Better Boards, Better Schools: The ISM Guide for Private School Trusteeship and Strategic Governance

Being a member of the Board of Trustees for a private school is certainly an honor. You are asked to take into your care a school-to ensure that each student's education fulfills the school's mission, and that all students are nurtured and developed to their benefit. You must carry out that care by providing support-resources-to the School Head. Your relationship to the school-as with all Trustees-determines whether your school will be successful in the long term.

Being a Board member is also somewhat puzzling. If you're like many Trustees, you're not sure how it happened. Maybe you were approached at a social event. Maybe another Board member had talked to you a while ago about it on the phone; you may even have forgotten the conversation. Maybe you were serving on a committee and this seemed the next logical step. You've become a private school Trustee.
Now what?

This book is based on more than four decades of working with the Boards of hundreds of private schools. Independent School Management (ISM) has honed its research and recommendations over those years to provide the best possible service to our schools. We hope you'll find the following theory and advice valuable as you better prepare your Board to plan for your school's future.

Chapters include:

* The Role of the Trustee

* The Board's Foundation and Strategic Structures

* Understanding Private School Finances

* Strategic Planning and Strategic Financial Planning

* The ISM Stability Markers

* Purpose and Outcome Statements

* ISM Success Predictors

* Recruiting and Orienting Board Members

* The Board Committees

* Board Meetings and Other Functions

* Board-School Head Relationships

* The Board's Role in Fundraising

* Strategic Board Assessment

* A Sample Board Commitment and Trustee Handbook

Independent School Management (ISM) is a family-owned company dedicated to the advancement of private school management. ISM reaches over 7,000 private-independent schools and serves over 200,000 students annually with advice, assistance, and creative solutions. Administrators in private schools of all types and sizes turn to ISM for advice and assistance on an array of management challenges, including student recruitment and retention, fundraising, strategic and long-range planning, Board-Head relations, personnel, plant expansion, mergers, leadership training, and creative insurance solutions.

This book is based on more than four decades of working with the Boards of hundreds of private schools. We've honed our research and recommendations over those years to provide the best possible service to our schools. We hope you'll find the following theory and advice valuable as you better prepare your Board to plan for your school's future.