Governance Consulting Services
The work of school board members is best accomplished when they work as a Board-Superintendent leadership team. Through trainings and services, the goal of the WASB is to develop board member’s ability to lead their districts’ efforts to implement change that will lead to improved student achievement.
The WASB’s customized leadership services can address a wide range of governance issues. See below for more information.
Does your board need help:
Understanding the board’s legal and/or financial roles and responsibilities?
Visit the Basic Legal and Governance Resources for School Board Members page for an introductory compilation of resources.
Creating a vision and using it to direct your priorities and goals?
Operating effectively and efficiently as a board?
Effective and efficient school board meetings are productive, conducive to good decision making, and are focused on the board’s goals and priorities. The WASB school board meeting self-evaluation tool allows board members to evaluate their meetings as often as they would like. The tool can be used on its own or in conjunction with the Annual Board Development Tool. If needed, WASB consultants are available to facilitate discussions and improvements in operating effectively and efficiently as a board.
Creating board agendas focused on student achievement and high expectations?
Developing visionary board policies that support and lead the school district?
Policymaking is one of the school board’s most important functions. Through policy, the board sets the educational goals for the district and provides directives for administrators and other staff to follow while working toward achieving the goals. Policymaking is a continuous process whereby existing policies are reviewed regularly to see if they are effective and up to date and new policies are developed as they are needed.
The WASB’s experienced policy services team can provide members with a range of policy consulting services tailored to meet that district’s particular needs, interests or requirements.
Developing a strategic plan?
To ensure that the board’s vision becomes reality, the board should develop a strategic plan and establish policies for implementation. The WASB uses Stakeholder-Driven Strategic Planning, based on the research of Robert W. Ewy and the Baldridge Foundation. This planning process involves key community and school district participants and is designed to gather input from individual community stakeholders.
Since the process is tailored to the planning needs of the school district and balanced with current resource availability (staff, budget, and local resources), it is designed to take place in a reasonable time period. The cost is calculated on a time-needed basis and is dependent on the scope and goals of the school district for their Stakeholder-Driven Strategic Planning effort. As a result of the planning process, a number of documents or deliverables will be produced to help guide the school district. These documents will be used by the Strategic Planning Committee to analyze the school district performance and to aid in the development of the strategic plan.
Develop Your District’s Vision For the Future (Wisconsin School News, August 2016)
Aligning your budget with your priorities?
Dealing with conflict, building trust and modeling professional, respectful behavior for the district?
Developing an effective board/superintendent leadership team?
Building a relationship with a new superintendent?
Developing an effective district administration evaluation system?
Effectively communicating with internal and/or external stakeholders to develop strong partnerships?
