The partnership between your charter school board and the C-suite is vital for school success. They’re like two halves of a whole, each bringing unique strengths to the table. But finding that sweet spot of synergy can sometimes feel like a balancing act. Your charter school board gets so focused on their own agenda that they forget to loop in the CEO/ED and their team. Meanwhile, the CEO/ED might feel like they’re on a different wavelength from the board committees. It’s a recipe for disconnect.

What can you do to mitigate this dynamic? It starts with building a solid partnership between the board chair and the CEO/ED. Regular check-ins, clear communication, and mutual support are the name of the game.

Tips For Fostering Collaboration With Your Board 1

Here are some key focus areas:

  1. Be proactive about tracking progress. Check-ins should be more than just status updates. They’re about ensuring everyone’s moving in the right direction. If someone needs a hand, it’s time to lend some support.
  2. Roles and boundaries. Try to prevent stepping on each others’ toes. Everyone has their role, and sticking to it keeps things running smoothly.
  3. Maintain transparency. Everyone should be in the loop about what’s happening, from financial details to any curveballs that come your way.
  4. Continuously improve. Regular check-ins help you figure out what’s working, what needs adjusting, and what you can leave behind.
More Resources

Charter school boards are the backbone of your school, ensuring that academic standards are met, finances are managed efficiently, and governance is effective. Behind every successful board are dedicated committees, each with its own responsibilities. Let’s delve into the roles and responsibilities of the 5 key committees of a thriving school.

5 Essential Committees For Charter School Boards 2
1. Finance Committee

Essential Tasks: The finance committee partners closely with our CFO or finance director to set and monitor annual budget goals, ensuring our financial health remains robust. They provide financial oversight, produce annual reports, and commission audits to keep us accountable. Monthly check-ins help them gauge our financial trajectory and make necessary adjustments.

Key Skills: The finance chair ideally has a background in finance or budget management, while committee members should be fluent in financial language and adept at handling spreadsheets and other financial documents. Their goal is to speak the same financial language as your CFO and keep your financial ship sailing smoothly.

2. Academic Excellence Committee

Essential Tasks: This committee collaborates closely with the academic director to establish clear academic performance goals. They oversee curriculum development, pedagogy, and learning approaches to ensure excellence in education. Monthly evaluations track progress and identify areas for improvement.

Key Skills: Led by individuals with backgrounds in education, research, or pedagogy, this committee fosters a supportive relationship with academic staff and serves as a valuable resource for the board and leadership team.

5 Essential Committees For Charter School Boards 1
3. Fundraising or Development Committee

Essential Tasks: Charged with meeting fundraising goals, this committee works alongside the finance director to secure resources for school initiatives. Beyond fundraising, they also focus on enhancing the school’s image and standing within the community through public relations efforts.

Key Skills: Led by experienced fundraisers and PR professionals, this committee excels in motivating donors and promoting your school’s mission through strategic marketing efforts.

4. Executive Director/CEO Support and Evaluation Committee

Essential Tasks: This committee plays a critical role in selecting, supporting, and evaluating the executive director. They conduct annual evaluations, provide ongoing support, and ensure alignment with organizational goals throughout the year.

Key Skills: Comprising members with expertise in team management and human relations, this committee supports the CEO/ED in achieving their objectives and driving organizational success.

5. Governance Committee

Essential Tasks: Responsible for maintaining a healthy governance team, this committee assesses board capabilities, oversees succession planning, and strategically recruits new members. They ensure that the board remains focused and aligned with its goals.

Key Skills: Comprised of individuals with experience in leadership liaison and strategic communication, this committee drives governance team success through effective collaboration and communication.

Effective charter school governance requires a harmonious partnership between the board and the C-suite. Regular check-ins between the board chair and the CEO/ED ensure that both sides are working collaboratively towards shared goals. By fostering a culture of transparency, teamwork, and continuous improvement, your board can maximize their effectiveness.

Check out the resources below for more on effective board governance.

Your school board helps make critical decisions, sets strategic goals, and fosters a conducive environment for students and educators. The best boards accomplish these things with efficiency and transparency—and a continuous eye on the future. Whether your building your board from the ground up or would like to strengthen your existing board’s efforts, it’s helpful to focus on these five areas: what we call, the “Five P’s.”

1. Priorities:

Strong boards that consistently meet and exceed their promises have clear goals for the CEO and trustees. Are the C-suite and the board maintaining focus on what matters most? Time-consuming distractions not only keep everyone from their most important tasks, but they can also lead to burnout. Set priorities so your board is effective and efficient.

2. People:

Remember: it’s a privilege to serve on your board! Aim to be in a position where non-voting committee members and people in the community are working to earn a spot on your board. Recruiting the right people to a school board results from a strategic plan that aligns potential members’ skill sets to the school’s goals and challenges.

3. Process:

The best process maximizes your board’s time and talents. An exemplary process for a school board includes regular and robust attendance, complying with your state’s open meeting law, taking clear minutes, and assigning a board member to oversee operational excellence. The process can also mean building the school’s institutional memory, including a record system for organizing and accessing bylaws, governing documents, and financial documents.

4. Performance:

For a school board, performance comes down to accountability for the board members and the CEO. For example, if a board aims to fundraise $10,000, you’ll want to assign each person a specific task. The board should also assign the CEO three to five clear and achievable goals for the school year. Pay special attention to priorities affecting the application or renewal, including closing achievement gaps, retaining teachers, maintaining and/or increasing enrollment numbers, and closely monitoring attendance.

5. Progress:

Mastering progress can be challenging for a school board. It means keeping an eye on the future at the same time as you work toward achieving the current school year’s goals. And just like your school, your board will evolve from year to year. Ideally, the governance committee analyzes the board’s governance capabilities each year and sets goals to recruit new members or to train and coach existing members to improve in needed areas.

Your Resource for a Strong School Board

A strong school board is a cornerstone of success for your school. By assembling a diverse group of individuals aligned with the school’s mission, promoting transparency, upholding ethical standards, and strategically overseeing the institution’s growth, the board contributes to an environment where students thrive, educators excel, and the community prospers.

Learn more by downloading the free Charter School Board Governance Guide. Created in partnership with BoardOnTrack, you’ll learn the essential roles and responsibilities of your governance board and how to govern for growth at every stage.

