Board Support

Staff with on-the-ground understanding provide board coaching in order to ultimately improve student outcomes. The governance training provided by CEI to a charter school board is customized to a school’s unique needs and characteristics, is on-going and embedded. CEI works with charter school boards to develop measurable goals, data dashboards, calendars of board and committee meeting topics and matrices of school decision rights to clarify roles and responsibilities between governance and management.

To ensure trustees are equipped with the same understanding of their fiduciary responsibilities and trustees and school leadership have a common road map for and are aligned on responsibilities to prepare for renewal, a series of governance trainings is recommended for all charter school Trustees:

1. Charter School Basics and Working with the School’s Authorizer

2. NYS Performance Framework, Performance Goals and Monitoring

3. Governance Oversight Routines

4. Renewal on the Horizon

5. Clarity of Roles and Responsibilities for School Management vs. Governance

Governance training topics can also be informed by CEI’s attendance at one to two board or committee level meetings for each school at the beginning of the engagement to observe and, afterwards, recommend refinement of the training topics and the sequencing of topics and trainings. Common topics that may be introduced are agenda setting, Robert’s Rules of Order, suggested scripts and best practices for public comment protocols at board meetings, and best practices for committee work (often for new committees that may not be well defined in the school’s by-laws or may reflect a board initiative such as creation of a trustee nominating committee, for which the board may not have an existing process).

The duration of each governance workshop is approximately two hours. The creation and customization of a data dashboard for each school depends largely on a school’s Student Information System and assessments administered. Customization of data dashboards and a Board of Trustees vs. School Leadership decision rights matrix work can be contracted by participating schools with CEI.