Levels of Board Involvement

Board involvement in school issues follows a Goldilocks-and-porridge continuum: too hot, too cold, and just right. Too hot leads to micromanagement and the turmoil associated with frequent school leadership changes. Too cold is too distant, reflecting a near-abdication of oversight and missing critical issues until it is too late. The trouble is that "just right" is a subjective space sorely lacking in definitional precision.This schematic illustrates how these concentric rings merge into each other on the margins. The important part is for boards to discuss what constitutes the "just right" space before tackling the actual issue. There is unlikely to be a unanimity of views, but achieving consensus helps keep the discussion from veering too far one way or another.Sometimes, the most important step is the talking-about-talking part.