Charter School Board

Building an Effective Charter School Board

For this CHARTER EDtalk, Michelle Lohner, Sr. Account Manager at Charter School Capital, was joined by BoardOnTrack’s Director of Leadership & Governance Training, Mike Mizzoni to discuss tips on how to build an effective charter school board. Mike shares his expertise on why is it important to put together the “right” board, what qualities you should look for when building an effective board, the ideal size of a board, and how long should people typically serve on your charter school board. Please watch the video below and read the transcript for the complete story.



TRANSCRIPT

Michelle Lohner: Thank you so much everyone for joining us today. I’m Michelle Lohner, senior account manager at Charter School Capital. Today we have Mike Mizzoni, director of leadership and governance training for Board on Track.

Mike Mizzoni: Hey, there.

Lohner: Thank you so much, Mike, for being here.

Mizzoni: Thank you for having me. Excited to be here.

Lohner: Yes, yes. We’re all excited to hear some of those best tips and best practices that you have to share. So get it started, why is it so important to put together the right board?

Mizzoni: Great question. The governing boards of charter schools have a really, really important job to do. We often talk about how the governing board in the school leadership team, so your CEO or your executive director, are really two sides of the same coin governing and leading this organization. Ultimately they’ve got a really important job to do. This is really the board of directors of a multimillion dollar public enterprise.

And so given that, and whenever we use that phrase, we usually see heads nod because it really gives it the kind of gravitas that it deserves. We remind people that serving on a public charter school board is a part-time job, and it’s really important. And so we encourage people to take it as a really serious position. So making sure you have the right people on the board in order to accomplish all of the things that a good charter school board needs to accomplish is key.

This is really what we call shared governance. And the way that shared governance works best is when there’s a school leader and a paid set of expert staff members who are there to run the school day-to-day. And then separately we have a group of laypersons who are not expected to be educators day-to-day who are leading and providing direction and oversight for the organization. So what we want to see with that group of lay people is a diverse background from everything related to their professional and demographic background and expertise.

Lohner: So that’s interesting. You were saying having a wide background. What qualities, though, are you looking for when you’re trying to build that effective board setting yourself up for growth?

Mizzoni: Yeah, so there’s definitely no right answer. And what is important is one of the things that we are promoting is this notion of being really strategic when you’re recruiting your board members. Going back to the notion that this is a multimillion dollar public enterprise. What we want, what we encourage people is that their form should follow their function. So the board that they’re putting together should be specifically formed in such a way that it’s designed to accomplish the thing that the board has set out to do.

So just for example, let’s say that if one of the things you were looking to do this year was to expand into a new location, and you wanted to buy or build a new school. At that point, it might be really important to have somebody who has school financing experience, real estate transactions, school architecture or facilities experience, specifically to help the board accomplish that task of building or buying a new building.

Similarly, if you were going to start a brand new fundraising, capital fundraising campaign, you want to make sure you’re recruiting people who have fundraising experience that they can bring to the board.

Lohner: Makes sense.

Mizzoni: What we encourage people is not to have a board that’s made up of entirely educators or former teachers. One of the common things we see as people are assembling their board for the first time is that they want to go and hire and recruit everybody who’s either been a teacher or worked for a school. And that’s great, and we want to make sure that there’s real depth in the educational experiences and knowledge, but we also want to make sure that you’ve got someone with financial experience, someone who understands how school budgets operate, someone with legal experience. Again, not to be the lawyer for the board, but to have somebody who can think with a different mindset about policies and when it’s important to bring in outside legal counsel.

We always look to have someone with HR experience, so somebody who understands employee relations and how to build a human capital pipeline of teachers and staff and holding your [inaudible 00:04:00] accountable and doing an employee review. Having HR experience and an understanding of that role is critical.

Another thing that people don’t think of often when they’re assembling their board is having previous governance experience. So having somebody who has either served on a school board before or a nonprofit board or charitable board, again, brings that perspective of how group processes work and how serving on a board is like serving on any other team where you want to make sure that you’re working together for the common goals.

Lohner: So that’s really interesting. You’ve talked a lot about the different qualities that go into making up a good board. What would you say is the ideal size of a board?

Mizzoni: Yeah, again, actually again, I will say is that there’s not a specific right answer. So again, I think every board, it’s important for them to say, do we have the size board that meets the needs of our organization today?

One of the things we talk a lot about is how boards government for growth. And specifically when it comes to charter schools, we know that there’s a need for more seats to be opened up in charter school programs. So whether it’s by serving more grade levels or by expanding into different locations, most charter schools that we work with are on some growth trajectory, again, either adding students to their current schools or expanding to new schools.

And so as the organization does that and evolves, what we find is that the work of the board just by necessity becomes more complex as well. So as the organization is older, it tends to be that you need to expand the size of your board to keep up with all of that work that needs to get done.

So as a general rule, it’s very common for boards, especially when they’re in their planning years, maybe they haven’t applied for their charter yet or maybe they just have recently applied for their charter, it’d be very common for them to have a board of anywhere from five to seven or nine board members.

My recommendation is that you do not go out and start a governing board with fewer than seven people because that’s usually about the minimum size that we find where you have enough diversity of opinion and background, but you’re also able to have a manageable sized group that you’re working with, and things like quorum are usually not a problem.

As the organization evolves and things like the need to have really robust committee work in between your full board meetings, as that tends to happen, you need to recruit more people to serve on all of these committees and to help pull the weight of really a sustainable, well-run charter school board.

So what I recommend is that once you’ve got your feet under you, and you become a well oiled machine, you should strive to have anywhere from 11 to 15 board members as part of your team. Again, it’s important that boards reflect and say, “What do we need right now?” Because it’s not always the right solution just to add board members. And what we find is that if boards don’t have the right processes and structure in place, then once you get to 13, 15 board members, you quickly hit the point of diminishing returns, and having more board members on your team actually becomes more problematic than beneficial.

Lohner: I could see that. Almost having too many, too many cooks in the kitchen, right?

Mizzoni: Exactly. And we see that a lot.

Lohner: Yes. So in terms of you talked about sort of that best practice, five to seven as you’re just getting started, and it grows as the school grows. What would you say most board members, how long do they actually serve on a school board?

