Governance

A first step is to define how your school is governed and directed, and to be able to express the three relevant components. There are healthy understandings and relationships between:

A) Owners
• By nature, owners strongly influence how authority is exercised, from within the organization or whether it is shared or delegated among other leaders and people in the school. It is a great challenge for owners to understand the balance between their rights and responsibilities. They must consider how to how to rule as a servant leader instead of supreme king.

B) Authority:
• Solo leader - be it a pastor, director or member of a business family
• School leadership team - be it as a director, with an administrator, sub-directors, etc
• Board of Directors - external (from church, denomination, mission, association)
• Board of Directors - internal (from the parents or "Moral Owners" of the school)

C) Governance-Leadership
• Governance should provide guidance and direction to a school.
• Governance should also provide representation and voice to the people that are part of the school.
• Here are 4 specific models of Governance:
  • By Tradition (historical and traditional)
  • By Politics (John Carver)
  • Mission Led (Leonard Stobb)
  • By Community (Campey & Bartlett)

It is important to be clear about the roles of each member at this level, and that all school leaders are aware of them. This allows for good collaboration between the school and its governing entity because there is mutual understanding and respect for each other's roles.

A) A legal owner is the person or entity that owns the legal deed of the school and represents it (and its representatives) before the government. It is not always just one person or a separate person; It can also be a moral owner (s), General Assembly or part of a Board.

Forms of Legal ownership:

• Sole proprietor - only one person or family, be it the pastor, director or businessman
• Church or Denomination-mission
• NGO/Non-profit National profit
• Association NGO/Non-Association International

B) A moral owner refers to the people who have a significant investment in the school, not so much financial, but rather emotional and spiritual (blood, sweat and tears); people who are most committed to the mission and their advancement in the school. They can be:

• the most involved parents
• a church congregation
• a parents association
• a general assembly (a formal entity in some countries)

Open, transparent and frequent communication between the owning entity and the one(s) leading the school is critical to good collaboration and successful results.

Regardless of how they are organized, the owner is responsible for defining the key foundations of the school: mission, vision, values, statement of faith, and philosophy of education.

An important job of the governing body is to establish the mission/vision, values ​​and fundamentals of the institution and the communication thereof. How and when these essentials are communicated is vital.

An employee hired by the owning entity (be it Head of School, Rector, General Director, Administrator, etc.) must be clear about the expectations of his superior and the parameters that determine his work.

Owners and their representatives who carry out their institution's objectives should be the example in communicating the importance of continuous learning through their commitment to continue their development as professionals.