Thoughts from Afar

Kota Kinabalu, Borneo--At the EARCOS Leadership Conference for several days of governance consultation with international schools from across East and Southeast Asia. As always, astonishing things are happening a schools both small and large.

Governance is a challenge anywhere, but several attributes of international schools make it even more so: board member turnover is often extreme, with as many as 50% of members leaving in a given year; board member interest in the school ranges from marginal (an embassy appointed board seat) to pathologically intense (a parent who campaigned for election to the board on a particular agenda); parent-elected boards that replicate the worst dynamics of public school governance in the United States; and relatively few students who stay in the school (or country) more than 3 or 4 years, leading to many families having tenuous ties with the school.

As I listen to chairs and members talk about their boards and schools, what strikes me is the variability in how they answer the question, "For what purpose does your board exist?" A common answer in U.S. and Canadian independent schools is that the board exists to preserve the school for their children's children. In the international context, even though some schools are 125 or more years-old, the reasons given for the board's existence seldom are long-term in nature. Instead, I hear answers like, "to make sure our children receive a good education while they are here," or "to keep an eye on the administrators to ensure they do their jobs."

Well, of course these are part of the role. But what is too often missing is a sense of preservation, of holding the school in trust for the future. Without this perspective, it is all too easy for the focus to inevitably drift back to the short-term and immediate.

So, think about it: What is your board's reason for existing? Is there agreement among the members on the answer? An antecedent factor in at least some governance meltdowns is a mismatch in assumptions about purpose (not to mention time horizon) between leadership and membership.

More from Borneo later. On now to Day 3 with the group.

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