In Governing at the Top (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475807158) I describe a phenomenon that I’m sure many superintendents have observed over the course of their careers: that school board members “who are actively engaged in shaping their governing decisions and judgments derive greater satisfaction than board members who merely serve as a passive audience for finished staff work, making them more reliable partners for the superintendent in accomplishing the tremendously complex and demanding work of governing.” In this new podcast, two educational leaders who are members of our blog Strategic Advisory Committee – Luvelle Brown, Superintendent of the Ithaca City School District, and Denny Dearden, Associate Executive Director of AASA – share nuggets of wisdom about board engagement gleaned from their work with school boards over the years.
As you’ll hear in this really informative podcast, both Luvelle and Denny have found the strategic planning process to be a powerful vehicle for engaging board members in a meaningful, high-impact fashion in governing. They’ve also learned that a meticulously crafted strategic plan can provide a framework for active board engagement in regular work sessions with the executive team. And among other “tricks of the engagement trade” they report is that board-superintendent-executive team retreats have proved to be a very effective tool for strengthening board engagement in governing, so long as they are carefully designed and capably facilitated.