Mizzoni: Right. And so what we find is general rule is that we recommend total terms on the board of about six years, and there are a couple of ways we do that. The way that the length of somebody’s term on a board is determined is typically by the term limits in bylaws. So we encourage every charter school board to have term limits in their bylaws, their governing documents. Because to the point that we’ve been making that given the fact that these charter school organizations are run by a group of interested people with all of these different backgrounds, it’s important that you’re bringing in new life, new blood, new experiences to the board and that the board doesn’t get stale, or very frequently we have what we call founder fatigue. If the board, if you have the same founding group of board members for 10 years, the board tends to get stale, and we want to bring in that new life.

So what we encourage people is to set term limits in their bylaws. What we typically recommend are either two year terms that are renewable up to three time, so you could serve for a total of six years, or the inverse of that would be to have three year terms that are renewable twice. So again, we don’t recommend serving for longer than a six year period on a board. It’s great after six years to get some separation from the board, maybe take a couple of years off and always have the opportunity to come back. But we recommended having some sort of structured term of six years at a most that way board members have an out, and they can elect to not renew their term.

And then also your colleagues on the board have the option to say, “We might need to now go in a different direction. And if the board members we need now serve a different purpose, we want to have the ability to thank you for your service and then attract a new board member to the team.”

Lohner: So Mike, you had mentioned that, you know, it’s good to set terms for your board members, you know, somewhere around six years. But with that, how do you ensure that you have longevity for your board when there’s this turnover, you know, every six years or so?

Mizzoni: Yeah, it really all comes down to succession planning for your board members and being really strategic when it comes to your recruitment efforts as a board. So what we would encourage people to do is on an annual basis, is to be very methodical about having a conversation about their recruitment needs and you want them to have a conversation about what it is that the board needs to do in the next two, three, four, five years in order to be successful. And then to recruit people specifically who meet those needs, as we talked about the diverse skill sets and backgrounds and experiences that we want on the board. And this is the challenge that just about every charter school board that we work with faces is keeping a continuous pipeline of people who are aligned with the mission and then serve one of those particular purposes.

And so there are a lot of tips and strategies out there that boards can use to improve their recruitment efforts that make it so that it’s not just going out and finding people and begging people to serve on your board but such that they’re actually applying and knocking down your door because they want to serve and continue and further the mission. So people are interested in finding more information on how to recruit really strategically and effectively. I know that we at BoardOnTrack and at Charter School Capital both have resources on just how to do that. The one, the two tips actually that I’d leave you with are …

Lohner: Please.

Mizzoni: One is to consider having a written job description explaining what it means to serve on your board. That way when people are interested in potentially serving, there’s a document that you can point them to for what the expectations of their role will be.

Lohner: Definitely.

Mizzoni: And then the other thing I would consider boards to do is to add, consider adding people to their board who are not full voting board members but are volunteer committee members. And so what we find is that bringing somebody into the work of the board by asking them to serve on a committee while not being a full voting board member is a great way to get them ramped up and interested in the work [crosstalk 00:02:09] so that when you’re ready for a seat to open, you’ve got some people that you can look to who are, you know, familiar with the work and ready to get up to speed.

Lohner: That makes perfect sense. You know, they can really just kind of get their feet wet, right, and get to experience what it’s like to be on a board and then you know, hopefully you know, have be ready to just step on board one day and be board president.

Mizzoni: That’s exactly right. That’s what we like to see.

Lohner: Those are some great best practices and like you said, you know, be sure to check out the website. But thank you so much, Mike, for being with us today.

Mizzoni: Thank you.

Lohner: Thank you everyone for tuning in to our Ed Talk and hope that you have a great afternoon.


The Ultimate Guide to Charter School Board Governance 

EBOOK/ MANUAL 

For your school to reach its goals, meet its mission, and be set up for success, you need to build a well-structured, well-staffed, and well-trained Board of Directors. In this important webinar, our partners and industry experts on Board Governance, BoardOnTrack, will be sharing their expertise on the ins and outs of recruiting, building, and managing your governance team as you grow. 

Watch and learn: 

  • Board basics: Who should be on your governance team and what should they do? 
  • How to build a strong board: Strategically recruiting for diversity and skills 
  • Tips to govern for growth: How to face challenges and changes at any stage 

Download it now and get the tools to be more strategic about your school’s board governance practices! 

Get the Resource

Charter School Board

Preparing Your Charter School Board to Govern For Growth

For this CHARTER EDtalk, Michelle Lohner, Sr. Account Manager at Charter School Capital, was joined by BoardOnTrack’s Director of Leadership & Governance Training, Mike Mizzoni to discuss how a charter school board can best govern for growth. Mike shares his expertise on why charter school boards should be governing for growth, what that means, planning your board so that evolves over time, setting board priorities, and choosing the right people on the board to effectively navigate every stage of your charter school’s growth.

To hear all of Mike’s tips and guidance, please watch the video below or read the complete transcript below.



VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Michelle Lohner: Hi, I’m Michelle Lohner with Charter School Capital, senior account manager, and have Mike Mizzoni here with us today, director of leadership and governance training from BoardOnTrack.

Mike Mizzoni: Happy to be here. Thanks so much.

Lohner: Thank you so much, Mike. So, really I know so many things we want to talk about, but we’ve been hearing a lot about having boards prepared for growth. Can you tell me a little bit? What does that mean?

Mizzoni: Yeah. We’re going around and promoting what we call this notion of governing for growth, and it’s a message that our company BoardOnTrack is really promoting, because we work with charter school boards around the country, and what we’ve found is that there are so many students who need the kind of programming that charter school offer, so we see schools with wait lists that are twice the size of their enrollment. We have schools that are actively looking to expand into other geographic locations, or to expand into new grades that they can serve, or new schools together.

What we’ve found is that as organizations go to evolve and to expand to the number of students that they can serve again either by growing into a new physical location or by expanding their grade levels that the governance that the board provides of the organization doesn’t always keep pace with the organization itself, and so what we’re doing is we’re really trying to promote this idea that boards need to be very methodical, intentional, about not just promoting the strategic direction of the organization, but also improving their own governance capabilities as well in some of the key areas of board governance.

Lohner: That’s actually really interesting that you mentioned that because like you said schools are growing. The board may or may not be keeping up with that, so how would you suggest that they do that? What does that look like?

