Well-crafted bylaws will define the decision-making authority of an Episcopal parish, cathedral, or seminary school board, including its relationship to the vestry or similar governing body. However, bylaws will not outline how best to execute the work of the school board, or how or when to communicate with the vestry regarding any approvals or decisions mandated by the bylaws. An annual board calendar showing tasks and critical decisions is one way to realize best practices in parish day school governance and support a smooth working relationship between church and school.
Why an Annual Calendar?
Planning and decision-making processes in schools are driven by the academic calendar and must occur at specific times of the year. In any school, an annual board calendar is a simple tool to keep the head and board on track in executing month-to-month responsibilities.
For Episcopal parish, cathedral, and seminary schools, however, the school board exists in some degree of relationship to a vestry or similar body, and the school’s bylaws typically outline any number of decisions that require the vestry’s collaboration or approval. To complicate the picture even further, parishes and schools have different annual planning cycles. As a result, it is easy for school boards and vestries to become quickly “out of sync” with one another.
For a parish, cathedral, or seminary school, then, an annual school board calendar is a critical tool that can insure that shared life and decision-making are well coordinated.
Annual Board Calendar Content
The “Sample School Board Calendar” attached at the end of this article is organized month-by-month, beginning in August and ending in June. The items included on this sample calendar are not intended as an exhaustive list of everything that the head and board need to accomplish, but rather as a representative baseline of key tasks across a given year.
Each month is divided into three columns:
- Administrative actions required of the head of school
- Board-level actions required of the board’s leadership or a designated committee of the board
- The board agenda, those items and actions which should come before the full board for consideration.
Board and Vestry Communications: Three Critical Areas
For a parish, cathedral, or seminary school, it is also important that the board calendar note those times of year when the school board and vestry must communicate, particularly in three key areas.
Budget and Finance
Because schools and churches operate on different fiscal years, their respective budgets are drafted and approved at different times in the year. Most churches operate on a January 1-December 31 fiscal year while schools operate on a July 1-June 30 fiscal year. Churches usually adopt their budgets one or two months in advance of January 1. Schools, on the other hand, set tuitions and salaries and adopt the annual budget six months in advance of their new fiscal year, typically in January or February for July 1.
Annual revenue streams and cash flow patterns of schools and churches are also quite different. Schools charge a fee-for-service via an enrollment agreement and bill tuition in advance. This “pre-paid tuition” must be carefully booked and accrued over the course of the school’s July 1-June 30 fiscal year. Churches, on the other hand, rely primarily on voluntary contributions that are expended on a calendar-year basis between January and December.
For each of these reasons, all financial discussions and decisions between the church and school need to be carefully timed. The annual board calendar can identify a specific time of year, most often in in the fall, when the appropriate school and parish leaders meet to discuss those items for the upcoming fiscal years that may affect their respective financial positions. These discussions need to be scheduled such that any necessary approvals or agreements can be secured in a timely way. The calendar should also include a regularized review of shared expense allocations or agreements, coordinated with each fiscal year. In the absence of well-timed discussions, the vestry and/or school board will be blindsided by unbudgeted expenses or reductions in revenue.
Shared Space and Physical Plant
As with budget and finance, it is critical that parish and school leaders schedule regularized conversations about any proposed changes to shared space or physical plant so that changes can be planned, approved, and budgeted in a timely way.
For instance, the school may propose a change to the physical plant that requires vestry approval, or the parish may be exploring a new outreach ministry that could potentially impact a space used by the school. Critical “touch points” during the year should be noted on the annual school board calendar (and vestry calendar as well), such as a preliminary conversation in the late fall to share any potential changes, followed by a spring meeting to confirm the school’s summer construction projects and any mid-year needs that may have arisen at the parish.
Discussions/Decisions Requiring Vestry Approval/Involvement
The bylaws of both separately incorporated and non-separately
incorporated parish, cathedral, and seminary schools typically include
any number of decisions that require the vestry’s consultation or
approval, such as ratifying the annual slate of school board members,
approving the school’s annual budget and audited financial statements,
or approving certain types of changes to or use of the physical plant.
The board calendar needs to incorporate these approvals. Some schools find it helpful to schedule school board meetings one or two weeks in advance of vestry meetings so that school board and vestry agendas can accommodate required approvals or discussions.
Using the Annual Calendar
Each school can and should modify the sample school board calendar for its own needs. A great exercise is for the head of school and executive committee (on which the rector normally sits) to develop a board calendar each summer for the upcoming year, paying attention to major operational and strategic goals for the year ahead, along with any items that need the vestry’s involvement. This also allows the rector to anticipate school-related business in relation to the vestry’s agendas. The calendar can be reviewed at each executive committee meeting.
The “Sample School Board Calendar” included below can also serve as a working guide for those parishes and schools seeking to evolve a small school committee of the vestry into a larger and more fully-functioning school board; or help new rectors, heads of school and early childhood directors, trustees, and vestry members to better understand their respective roles and responsibilities.
Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the head of school, rector, board chair, and wardens to insure a smooth governing relationship between the school and the parish by living out “the rule of no surprises.” An annual school board calendar can help the parish day school board to execute its governance responsibilities in a timely way and avoid the most common church-school “train wrecks” that inevitably place the strength, vitality, and good will of both school and parish at risk.
Sample Monthly School Board Calendar