Background
In Nova Scotia, Canada, Education Minister Ramona Jennex fired the South Shore Regional School Board
for breaching its code of ethics, bylaws and the Education Act, and for undermining staff trying to do their jobs.
Consultant Deloitte released a damning audit…. http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/37651-education-minister-fires-south-shore-school-board
The report completed by Deloitte found frequent violations by the board. These violations included breaches of
its own by-laws, persistent cases of conflict of interest, inappropriate use of in-camera meetings and a focus on individual agendas at the expense of the region’s overall best interest. http://www.gov.ns.ca/news/details.asp?id=20111129002
Based on the report, the Minister concluded that
“… the board was unable to fulfill its duties and its conduct placed the quality of education for students at risk,” http://www.gov.ns.ca/news/details.asp?id=20111129002
The board members expressed their disappointment with the news, however, they have to accept some responsibility for failing to fulfill their accepted governance responsibilities.
Failure occurs when one or more of the following 13 factors exist.
13 Factors Which Contribute to Board Failure
Some of the factors which lead to poor governance include:
- Former managers or well-intentioned citizens accepting roles as board chairs without
- the necessary professional development in the differences between governance and management, and
- the skills to remain neutral and facilitate a large team.
- Insufficient professional development in the area of board governance.
- Lack of a model of board governance which the board follows diligently.
- Policies which are;
- Too long
- Not measurable
- Unable to be implemented
- Not monitored and updated as necessary, and
- Not followed
- Governance-risk practices are not differentiated from risk-management practices
- Lack of board meeting evaluations
- Lack of board member evaluations
- Lack of board evaluations
- Lack of or failure to implement practices to keep individual board members in check and focused on their governance role.
- Inadequate or improper communication avenues between the board and the CEO.
- Unwillingness to let the CEO manage the organization.
- Lack of avenues to resolve conflict or unwillingness to use those that do exist.
- Board member inability to practice inclusive practices when dealing with each other (open communication, saying what is meant in the appropriate forum, reacting to what is said rather than to the person, refraining from holding meetings outside of formal meetings)
None of these factors need to exist in any board.
Research demonstrates what is necessary for success at the school board level. Help is available and crucial.
Departments of Education could show support by providing professional development to all boards rather than reacting and firing boards after they have entrusted them to do the job without the necessary preparation. One example of that was shown by the Department of Education and the School Boards Association in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Board members are well-intentioned and do their best and will succeed when a two-pronged approach is used.
A Two-Pronged Approach
Sometimes the boards’ best is not sufficient to meet the expectations of their Departments of Education. Given the number of school boards that have been dismissed in the last decade, it is time
- governments learned their lessons and assisted new boards early after their appointments or elections
- boards used their professional development funds to ensure they are prepared to fulfill the requirements of the governance role.
Both parties have a responsibility and can partner to ensure boards practice excellence in governance and protect the public interest.
