Cultivating a Thriving Christian School Series:
Addressing major components for institutional health in Christian schools
A Well-Functioning
Board is Paramount
IN
THEIR 2015 article, “13 Critical Issues Killing
Christian Schools,” The Christian Post lists “the
school board is weak” as the number one issue. Over the
past few years of our Renewanation revitalization work with
Christian schools, we have found this to be the case across
most of the schools we engage with.
Healthy Christian schools have effective school boards.
Poor board governance leads to mission drift, recurring
financial and enrollment problems, and often, high turnover
for the head of school. During our revitalization consulting,
one of the first actions we take during the school assess-
ment visit is to interact with the school board members. Are
they cohesive, or is there tension among them? Does the
board consist of members with disparate professional back-
grounds? Are there concerns about operational matters or
what kind of school they’ll be in five years? Do they conduct
an annual retreat to assess progress and set long-term goals?
How are new board members selected, and how are they
introduced to their board responsibilities?
Christian schools often start with the initiative of a few
parents. They begin with a pre-k and kindergarten class.
Each year, one more grade is added. Similar to a business
start-up, everyone pitches in to help with the school needs.
There’s little time or need for long-term planning. However,
as the school continues to grow, it becomes an organization
that requires facilities management, banking relationships,
employee policies, risk management, admissions policies,
and the means to assess progress toward goals.
RECURRING SCHOOL PROBLEMS ARE THE RESULT OF
BOARD FAILURES
The school board has two foundational responsibilities to
(A) hire, oversee, and replace the head of school and (B)
ensure the long-term health of the school. If the head of
school isn’t the right leader, this is a school board failure.
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By Ron Klein
If year after year, the school has the same enrollment or
financial challenges, this is a school board not meeting its
responsibility. These responsibilities include establishing
a viable donor development program, tracking student
academic outcomes, ensuring a vibrant spiritual culture,
re-enrollment rates, admissions standards, and making
decisions that drive long-term financial viability.
BOARD MEMBER SELECTION
Board governance research supports the finding that the
optimal board size is five to nine. Smaller boards don’t have
access to a breadth of expertise, and one or two individu-
als have too much influence. Larger boards often result in
excessive meeting times and intrusive engagement in oper-
ational matters.
The composition of the board should ensure a diversity
of experience and backgrounds including business entre-
preneurs, ministry leaders, financial advisors, and respect-
ed, engaged community advocates, all of which have high
integrity and a strong affinity for the Christian school and
its viability. Often, Christian school boards are largely
populated by former educators or school leaders. Too many
educators on a Christian school board can create disunity
in philosophy, a tendency to drive operational matters, and
the lack of diverse perspectives needed to think strategically
about the future of the Christian school.
Ideal board members have experience tracking and
addressing the overall viability of organizations. This
includes aspects such as quality control, adherence to
policies, measuring outcomes to previously set objectives,
adapting to changes in technology and competitors, custom-
er satisfaction, aligning the requisite resources to changing
priorities, compliance, fact-based decision making, working
in teams, and promptly detecting and responding to emerg-
ing revenue and profit margin trends. Board members must