The use of a governance handbook is a key step to building and maintaining a cohesive school district or county office of education governing board. It is a living document that memorializes the board’s working agreements and is a record of the board’s commitment to practicing effective governance.

The governance handbook should be reviewed biannually in a regular board meeting or scheduled for review at a special board workshop. It is particularly important for boards to introduce and review the handbook when new members are elected or appointed.

When conducting a review of the governance handbook, board members may consider discussing the following:

• How effective are we in referencing the governance handbook throughout the year?
• Is the current handbook an accurate reflection of our unity of purpose, protocols and/or working agreements? What recent updates have we made that need to be reflected in our governance handbook?
• Do we need to revisit our unity of purpose, protocols and/or working agreements to reflect our current board and to be inclusive of newly seated board members?
• What are the working agreements outlined in the handbook? How well do we operationalize them?
• How could we better use the governance handbook to be a more effective governing team?
• What steps could we take to better reference the governance handbook in the next year?

A thoughtfully developed, maintained and mutually agreed-upon handbook will promote continuity and consistency for a board and support exceptional governance leadership. For additional information on governance handbooks, reference the CSBA publication Call to Order, which can be found at www.csba.org/store. If your board would like support to develop or revise a governance handbook, please contact CSBA for a Good Beginnings workshop facilitated by a CSBA Governance Consultant.