Mizzoni: Yeah, so what we try and get boards to focus on are what we call the five Ps of good board governance, and so really these are the five key areas that good boards need to do well, and so these are the five areas that we say especially if you’re an organization that’s governing for growth that you need to keep your eye on. What we would call those are like I said the five Ps. They’re your priorities, your people, your process, your performance, and your progress. So quickly what we mean by that, when it comes to your priorities is making sure that the organization, the school leadership, and the board, are fully aligned on the direction that they’re headed, what it is that we’re trying to accomplish, what’s our vision of excellence look like for the organization.

With the people we’re talking about making sure that you’ve got the right people on your governance team, so the right board members with the right backgrounds, skills, demographics. Also, your officer positions and the leadership of the school, so your CEO, your school leader, and their designees, so those senior staff members. Those are all people who are involved in governing the organization.

Next thing is the process, so the way the board goes about doing its work, so complying with things like the Open Meeting Law, and your state’s authorizers requirements, things like your meeting, schedule. Little things like whether your meetings last for too long. We feel really strongly that good board meetings don’t need to last longer than two hours, and anything longer than that quickly leads to burn out of good board members.

So the way you do your work needs to change and evolve. When we talk about performance we’re talking holding each other accountable on your board to the performance metrics you’ve set for each other, but then also for the organization as a whole, and holding your CEO accountable. So one of the things we look for is how you evaluate and support your CEO at the end of the year.

And then, lastly when we talk about progress we’re talking about whether the board itself makes progress in these areas, so in its governance capabilities is the board improving its own capabilities, so things like watching CHARTER EDtalks, and getting professional development for your board is what we would look like there.

Lohner: That’s interesting. There’s like you said the five Ps that they need to focus on but how do they make sure that they focus on the right priorities, because there’s so many things that are coming their way that they need to give attention to as a board member.

Mizzoni: Yeah, that’s exactly right, and so when we talk about priorities, the first of those Ps, it really is making sure that everybody on the team knows exactly where they’re headed. One of the metaphors that I like to use is that this charter school board that we’re on is sort of an adventure that we’ve all elected to go on, and at some point we all got together and pointed at the mountaintop that we’re looking to head to, and with the nature of charter school governance, [inaudible 00:04:22] we tend to see three to five year charter renewal cycles.

The reality is if this group of individuals is going to get to where we’ve all agreed that we need to go we need to have clear priorities year by year that allow us to get there. And so, when it comes to governing for growth if we as a team, as a governing board, and our school leadership are not totally in sync as to where it is that we’re trying to head then we quickly find people pulling different directions. Leadership really starts at the top and if there’s misalignment as to where our priorities are then that trickles down throughout the organization.

Lohner: That makes sense. How can a board make sure, you talked a lot about the different priorities, but make sure that they have the right people to govern at each stage of this growth?

Mizzoni: Yeah, that’s one of the biggest challenges for sure when we travel around the country and talk to governing boards. One of the things that they have the most difficulty with is keeping a steady pipeline of really high-quality board members who are aligned with their mission, and willing to participate.

And so, that challenge becomes even more difficult as the organization is looking to govern for growth because what happens is the types of skillsets that an individual needs to bring to a board changes as the organization evolves. An example of it would be let’s say that we’ve elected as a team that we’re going to expand and replicate into another location. This might be the first time in a decade that we’ve ever needed to acquire a building.

In this case, we may never of had really a cause for needing somebody with real estate transaction experience, or school architecture, or facilities just in general. What we like people to think about is when they’re planning for the year, and they’re getting ready to set goals around recruitment is as you’re growing we really like boards to say what is it that this board needs to get done this year, and we’re going to recruit people specifically to fill those gaps.

We want to make sure that we always have a diverse set of skills so that we can do all of the things that a good charter school board needs to do, financial oversight, academic oversight, fundraising, all of these key areas. We want to make sure that we have people who meet each one of these needs so that combined as one governing team we have all of the skillsets combined.

Lohner: I like that. That’s actually really helpful in terms of best practices. You’ve had a lot of experience what would you say is the most common mistake that you see boards make?

Mizzoni: When it comes to boards that are governing for growth I’d say hands down the biggest mistake we see is people not prioritizing in governance. We know that a lot of organizations when they’re getting off the ground the governance portion of it is one of the last things that they go to. We know that most people are here because they want to educate students, they want to get results in the classroom, they’re really passionate about the mission.

We put all the focus on strategic planning and the direction and development of the organization, and we don’t put that same kind of spotlight or attention on us as the governing board, and so what we want is for people to not keep making that mistake. We want people to understand that the success of the organization is going to largely depend on the work of the governance team.

Unfortunately, the world that we live in is that not every charter school is successful for a long period of time, and unfortunately a lot of the reasons for why schools close can be traced back to some sort of either action or more importantly inaction on the part of the board, so putting an emphasis on a strong board governance is something that we want to see people do more, and not making that mistake again.

Lohner: Definitely. Mike, was there anything else? I really appreciate you coming on today and sharing some of your insights and best practices for governing for growth. Is there anything else that you wanted to share with everyone?

Mizzoni: No. My final conclusion I would say is that there are a lot of students out there who need what it is that your schools are offering, and so putting a spotlight and making sure that we’re keeping the board governance healthy throughout this sector is important to us.

Lohner: Thank you so much, Mike.

Mizzoni: Thank you.

Lohner: Thank you, everyone, for joining us.


For your school to reach its goals, meet its mission, and be set up for success, you need to build a well-structured, well-staffed, and well-trained Board of Directors. In this important webinar, our partners and industry experts on Board Governance, BoardOnTrack, will be sharing their expertise on the ins and outs of recruiting, building, and managing your governance team as you grow.

Watch and learn:

  • Board basics: Who should be on your governance team and what should they do?
  • How to build a strong board: Strategically recruiting for diversity and skills
  • Tips to govern for growth: How to face challenges and changes at any stage

Download it now and get the tools to be more strategic about your school’s board governance practices!

Get the Resource

Charter School LeadersCharter School Leaders: How To Prepare For the Compensation Conversation

Editor’s note: This post was originally published here, by our friends and partners, BoardOnTrack. We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support school choice, charter school growth, and the advancement of the charter school movement as a whole. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.


HOW CHARTER LEADERS CAN LEAD THE COMPENSATION CONVERSATION

This is the second installment in our series built to pull back the curtain on charter school leader compensation. And help charter CEOs and board chairs get it right.

