Policy Governance®: Getting Down to What’s Really Important
The Federal Way Public Schools Board of Directors unanimously approved a motion at the September 28, 2010 meeting to adopt a Policy Governance style of management.
Policy Governance® is a fundamental redesign of the role of the board, emphasizing values, vision and the empowerment of both board and staff. It is designed to create a clear structure for a board of directors to be accountable to the community that they serve. This model enables the board to:
- Focus on the larger issues,
- Clearly delegate authority,
- Direct management's job without interfering, and
- Rigorously evaluate what is accomplished.
Policy Governance® allows the board to look at the big picture, and tell the Superintendent clearly what the district is expected to accomplish.
Under this model, the board becomes more of a think tank for the vision of the organization, than a reviewer of staff decisions and activities. It will focus on outcomes and on the reasons for which the organization exists.
The board essentially has two major roles: to set policies, and to hire and review the superintendent’s performance in meeting those policies. Board decisions are primarily policy decisions. It formulates those policies by determining the broadest values.
Policy Governance® allows a board, on behalf of the people it represents, to ensure that the district achieves the “ends”, or overall goals, set out for it. The board delegates authority to staff about how to achieve those ends, and so avoids being overwhelmed in every detail.
How does the Policy Governance® model fit into Federal Way Public Schools?
Policy Governance® allows the Board of Directors to provide strategic leadership that will shape the future of Federal Way Public Schools. Under the Policy Governance® model, the board will establish:
- Policies about the “ends” to be accomplished,
- The staff “means” that are to be avoided (through executive limitations),
- And the board “means” or governance process, describing the board’s job and how it delegates to staff through the superintendent.
This model assumes and acknowledges that the superintendent, administrators, staff and teachers are professionals with extensive education, knowledge and experience in developing skills and knowledge in students.
The board does not tell the superintendent and other professionals how to do their jobs. Instead, the board tells the superintendent what the board expects to be accomplished and leaves the methods of accomplishing those things up to the professionals.
What happens next?
With the adoption of Policy Governance®, the board’s work has just begun. In Policy Governance®, the board determines the ‘ends,’ or results, it expects the school district to accomplish. This will comprise the next phase of our school board’s work.
Consider for a moment the current set of policies and procedures, many of which were created in a reactive mode — when a problem or issue arose, a policy was created in order to deal with that specific problem or issue and to set rules for that issue in the future. Under the Policy Governance® model, the board will develop only:
- Policies which define its ‘ends’;
- Policies defining the executive limitations that prohibit specific unacceptable staff means), and;
- Policies establishing board ‘means.’
Once these ends are established, the board will be able to get on with the important work it has to do.