Whether you are an experienced trustee or a newly minted member of the board, a member of the clergy or a school leader, a committed parent or a parishioner, your work on the school board will shape the institution and the people in it far beyond the term of your individual service. We asked some experienced school leaders about what might be important for trustees of Episcopal schools of all kinds and sizes to keep in mind as a new school year begins. Here are four themes that emerged from those conversations.
1. Understand and embrace your school’s Episcopal identity.
An important job of Episcopal school trustees is to articulate and honor a school mission that goes beyond academic or institutional excellence. “Our schools are about human formation,” says David Charlton, President of the Corporation of Church Schools of Virginia, which owns five Episcopal schools. “As one head of an Episcopal boys’ school once said, ‘We are not preparing the boys for the kingdom of Harvard but for the kingdom of heaven.’ An Episcopal school is not just about being a great college prep school or a great preschool; it is about forming young people of integrity and good character who understand that they need to live for something beyond just themselves. This has to be at the forefront of the decisions we make and the school we shape as Episcopal school trustees.”
Each school lives out its Episcopal identity in its own way. It is up to the school’s leaders—the head of school and board—to revisit, review, and articulate regularly the school’s core values as an Episcopal school, to help the wider constituencies of school and church to understand how those values are lived out, and to insure that they inform the deliberations and decisions of the board. “Fiduciary responsibility is critically important, especially today,” notes the Rev. Preston Hannibal of the Diocese of Washington, “but the bottom line is not always the most important good to lift up, particularly as an Episcopal school. Our ‘business’ is that of educating young people in a particular way, and we need to think about the best use of our talents and resources to fulfill that mission. We value relationships; we support students, faculty, and families over the long haul. Sometimes these priorities are more important than simply maximizing the bottom line.”
In addition, every Episcopal school exists in some relationship to the Episcopal Church. Parish, cathedral, or seminary schools normally have a corporate relationship with their sponsoring organization. All trustees need to understand the history of the church-school relationship, the dynamics of the current relationship, and how the church and school live out their shared life and mission. Trustees share with the head of school and rector or dean the responsibility to steward a collaborative church-school relationship, even and most importantly in times of conflict or disagreement. Trustees of diocesan and independent Episcopal schools also need to be able to answer the question, “What is the school’s relationship to our diocese and to the Episcopal Church?”
2. Learn as much as possible about “independent schools.”
Episcopal schools, including parish day schools, are part of the “independent school” community and yet few trustees bring an in-depth understanding of this particular educational sector to their work on the board. This is as true of clergy and parish leaders as it is of school parents and alumni.
Independent schools have their own set of practices, professional norms, and market realities that differ dramatically from those of public schools, other non-profits (including churches and congregations), and for-profit businesses. Practices that may make sense in another context may or may not make any sense at all for the school. Early childhood programs have additional dynamics unique to educating very young children. Trustees need to understand not only the ‘business’ but the culture of independent schools and/or early childhood programs.
Thankfully, there are excellent resources readily available. The school’s accrediting body, its state or regional independent school association, regional or diocesan Episcopal school networks, the National Association of Independent Schools and, of course, the National Association of Episcopal Schools all offer publications, training, and online resources for trustees. NAES collaborates with many of these organizations to advance effective governance in Episcopal schools of all types.
3. Focus on what makes your school unique.
The new century has ushered in new ways of thinking about “how to do school,” from STEM and STEAM to global education and blended or online learning. Public school reform movements, changing demographics, and economic upturns and downturns have created additional challenges for schools of all kinds. Amidst this rapid change, it can be easy for trustees to lose sight of their own school’s purpose, strengths, context, and culture.
“No two schools are exactly the same,” observes Serena Beeks, a former Episcopal school head and Executive Director of the Commission on Schools for the Diocese of Los Angeles. “As trustees, it’s important that we always hold in mind the very particular ministry, flavor, ethos, and climate of our particular school. We need to be very intentional about figuring out what needs to change and why; and what is so fundamental to who we are that it must not change but rather be preserved and advanced.”
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Great by Choice, poses the question this way: “What is our core purpose such that if we went away we would leave an unfillable hole?” In an Episcopal school, the answer to this question rightly has as much to do with the school’s culture and core values as it does academic offerings or extracurricular programs. “We are schools that believe in something and stand for something,” says Hannibal. “ That’s why parents and teachers choose our schools, and it’s what fuels our work.”
4. Help the board to be the best it can be.
Ideally, the school board embodies a rich combination of personal qualities and professional skills that will advance the school’s long-term success and vitality. These usually include professional expertise in areas such as law, finance, education, or real estate; and personal qualities such as leadership, love for and commitment to the school, a deep understanding of the school’s history, hard work, and good sense. Episcopal school boards also include current and former parents, alumni, rectors or bishops, and parishioners, vestry members, and faithful Episcopalians.
As trustees, this disparate group of individuals must come together to deliberate and act as one body for the long-term well-being of the school. David Charlton comments, “The job of trustees is to think about these children’s children.” The future of the school—whether it flourishes or flounders, lives or dies—depends on the board’s ability to govern well and wisely.
An iterative program of board education and orientation, the commitment by each trustee to fulfill his or her role with integrity and enthusiasm, thoughtful succession planning for board leadership, and the ongoing cultivation of new board members can help individual trustees and the board as a whole to work more effectively on behalf of the school they love. Trustees can help their board be the best it can be by asking questions such as “How well are we fulfilling our roles as a full board and as individual trustees?” “Are we cultivating and recruiting new talent?” “Do we have the right people around the table?” “Are our board committees active and engaged?” “How are we balancing our attention to short-term and long-term planning?” and, most importantly, “Are we insuring that this school will continue to serve the generations yet to come as an expression of God’s transforming love?”
Episcopal schools can neither survive nor thrive without the dedication of their trustees who volunteer their time, talent, and treasure in service of a grand and sacred experiment: the education of generations of young people, mind, body, and soul.
This article can also be found in the NAES library under the title Trusteeship in Episcopal Schools.