School boards spend too much time on triviality

JOHN RIDDELL describes from experience the problems and pitfalls of boards of trustees set up to run Tomorrow's Schools.

When Tomorrow's Schools was proposed about 13,000 people put their hands up to govern our schools. Yet not many trustees really wanted to adopt bulk funding in case they were left holding a pup.

Trustees are given an operational grant to manage schools, so why not manage their teachers' salaries as well? For one thing, the pay is terrible. You receive a miserable allowance of $55 as a meeting fee, for 10 meetings a year.

Ten meetings? How about all the sub-committee meetings that boards hold so that board meetings themselves don't need to drag on past midnight, having started at 5 pm?

Then of course, you also need the December and January meeting just to approve the budget, which you could not do at the November meeting because the board was not ready to put the draft budget to a vote. The board,of course, had just written the budget -- the treasurer, a local accountant, having just balanced the books, much to the disgust of the principal who finds he or she does not have any money for schoolbooks.

The question is: should the board be writing the budget, or delegating the task to the principal? The board does need to approve the budget.

Board meetings cover a range of subjects: Government legislation on finance, employment, property, health and safety, privacy, personnel, education and so on has to be taken into account when dealing with many of the subjects on the agenda.

Board members need to be skilled in meeting procedure, policy-making, negotiation, finance and property matters as well as employment and appraisal. Hours are spent on these and other topics and writing on behalf of the school to the Ministry of Education, lobbying for money to fix a plumbing problem. More time is spent in the school, sitting on appointment committees to select the teacher aide.

Why does a board member need to spend time selecting the teacher aide? That is a management function. Why do trustees spend time worrying about the plumbing? It's not their job.
Principals and caretakers and executive officers are paid and employed by the board to do that work.

What the trustee needs to worry about is whether the school roll will increase or decrease over the next five years, by what number and does the school have the capacity to handle that number? Will the staff cope and should the roll grow?
If not, why not, and what is needed to be in a position to accept more pupils?

What facilities does the school need? Should the school spend more on teachers rather than storage rooms, or buying more computers? And the most important matter: who is the best person to lead the school, and what is the school's philosophy?

Have we become confused between the role of managers and governors? Trustees spend a lot of time training. Is it the right type of training? Are we being asked to do a hands-on management role, or govern our schools, and what is governance?

Governance is about directing and controlling, administering the laws and regulating. Management is about administration, conducting affairs and having command of resources, both human and financial.

The manager of the school is the principal. His or her role and that of the boards are clearly stated in the Education Act. The board needs to be able to control the principal through sound governance policies, job descriptions and an appraisal process. The school charter needs to be a living document and a strategic plan, based around an education plan.

The relationship between the board and the principal is important to the success of any school.

Essentially the principal drives the school. As in motor sport a well managed racing team can win a championship. It needs a driver and staff able to respond to whatever conditions are thrown up. The driver is often responsible in motorsport for picking his team of designers, and mechanics.
The team just supplies the resources and finds further resources.

In order to win arguments with the teachers' unions and the Government, school trustees need to start arguing on an ideological and philosophical basis rather than looking to fix problems.

As governors we could be directing our managers in such a way that $55 a meeting for 10 meetings a year is all that is required. We are not paid to spend time running the schools in a hands-on role. Trustees are paid to govern and should be recompensed by increased fees.

The role of the trustee is to set policy and to ensure that the management and staff are doing what they say they are doing. The trustees need to ensure that the school is accountable and responsible to the community they serve.

Trustees need to focus on the large issues first, before looking at the little things.

Unfortunately, too much influence is wielded by the Ministry of Education, which is managing schools for a Government that is governing through setting policies and plans.

The partnership that was meant to come under Tomorrow's Schools, between the state, the school and the community has therefore not really happened. The reason is that the school and the community are too ready to fix problems rather than work with the Government in setting a school's policy and direction.

* John Riddell is chairman of the Massey High School board of trustees and a member of the board of Don Buck Primary School.