Take a look at part one here. Reach out to us to share your stories and questions. Or, if you’re a BoardOnTrack member, start a conversation in our members-only community.

Like so many things in charter school leadership, successfully negotiating your compensation depends on a good process.

Effective charter school governance is certainly predicated on having good group process.

And nowhere is this more apparent than in the realm of asking your board for a raise.

COMPENSATION CAN BE A STICKY SUBJECT IN ANY SPACE. BUT, ESPECIALLY IN THE CHARTER SPACE.

In general, people have all kinds of thoughts and opinions about executive compensation.

And, for a whole host of reasons, compensation of those in public service is even more fraught with conflicting opinions than in other sectors.

Having good process will help you uncover and address any misconceptions, gain philosophical alignment, and ensure you’ve got all the right pieces in place for smart data-driven decisions.

The BoardSavvy CEO knows the questions they want the board to address, does the legwork to bring benchmark data to the board, and builds ample time for good group process. Here’s how.

HERE ARE THE SIX KEY PIECES CHARTER LEADERS NEED IN PLACE BEFORE TALKING COMPENSATION

1. FORM A CEO SUPPORT & EVALUATION COMMITTEE

Create an official committee within your board to take the lead on your role & compensation.

In a nutshell, the CEO Support & Evaluation Committee guides the process of revisiting the CEO’s job description, goals, mid-year check-in, and end-of-year evaluation. These are the key components of a solid year-round CEO support & evaluation process.

And, this is the committee that handles issues of CEO compensation.

2. DEFINE YOUR JOB

Make sure you have a board-approved job description. And that it accurately reflects the current realities of your role.

The role of a charter school leader is complex. You are the CEO of a multimillion-dollar public enterprise. And you’re probably growing significantly each year.

If you’re running a $15M organization with multiple campuses, but your job description was drafted along with your original charter application when you were a $2M organization serving a few hundred kids, it’s time to revisit the details. Your role has changed dramatically.

Dust off that original job description. Rewrite it. Work with your CEO Support & Evaluation Committee to finalize it. And get the board to approve it. Use our sample job description as your starting point.

There’s more to defining your job than just the job description. Here’s the game-changing secret.

Estimate how you plan to allocate your time. Put a percent next to each item in the position description. This will be an eye-opener for you and your board.

For instance, Caprice Young of Learn4Life — and a Charter Hall of Fame inductee — recommends that you plan to spend a good 30% of your time with your board. If you haven’t proactively put that in writing, you can easily end up with a job description that simply requires more hours than you’ve got in a day. With unrealistic expectations, you’re not likely to meet — or exceed — your goals. And positioning yourself well for the compensation conversation becomes that much harder.

Finally, don’t let that updated job description gather dust as your organization evolves.

At the beginning of each new school year, make sure you’re completely aligned with your board on both pieces — the job description and your time allocation. You might even make your approved job description a deliverable of your annual board retreat.

This will save everyone from a great deal of frustration and misconceptions later on. It will ensure that your year-round CEO support & evaluation process is built on a solid foundation. And that’ll be key in ensuring you can have a productive, well-informed conversation about your compensation.

3.  SET CLEAR, MEASURABLE GOALS

What results are you on the hook to deliver? Create a clear set of goals for the year. Make them specific and measurable. And do this at the start of every school year. {This is another excellent element to include in your annual board retreat.}

Start with the core promises in your charter — and in your accountability plan, if you’ve got one. Articulate to the board where you plan to meet or exceed these goals.

Add stretch goals, too. But keep them within reason. This should not be an exercise in “shock and awe.” It should be high-level organizational goals, tied to a reasonable set of KPIs, in a format that you and the board can consistently review at each and every board meeting.

Work with your board committees to understand and agree to your goals. This might all happen in your CEO Support & Evaluation Committee. Then, bring your goals to the full board to vote and approve. The board vote solidifies that this is what you will be held accountable to deliver in the coming year.

Bonus points! The real BoardSavvy CEOs also get the board to approve a timeline. They define exactly when you’ll report out on your progress toward each goal. And what reporting will happen at the committee level vs. the full board’s meetings.

4. BEFORE YOU START TALKING COMPENSATION, GAIN FULL-BOARD PHILOSOPHICAL ALIGNMENT.

In addition to aligning on base salary, you and your board need philosophical alignment about performance pay and other potential pieces of your overall compensation package.

Partner with your CEO Support & Evaluation Committee here as well. Look to them to frame the key philosophical alignment issues that need to be tackled.

Work with them to map out an effective process to dive into these issues at the committee level, and then to get full board buy-in.

Determine an appropriate base salary, and what it will be based on.

The CEO Support & Evaluation committee will consider whether base salary should be on par with the district — or above it. Whether it’ll be based on local salary scales, or national. They’ll decide whether bonus or performance pay will be offered. And, if so, what such a bonus will be tied to.

Think about what your trustees’ questions and concerns might be. Consider how you’ll structure the right conversations to depersonalize things.

Be aware of a chief misconception your board might bring to the table.

Some assume that charter school leaders can be directly compared to more traditional public school administrators. And, this leads to the assumption that the compensation conversation should work the same way. If your board is bringing that to the table, you’ll need to dispel that myth right out of the gate in order to gain philosophical alignment.

The charter school CEO is not a public school administrator.

Be clear. You are the CEO of a multimillion-dollar public enterprise. Your role is not the same as that of a traditional public school principal or administrator. And the conversation around your compensation is not the same.

As charter school CEO, you’re not only responsible for the teaching and learning that happens within your building, like your traditional public school peers.

You’re also responsible for finding and securing a permanent home for the school, managing all the financial systems, processes and procedures, handling all HR responsibilities, fundraising, and building and sustaining an exceptional governing board.

In the traditional public school setting, all of these items are handled by teams of people in a central office.

This is a very important distinction when level-setting about this position and therefore how this all fits into the question of appropriate charter school leader compensation.

Other questions to be sure you can answer about the increase you would like to ultimately get the board to agree to:

  • Is it aligned with the market?  (Do your research and understand how it fits within the market, be ready to justify any discrepancies.)
  • Is there budget for this? (Build the budget assuming you will get the raise)
  • Is it equitable within the organization? (Provide data around increases, salary ranges within the organization and justify why the CEO should be at the level you suggest.)

