12 School in Ontario, Canada
- Research Report on Small School Best Practices for a MENA region client
If you're interested in our private school
consulting services and would like to receive written material about
HEG, or would like to discuss your needs, please contact
Doug Halladay directly. You can set this up by
sending an email
or calling directly at 1-604-868-0002. We
also invite you to continue browsing our web site by clicking on here.
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Is Your Mission Statement a 'Snorer'?
Mission
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Solutions For Your School
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STARTING A SCHOOL
Starting
a school can be challenging & you never have a 2nd chance to make a 1st
impression. Our team is experienced in starting schools in the
USA, Canada, & Internationally. Click here for more info.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
We're experienced with developing Strategic Plans for private schools globally. We deliver a plan that focuses your
school's vision, builds consensus, donor confidence, & defines priorities for your Board & Staff. No school should be without one. Click here for more info.
BOARD GOVERNANCE WORKSHOPS
Great schools have great
boards. Can you afford not to have one? Our one-day governance workshop & online self-assessment survey fine-tunes your
board's performance & focuses our priorities. Click here for more info.
SCHOOL EVALUATION
As
a Trustee are you sure your school is doing the  best it can? Our school review is measuring if you're heading in the right direction. Quickly get the whole
picture with our In-Depth School Performance Review.
Click here for more info.
BUYING AND SELLING SCHOOLS
HEG
& our licensed brokers assist buyers/sellers with mergers, purchases, or sales of K-12 Schools, Post Secondary Institutions,
& Career Colleges in Canada, US, and Internationally. Click here for more info.
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Developing A Strong Board-Head Relatioship
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,
When we work with school boards, be it new or  established, we see many of the same issues. An inability to work effectively with the organization's CEO.
Based on HEG's research into the common practices of
effective schools; there is an overlaying common element; a strong and healthy Board-Head relationship.
It
is important to understand the role that the Board and Head have in achieving
the school's mission and goals. For example, the Board's role is to develop the
strategic, long-range plan for the school; "directing/developing"
goals and policy, and monitoring their implementation. The Head's role is to lead
the "operations" side to implement the goals/policies, with the Head and staff
being held accountable for meeting Board expectations, which are clearly
outlined and monitored within the goals/policies.
Committees
In most circumstances, Board members
develop goals and policies for the school with the assistance of the Head and staff, and do not
get down in the trenches (the operational side). However, in some limited
cases, a Board member may have knowledge and a passion for a specific skill
that may benefit the school (a skill that the school staff do not have, or
the school cannot finance); skills that the school may want to tap into and to provide
staff access to. But Board members need to make sure that they don't overstep
and over commit themselves, and cross over from the strategic side (Board) to
the operations side (management).
At a Board
level, a goal should be achievable, measurable, relevant, and timely, with it
being implemented by the Head and the staff. But since a Board member may have
an "advisory role", there is a need to make sure that there's no
confusion over the "chain-of-command". It is important to ensure that
the Board's authoritative position and its obligation to its constituency be
maintained, even when it is in the position to give advice, that by definition
may or may not be heeded (e.g., do staff members put themselves in jeopardy if
they do not heed it?).
Fundamental Rules
Good
Board-Head delegation can be characterized by three simple rules:
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The Board will express its instructions and
expectations only as a group, not as individuals or committees;
- The Board will express its
instructions and
expectations only to the Head, never to persons who work for the Head.
However,
advice to staff from Board members can be workable with sound ground
rules.
Since the Board can only instruct the Head when it does so as a group,
nothing
an individual Board members says can and should have instructional authority. Thus,
Board
member "advice" is fine, but "commands" are not. So advice can be considered
by
staff on its merits alone; and
- The function and agenda for a Board committee should
be developed jointly with the Head.
Summary
It is important to ensure that the line
between "instructing" (which a full Board does) and "advising" (which Board
member can do) does not get blurred and confusing for the Head and staff. The
unintended result is that the staff ends up working not for the Board or Head
per se, but for various sources of "advice", which they can never be
completely sure is really only advice. Staff members are not inclined to tell
Board members that their advice is unhelpful.
In other
words, the Board should "direct" and "develop" policies and goals and the Head/staff control the
"processes", and the Board members wear his/her "instructional
hat" at the Board meetings only, not at the committee level. Thus the
Head/staff is held accountable for meeting Board expectations (clearly outlined
in the goals/policies of the Board's strategic plan), not the individual Board
members.
It is
important to make sure that staff is free to review the advice and make the
appropriate choices (processes) needed to accomplish the goals. Hence, a Board
member's place on a committee is two fold:
-
Providing feedback to the Board for the
development of goals/ policies (governing) at the Board meeting level; and
- Advising,
with the Head/staff making the final decisions on the processes to
achieve the
goals/policies, being careful of the balance between the two.
NEXT
STEP , if this article strikes a note at your organization, and you feel that your board could be better prepared for the coming school year, then you should seriously consider these valuables services: - Board Workshop and Evaluation; and
- Coaching for the Board Chair and Head of School.
If you'd like to learn more about how we can help your organization,
please email HEG or call at +1-604-868-0002 to find out more about our services. |
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HEG Recommends
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Here are 2 of our most popular toolkits that will help you either start your own school or develop
your own strategic plan.
STRATEGIC PLANNING TOOLKIT
Learn
how to develop your own Strategic Plan with step-by-step instructions contained
in our detailed Workbook & Manual, along with $500 worth of bonus CD's. It's
all here to help you develop your own plan. Click here for more details.
START-A-SCHOOL TOOLKIT
Are
you still struggling with starting a school? Experienced school leaders share how they started their school from the ground up. You'll also receive
our bonus CD ($150 value) on developing your strategic plan. Click here for more details.
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To
your success,
Douglas
Halladay
President
Halladay
Education Group Inc.
P:
604.868.0002
F: 868.472.8737
E: info@halladayeducationgroup.com
www.HalladayEducationGroup.com
You are receiving this because you signed up at HEG's website or you
told us you wanted to subscribe. We will never
distribute your address to anyone. Period. We promise. |
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