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WITH 40 YEARS of working with school boards in one capacity or another, 1 believe the biggest complaint I hear from superintendents is board micromanagement--board members either infusing themselves into [...]

SUCCESSFUL SUPERINTENDENTS develop an entry plan establishing a road map of the first six months to a year. They can use this plan to ensure success toward the goals and [...]

THE CHANGE IN TOP LEADERSHIP in a school district can be stressful at any time, but there are particular moments when timing is such that an immediate replacement isn't possible, [...]

YOUR SCHOOL BOARD MEETING goes for 4 1/2 hours, but you notice little substantive work was actually accomplished. Board meetings reflect a lot about the leadership in a school district. [...]

SOMETIMES YOU can be totally right and wrong at the same time. Over the years, I've had the privilege of working with hundreds of school superintendents. Many are seasoned veterans, [...]

DOES YOUR LEADERSHIP team have credibility of leadership? As a superintendent, your work is affected directly by how credible the leadership team is perceived. You cannot instill a sense of [...]

I KNEW A SUPERINTENDENT whose job was always hanging by a thread. This shouldn't have been the case. Under his watch, student achievement was improving steadily. His talent for keeping [...]

A SCHOOL DISTRICT has been embroiled in controversy by a move to new grading practices and schedule modifications to implement major changes in instruction. The board of education has spent [...]

NOTHING CONCERNS school board members more than seeing a police cruiser with its lights flashing at one of your schools or hearing about police involvement at a campus. It usually [...]

MOST SUPERINTENDENTS HAVE their hands full leading just one local school district, but there's growing interest in neighboring school districts sharing a superintendent. In New England, there are numerous examples [...]

MOST BOARD OF education members are serving in their first elected office and have little or no prior experience in educational leadership. Even if they are professional educators by day, [...]

THIS IS IT! You made it through the first interview, and you believe you have the votes to be the next superintendent. Yet it is clear several board members, including [...]

A WHILE BACK, I was working with a board of education on governance--in particular, how the board members could remodel their leadership practices to focus attention on what really mattered: [...]

LAST NIGHT YOUR BOARD OF EDUCATION met with you to discuss your annual performance evaluation. You had a feeling that a couple of board members might take issue with some [...]

A student is sent back to school on a Friday afternoon because of fighting on the bus. The driver drops the student off before completing his route. It is raining [...]

A LOCAL BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER with a vendetta against the superintendent spends hours on the phone with the board attorney trying to find a legal way to force the [...]

A superintendent is asked to place a personnel matter on the board of education's meeting agenda, with the understanding it will be dealt with in closed or executive session. This [...]

How many times does your board hold a 'regular' meeting? Once a month? Twice a month? For the sake of argument, let's say 2 times a month. How long do [...]

I often give a quiz when I talk to school boards and superintendents about the role of the board and using meetings wisely. First, I describe a board of education [...]

Real scenes from school communities: * A school board member likes to wander around schools all day and talk to staff, asking, 'So, what is really happening around here?' * [...]

As your school board meeting is about to start, you are surprised to see nearly 100 people packing the boardroom. It appears everyone is there because of a rumor floating [...]

School districts take bullying seriously these days, developing prevention activities and dealing quickly and with certainty with those who cross the line. But what if the bully is a member [...]

One could gather from suggestions I've made in previous contributions to this column over the past year (how to deal with the lone ranger and dropping the bomb) that I [...]

A friend of mine is a retired superintendent who decided to re-enter the workforce in a small district that needed only a part-time superintendent (two days a week). He was [...]

As I visit school boards across Connecticut, I've noticed that many of the roads make no sense to me. The routes that started out as Indian trails or game trails, [...]

Have you had a school board member call to tell you she has been approached by several parents who are concerned with inappropriate behavior by a teacher and has guaranteed [...]

One presentation I do for school boards is titled 'Mistakes Board Members Make.' When I reach No. 6, 'Dropping the Bomb on the Superintendent,' I usually get an animated response [...]