5.  INCLUDE POTENTIAL CEO COMPENSATION AS PART OF YOUR BUDGETING PROCESS

Make sure that there is thoughtful dialogue and intentionally build in to the budget the potential increase. As mentioned above, you should build your annual budget assuming that you will get the raise you intend to negotiate with the board.

Don’t be shy about discussing non-cash aspects of CEO compensation.

Some of our members have negotiated non-cash compensation aspects like tuition reimbursement, paid or unpaid sabbaticals, or extra vacation time.

6. COMPLETE AN ANNUAL CEO EVALUATION

A robust annual evaluation includes a self-evaluation of how you did towards the results you promised to deliver, and an opportunity for your full board to weigh in.

We recommend a process that’s clear, consistent, and year-round. The CEO’s evaluation shouldn’t be done in a last-minute scramble at the end of the school year.

Not sure where to start? You don’t need to make it up as you go. We’ve helped hundreds of charter school leaders effectively utilize our proven CEO evaluation process.

The BoardOnTrack platform guides CEOs and their boards through the process, step by step. And allows your board to track evaluation results year over year, allowing the compensation conversation to also recognize long-term upward trends in performance.

ARE YOU READY TO ASK YOUR BOARD FOR A RAISE?

With the leg work done on philosophical alignment, your board squarely in the driver’s seat feeling like they have been part of this process, board-approved goals that you knock out of the park, a budget that is built to cover the anticipated salary request, your request should be a slam dunk.


The Ultimate Guide to Charter School Board Governance

For your school to reach its goals, meet its mission, and be set up for success, you need to build a well-structured, well-staffed, and well-trained Board of Directors. In this important webinar, our partners and industry experts on Board Governance, BoardOnTrack, will be sharing their expertise on the ins and outs of recruiting, building, and managing your governance team as you grow.

Watch and learn:

  • Board basics: Who should be on your governance team and what should they do?
  • How to build a strong board: Strategically recruiting for diversity and skills
  • Tips to govern for growth: How to face challenges and changes at any stage

Download it now and get the tools to be more strategic about your school’s board governance practices!

Get the resource

Charter School Leader

Your Guide to Year-Round Charter School Leader Support & Evaluation

Editor’s note: This post was originally written by our friends and partners, BoardOnTrack, and published here. We are so proud to partner with these charter school board experts to help provide charter leaders with the tools and resources they need to thrive. Having an efficient and effective board is essential to the success and longevity of your school, so we hope you find this resource helpful.


YEAR-ROUND CHARTER SCHOOL LEADER SUPPORT & EVALUATION

Having worked with over 500 charter school boards, here at BoardOnTrack we know that the most effective charter school organizations have a strong partnership between the Board and their CEO that is built on mutual trust and respect.

Our year-round charter CEO evaluation cycle allows you to get a bead on how your partnership is doing and touch points throughout the year and then the end of year evaluation.

We’re all in this charter world to build great public schools across the country. And having a really effective leader is an important part of making great schools for the kids and families you’re serving. Your board’s responsibilities include making your leader feel valued, giving them great feedback, and showing them ways to improve as a leader.

We have pretty high standards about how to go about governing — and that includes how to support your leader. If you find you’re not able to do all the steps we recommend just yet, take this approach as a vision of what you’re aiming for.

Quick reminder: we use the term CEO to denote the person at the very top of the organization, who reports directly to the board. Some call this the head of school, principal, or executive director.

EFFECTIVE LEADERS ACTUALLY WANT THEIR BOARD TO EVALUATE THEM.

Effectively executing an excellent CEO evaluation process can lead to higher engagement, productivity, and retention of your CEO. And ultimately, that all contribute to a stronger organization.

Charter school leaders spend a huge amount of time training, coaching, and supporting their staff. They have really robust feedback loops and end-of-year performance reviews.

Your CEO can feel slighted if the board doesn’t do an evaluation of their performance.

Board members are sometimes surprised to know that CEOs really want to be evaluated. But leaders do, and they want an effective one.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN, MAKE SURE YOUR CEO’S JOB DESCRIPTION AND GOALS ARE IN ORDER.

Your CEO needs a job description that sets clear expectations from the outset. The job description must be approved by the board and reviewed annually. Here’s a sample charter school CEO job description that you’re welcome to use as the basis for your own.

And while the job description sets expectations, the goals are the metric against which a CEO’s performance must be measured.

SET UP AND FOLLOW A PROVEN YEAR-ROUND PROCESS

Your process must be clear, consistent, and year-round.

There shouldn’t be a scramble to determine when or how to evaluate the CEO at the last minute. And the actual annual evaluation shouldn’t be the only opportunity for the board to help the CEO raise the bar for themselves or the organization.

And you don’t need to make it up from scratch. We’ve helped hundreds of charter school leaders effectively utilize our proven CEO evaluation process. With access to the BoardOnTrack platform, you can even be guided through the process, step by step, along with given tools to track evaluation results year over year.

Here are some of the key steps to follow, whether you’re setting up an evaluation process for the first time or refining a process you’ve led over time.

FORM A CEO SUPPORT & EVALUATION COMMITTEE.

Who should serve on this committee? We recommend the board chair, and preferably someone with HR or managerial experience. You might be lucky enough to have someone on the board who works in HR as their day job. They help design and implement performance reviews all day long in their professional life. It would be great to have someone with that background on this committee.

Three members tends to be the right number of people, with the board chair appointing one person to be the chair. One person will be the evaluation coordinator, it’s better if it’s not the board chair. It’s okay if it is the board chair if you’re a very lean board or that’s the only person who can do it. But it’s better to have some checks and balances in play here. Usually, the chair knows the CEO really well; they have a closer relationship than the CEO might with the other trustees. So it’s great to add someone else into the mix.

Learn more about how to successfully form and run your CEO Support & Evaluation Committee here.

DEVELOP A TIMELINE.

Map backward from your desired end date and write down the process steps in the timeline. Make sure you understand all the steps, who’s going to do what, and when each step will be completed. Definitely get input from the CEO here. We’ve seen a lot of boards come up with a timeline and then just hand it down to the CEO. And, in most cases, this results in a plan that doesn’t mesh with the CEO’s realities. Maybe it conflicts with spring break or when the state testing is or things that the CEO would know. So work with the CEO on the timeline and plan your process to allow the CEO to devote the time and energy to make a good process. For instance, the due date for their self-evaluation needs to be doable for them. Note that your timeline will be approved by the full board. So put it on the agenda for a vote, and submit it as a document so the board has what they need to approve it.

