Managing the Board/Head of School Relationship

Board Member says.... Strategies to manage the relationship 1. "The Head of School gets so defensive when I ask for something." 2. "The HoS doesn't recognize my authority."

3. "I feel like I'm in the dark about what's going on at school - the head seems to disregard us." 4. "I say we fire her - we don't need any silly evaluation process to show us that Sally is not a good fit for Head of our school." 5. "Why in my company, officers don't get a housing allowance..., why should the HoS?" 6. "Let the Search Committee decide - I'll approve whomever they recommend we hire." 7. "Come on, let's just let our new HoS figure it out. He'll adjust to the job just fine..., after all, it's HIS transition." 8. "Yes, we all agree that we've given Bill every opportunity to address the issues we raised these past two years in the annual evaluation, but not offering him another contact will cause such turmoil among the staff - can't we just keep him one more year?" 9. "I just don't trust that our HoS is giving us the whole story - I want to meet with the HR director myself." 10. "Well no, I haven't read the policy on Student Conduct; I just think it should be the Board that decides whether or not a student is suspended, and I think we should overrule the HoS on his decision BEFORE we get an appeal." 11. "I move we form a "Celebration" committee and task the HoS with conducting weekly meetings to plan recognition events at school." 12. "OK, I admit it, I have a strong personality and our HoS is a bit reserved. Our personalities just clash, so I avoid him whenever I can." 13. "Madame Chairwoman, I request that we move into Executive Session without the HoS so we all feel free to speak openly about the teacher's contract negotiations. After all, her husband IS a teacher here." The Head of School (HoS) Says... Strategies to "Manage the Relationship"  "The board questions EVERYTHING I do!"  "I can't even order pens without the Treasurer nosing into things."  "These endless emails from board members asking for this, that, and the other are driving me crazy."  "I just can't understand why Board members do not prepare for board meetings more thoroughly - I sent them the whole curriculum for the new psychology course and no one of them read it!"  "It's clear to me - Security is my job, not the board's, so I have no obligation to inform them of the shooting on campus last week. After all, no one was hurt."  "Boy my new Board Chair is demanding - there's no way that I want to meet with him every week. Just let me run the school."  "Well if they don't know their role, they should just resign!"  "Faculty, I called you together to announce that the Board has decided to add two PD days to next year's calendar. I fought against it, but they decided to do so anyway. I'm really sorry."  "No, Mr. Chairman, I don't think we need a Board retreat this year - everyone except Margaret was on the Board last year."  "So I get a full-on evaluation each year, but the Board has no interest in appraising it's own performance. How's that supposed to work?"  "Sometimes I feel like Board member Smith's personal assistant - she just has this arrogance about her."  "Jeannie is such a quiet Board member - I can't tell if she supports me or not. She's a mystery to me."