SCHOOL BOARD TRAINING Consultants: Wayne P. Baker, Dr. Sandy M. Outlar

The Board Training Module includes three parts. First: We will make an assessment of where your school board and administration are, with your own unique situations and challenges. To do this, there will be a series of meetings (on site or with phone consultations) with your key leaders. The information garnered will help us adapt our presentations to your needs. Second: We will visit your school for board training. Although the topics for workshops are set, the content of the workshops can be adapted in order to address things that are important to you. The workshops are listed below. Depending on available time, we may or may not do all of them. If not, Sessions 2, 3, and 5 would be the minimum we would recommend. Finally: We will give you recommendations for improvement. In order to follow up on your progress, there will also be a series of monthly calls or meetings. These not only help track your improvements, but also give us an opportunity for additional input. Here are the workshops: Session 1 The Five Models of School Governance This is a context setting piece. We summarize the five common models and help you identify your school with the one that most closely resembles your governance. Clarity here can solve many problems related to understanding board and administrative roles. Session 2 The Importance of a Culture of Governance There are five factors that go into a positive school culture. It starts with governance. In this session we explore each of these factors and give you an opportunity to assess your culture in comparison. Session 3 Board/Administrator Relationships Knowing “who’s on first” is all important for effective leadership relationships. Misinterpreting each other’s roles is a prime creator of school governance problems. In this workshop we discuss what makes for a positive board-administrator relationship and what is necessary to keep it that way. Hint: the division of labor is key. Session 4 Unique Issues in Church School Governance Church sponsored schools have their own unique set of governance issues. These are not necessarily problems. Many blessings come with church sponsorship. Our discussion will center on factors that need to be addressed to work effectively in a church school. Session 5 Where It Can All Go Wrong There are certain land mines in school governance relationships. If you know where they are and what they are you can avoid potentially explosive situations. We will identify these and discuss how to deal with them.