NEWS
As you may have noticed, today’s newsletter is coming from an entirely new email address. Please save this address is your contacts so it doesn’t go to spam. The newsletter has become popular enough to take on a life of it’s own so we’ve transitioned it to www.EffectiveSchoolBoardMember.com. You can still access all of the resources at www.EffectiveSchoolBoard.com — nothing there has changed. Please forgive our mess as we make the transition of subscriptions and former issues to the new platform and domain name. Thanks for reading!
QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES
Question: Our board wants to support early literacy more visibly. Aside from setting a goal in that area, are there other ways a board can spotlight a priority without crossing into management? -- Board Member in California
TESBM: Having a Goal about early literacy is definitely the first step, so congratulations. With those in hand, here are some additional things a school board can do to elevate the visibility of its priorities:
Celebrate Students: Specifically request that the superintendent align brief recognitions to the literacy Goal (e.g., students demonstrating grade-level fluency or sharing writing samples) at the top of meetings. Keep it tied explicitly to the board-adopted Goal and then transition to monitoring later in the agenda.
Pivot to Message: In board remarks, press releases, and community updates, repeat the same through-line: “Our community’s vision is expressed in our Goals.” Then refer to the literacy Goal by name and to its Interim Goals when explaining decisions, so the public hears the board’s priorities repeatedly whenever/wherever board members speak.
Communicate Results: Adopt a simple community interaction calendar that schedules listening sessions and public progress reports on the literacy Goal. Publish the monitoring reports and a one-page summary after each meeting so families can see movement.
Educate Community: Host short, recurring “How We Govern for Results” sessions for the community that include segments about the interim literacy indicators and how they inform budgeting, policy, and evaluation. Tie each session back to the adopted Goals and the reporting calendar.
Question: What steps can our board take to prepare for a smooth superintendent transition when our long-time superintendent retires? -- Board Member in Pennsylvania
TESBM: The board’s job is to safeguard continuity of the community’s vision/values (Goals & Guardrails) while enabling the superintendent’s effective start.
Before Announcing (or as soon as you learn a change is coming):
Reaffirm Goals & Guardrails: Let people know that Goals and Guardrails remain the north star through the transition. Announce that the monitoring calendar will continue unchanged. This preserves system focus and reduces churn.
Align Board Mechanics: Keep meetings tight (limited topics, consent usage) so the board can give sustained attention to transition milestones and monitoring.
Clarify delegation: What is board work (select/evaluate superintendent, set/monitor goals/guardrails) vs. management work (operational plans). Avoid slipping into tactical supervision while the seat changes hands.
During the Transition/Search:
Maintain Transparency: Use a transparent search process anchored to your governance framework (role clarity, community listening tied to Goals/Guardrails, criteria that emphasize capacity to move predictive & influenceable interim metrics). Reference your Superintendent Search/Evaluation tools to structure steps and artifacts.
Maintain Routine Goal Monitoring: Don’t substitute updates on the search for updates on student progress. The transition can’t become an excuse to lose focus on improving student outcomes.
Onboarding a new superintendent (first 90 days):
Orientation to Governance: Brief on why the system, board, and superintendent exist; walk through adopted Goals/Guardrails, the monitoring calendar, superintendent annual evaluation (the roll-up of monthly monitoring), and current strategic plan.
Initiative alignment: Ask the superintendent to produce an initial Initiative-to-Goal map with FTEs and to identify candidates for strategic abandonment or scale-up.
Performance Routines: Confirm the cadence of Goal-focused performance check-ins across the leadership team and that psychological safety norms are in place. Board doesn’t run these; you monitor whether they exist and are improving the interim metrics you track.
Communication Plan: Commit to leading transparent, routine public reporting on progress toward Goals so the community sees continuity through the transition.
INTERESTING READS & LISTENS
Should school boards adopt strategic plans or not? Here’s an argument against doing so.
This podcast identifies the role of the board as being one layer down from community, not being one layer up from management — and everything that entails.
BOARD MEETING ANALYSIS
A subscriber asked us to watch the December meetings of a school board in Florida. Here are the highlights from the combined workshop/business meetings:
Total Minutes: 3hrs 32mins
Minutes Focused on Student Outcomes: 0hrs 0mins
Key Topics: strategic plan update, books challenges
What Coach Celebrates: Board members asked meaningful questions about the strategic plan which is valuable since it appears to be the closest thing the board has to a set of priorities to focus on.
What Coach Recommends: The board should adopt Goals based on the community's vision -- not leave it to the staff -- and then monitor progress toward Goals rather than monitoring the staff's implementation plan.
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES
Effective School Board Officer Selection
During our monthly free 30-min webinar, we'll discuss things school boards should be considering when it's time to select officers for the school board and policy options regarding officer selection.
11am central on Friday, December 12th, 2025
Did you miss last month's 30-minute free webinar? Email Greg for a make-up session on any of our growing list of topics, including governance policy, delegation policy, effective budgeting, superintendent evaluation, professional services management, strategic planning, consent agendas, and more.
BONUS MATERIALS
For paid subscribers, here are links to additional resources (to gain access to the links below, please consider subscribing):
Additional details about the analyzed meeting:
Board Meeting Video
Workshop Video
Time Use Analysis
Guidance documents related to this issue:
Superintendent transitions
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