DETERMINE WHAT TOOL OR INSTRUMENT YOU’LL USE.

How will you actually measure your evaluation, and do so consistently, with the same tool from one year to the next? The same survey instrument should be completed by the CEO, the full board and the direct reports. You could use a homegrown tool. That’s a lot of work. But we’ve seen people do it. There are other options out there. Ideally, you’ll choose one that’s been road-tested with charter schools nationwide. Because the charter school CEO job is unique. And the other tools that we’ve seen really

focus on a superintendent role, like a district superintendent or the principal job only. The district public school principal doesn’t have fundraising and financial oversight and other things like that. And the superintendent job just vastly different from that of a charter CEO. Of course, we strongly recommend our own online tool, which is built into the BoardOnTrack platform. It’s been built on the lessons learned from our work with hundreds of charter school boards across the country. And it’s the only one exclusively designed for charter schools.

DETERMINE WHAT ADDITIONAL DATA POINTS WILL BE USED.

Even once you’ve chosen your evaluation instrument, you probably want to include some other data that’s specific to your organization. For example the state test scores, annual parent satisfaction surveys, staff satisfaction surveys. Or there might be a report from your CEO on the board-approved goals that you set for the year — and how they’re doing towards completing them. Think of it as if you’re building a portfolio of data points. In the survey instrument, you’re asking questions; maybe rating on a scale of one to five how the CEO has performed. Then, the CEO will evaluate themselves using the same tool. And we want the CEO to ask themselves: what evidence is there to show that I have achieved this rating. And then come up with the additional data points to support that rating. For example a CEO might rate themselves high on financial oversight. And the data to support this could be your clean audit and the fact that you managed to a surplus. One survey instrument isn’t going to capture or document everything that needs to be collected. This portfolio approach helps allow for that.

THE CEO COMPLETES A SELF-EVALUATION.

The CEO should complete a self-evaluation and share it with the board before the trustees begin their evaluation of the CEO.

Understanding how the CEO is feeling about their own performance can be really helpful before each trustee completes the evaluation survey. When you sit down to do your evaluation of the CEO, you can look at the CEO’s self-evaluation and see if they’re being too hard on themselves — and you want to give them a pat on the back. Or, if they’re giving themselves a pass, rating themselves too high, and the board has to correct their assumptions. The self-evaluation can also be shared with the CEO’s direct reports. That’s optional. But it’s helpful for the direct reports to understand how the CEO rates themselves before they weigh in with their own responses to your evaluation survey.

THE BOARD AND THE DIRECT REPORTS COMPLETE THEIR EVALUATION OF THE CEO.

Have the full board complete the evaluation by the agreed upon time. Sometimes, boards choose to have just the chair or just the officers complete the evaluation. But you really want every trustee to weigh in, as well as direct reports.

DISCUSS THE RESULTS WITH THE FULL BOARD.

The key here is to agree to speak with one voice. Even if you don’t all agree. There can be areas where your split. There may maybe nine of you who feel the CEO’s doing really well on one thing; and one or two people who don’t. The majority rules. Just talk that through. Create a summary memo to communicate the results to the CEO. The memo highlights the things that the board feels are going well; and what they want to be improved. The committee will draft the memo for the full board’s review to ensure it reflects the board’s unified voice. Hold an in-person meeting with the CEO to share the memo and discuss the overall evaluation results. During this meeting, you’ll also come up with goals and an action plan for the next year. Ideally, this is a smaller subset of the full board — perhaps only the committee. Note that some CEOs are adamant that they want to read and digest the feedback prior to the meeting. You’ll need to decide what works best for your team. We strongly recommend sharing the written feedback after the meeting.

ESTABLISH AN ACTION PLAN AND GOALS FOR THE NEXT YEAR.

This is a really important step that often gets left out. Once you give the feedback, what are those measurable goals? What’s the improvement plan? Perhaps there are both personal and professional development goals, alongside overarching organizational goals.

In some cases, the CEO drafts their own goals for next year and reviews these with the CEO Support & Evaluation Committee. Either way, the committee will present the CEO goals to the full board for approval.

AND THE PROCESS STARTS ALL OVER AGAIN.

The CEO will now spend the next 12 months pursuing their approved goals, reporting out at board and committee meetings on their progress, and receiving regular support and check-ins from the CEO Support and Evaluation Committee.

This Charter school leader support and evaluation is essential for success as an organization. Learn more about best practices in this Board-CEO partnership in a recent webinar with BoardOnTrack.


For your school to reach its goals, meet its mission, and be set up for success, you need to build a well-structured, well-staffed, and well-trained Board of Directors. In this important webinar, our partners and industry experts on Board Governance, BoardOnTrack, joined with us to share their expertise on the ins and outs of recruiting, building, and managing your governance team as you grow.

In this guide you’ll learn:

· Board basics: Who should be on your governance team and what should they do?

· How to build a strong board: Strategically recruiting for diversity and skills

· Tips to govern for growth: How to face challenges and changes at any stage

Download it now and get the tools to be more strategic about your school’s board governance practices!

GET THE RESOURCE

charter school board governance

The Ultimate Guide to Charter School Board Governance: How to Recruit, Build, and Manage Your Board

For your school to reach its goals, meet its mission, and be set up for success, you need to build a well-structured, well-staffed, and well-trained Board of Directors. In this brand new guide, our partners and industry experts on Board Governance, BoardOnTrack, share their expertise on the ins and outs of recruiting, building, and managing your governance team as you grow.

We’ve seen the difference in outcomes when schools have highly strategic boards that work in close collaboration with their management teams.

An effective board needs more than enthusiastic volunteers who believe in your mission.

They need to possess the skills, experience, temperament, and time to govern a multimillion-dollar enterprise.

Great boards govern in partnership with the CEO and the management team to develop a vision of excellence, work toward near-term goals, and create realistic plans for the future.

Effective boards include individuals from a range of professions, with diverse backgrounds and skills that align with the school’s immediate and future objectives. We’ve seen boards achieve ambitious goals thanks to trustees with expertise in finance, real estate, fundraising, marketing, human resources, and executive leadership.

In this guide, we’ll cover best practices for charter school governance, including the essential roles and responsibilities on your school’s governance board, how to recruit the right people, and governing for growth at every stage. This guide is intended for charter school leaders and board members who want to be strategic about governance.

Download this guide to learn:

  • Board Basics: Who should be on your governance team and what should they do?
  • How to build a strong board: Strategically recruiting for diversity and skills
  • Tips to govern for growth: How to face challenges and changes at any stage

Get the Resource

Webinar: Board Governance 101

If you missed this information-packed webinar, now you can watch it when it’s convenient for you!
For this presentation, we were honored to be joined by Board Governance experts, BoardOnTrack. Our Ryan Eldridge, Charter School Advisor, sat down with Mike Mizzoni, Director of Leadership and Governance Training at BoardOnTrack to provide top-level tips on developing and managing your Board of Directors.
For your school to reach its goals, meet its mission, and be set up for success, you need to build a well-structured, well-staffed, and well-trained Board of Directors. In this important webinar, our partners and industry experts on Board Governance, BoardOnTrack, share their expertise on the ins and outs of recruiting, building, and managing your governance team as you grow.
Watch the video below to learn:

  • Board basics: Who should be on your governance team and what should they do?
  • How to build a strong board: Strategically recruiting for diversity and skills

Tips to govern for growth: How to face challenges and changes at any stage


 

Charter school governance

Charter School Governance: What is an Academic Excellence Committee?

EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ve curated this informative post from our knowledgeable friends at BoardOnTrack and was originally published here. BoardOnTrack is the platform, partner, and community empowering charter boards and executive leaders to reach a higher bar, together.
They equip trustees with a powerful combination of data and proven practices to govern for growth, without drowning in the details that form the underpinnings of good governance. You can learn more about how their platform can help you to build a better board, a board that enables sustainable growth for exceptional results, here.
We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.


What’s an Academic Excellence Committee?

Academics are at the very heart of your organization, and your board is focused on ensuring nothing short of excellence.
The Academic Excellence Committee is absolutely essential to providing the necessary level of support and oversight required to successfully govern a multimillion-dollar public organization.

Key Responsibilities of an Academic Excellence Committee

The committee’s primary responsibilities are to:

  • Ensure that the full board and the CEO have a shared vision of academic excellence and a clear road map to achieve it
  • Ensure that all trustees understand the academic promises in the charter and accountability plan — and how well the organization is performing against those promises
  • Educate the full board to conduct proper oversight of the academic program

Sample Academic Excellence Committee Goals and Tasks

As with any committee, your Academic Excellence Committee’s work should be organized around goals and tasks.
One of your committee’s primary goals might be:
Develop a process to educate and train the full Board on proper academic oversight by March 1st. Submit growth plan to authorizer by March 1st deadline. 
And, to ensure you meet that goal, you might assign specific committee members the following tasks:

  • CEO and leadership align on key academic indicators of success.
  • Chief Academic Officer {CAO} drafts presentation outlining the academic vision of excellence and key indicators of success.
  • Committee reviews presentation at its next committee meeting and discusses training/education plan.
  • CAO and committee chair reserve time on next month’s board meeting agenda for training.

Best Practices for Making Your Academic Excellence Committee a Success

Understand the Role and Functions of this Committee

The main purpose of the academic excellence committee is to measure the academic results of the organization against the goals established in the organization’s charter, accountability plan, and annual CEO goals.
In one sense, the Academic Excellence Committee is similar to the Finance Committee. Both exist to monitor performance against stated goals. For the Finance Committee, this means measuring financial results against the budgeted goals. For the Academic Excellence Committee, this means measuring organizational outcomes against stated goals for metrics such as:

  • performance on state tests,
  • performance on nationally normed standardized tests (e.g., the TerraNova, SAT 10, etc.)
  • performance on interim assessments (e.g., Achievement Network tests, the STEP, the DIBELS, or interim assessments created by the school).

In addition, this committee may look at budgets to actuals on metrics such as attendance, student and staff retention, and family and staff satisfaction surveys.

Focus on Outputs Rather Than Inputs

One of the biggest pitfalls for Academic Excellence Committees is to engage over inputs—the means by which the organization pursues its mission, rather than outcomes — the objective data used to assess how well the organization is meeting its mission.
Inputs are management-level issues, which should be handled by the CEO.
Outputs are what the board should be focused on and governing towards.
The best Academic Excellence Committees help CEOs set clear goals for the year, by building on outcomes that are related to the mission. They then set up check-ins throughout the year, at which they meet with the CEO to monitor progress towards those goals.

Your Committee Members Don’t Have to be Educators

While it can be useful for some members of the Academic Excellence Committee to have a background in education, it is by no means necessary in order to participate meaningfully.
Many effective Academic Excellence Committees don’t have educators on the committee.
We find that the key functions of the committee — helping the CEO to set ambitious goals and then monitoring data to assess progress towards those goals — are often well met by people with strong analytical skills. These people need not be educators.
The best Academic Excellence Committee members are those who are very analytical, are great at digesting data and asking good questions, and do not have to have an academic background.

Keep Your Focus on Board-level Work; Not Management Level

Academic Excellence Committees should not be involved in management-level work like:

  • evaluating teachers
  • selecting, designing, or reviewing the quality of curricula
  • planning professional development for teachers
  • interacting with teachers or other staff members on a regular basis (i.e., daily or weekly)
  • interacting with families or students on a regular basis (i.e., daily or weekly)
  • presenting themselves as an outlet for staff, family, or student complaints or concerns that have not first been formally addressed to the CEO

Your organization strives for academic excellence. Having a strategic Academic Excellence Committee in place provides the necessary support for optimal growth.


Want to learn how to recruit, build, and manage your Board as you grow?

Join us Thursday, May 16th, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. PT/ 12:00 p.m. ET for an exclusive webinar:

Board Governance 101

For your school to reach its goals, meet its mission, and be set up for success, you need to build a well-structured, well-staffed, and well-trained Board of Directors. In this important webinar, our partners and industry experts on Board Governance, Board on Track, will be sharing their expertise on the ins and outs of recruiting, building, and managing your governance team as you grow.
Join us and learn:

  • Board basics: Who should be on your governance team and what should they do?
  • How to build a strong board: Strategically recruiting for diversity and skills
  • Tips to govern for growth: How to face challenges and changes at any stage

 

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