Governance corner
Practical tips from our MIG faculty
Summer strategies to increase trustee effectiveness
It’s no secret to trustees across California that school districts and county offices of education are complex systems whether you have 200 students or 20,000 students. This complexity makes governing challenging; there’s a lot that trustees need to understand about district operations in order to govern effectively. CSBA maintains that in order for a board to be effective, individual trustees also need to be effective. There are several elements of individual effectiveness, and summer, with its somewhat slower pace, seems a good time to focus on two.
Deep learning
Summer is an opportunity for trustees to identify the areas of local educational agency operations or board governance where they’d like to build their knowledge and skills. For example, special education is complex and highly regulated by law. Summer can be an ideal time to sit down with LEA leadership to learn more about how board policies, actions and budgets affect the ability of the district to serve special education students. In the area of governance, boards can only do their work at board meetings. The agendas are packed and time is limited, so there’s a natural desire to be efficient and effective. Learning more about meeting procedures and ’rules of order’ might be helpful. This could be as simple as having a discussion with the board about local meeting procedures and how they work. (Chapter 5 of CSBA’s “Call to Order” book could be a helpful resource; the 2026 update will be available later this year at the CSBA online store.)
Mindfulness
Clarity of mind provides an anchor for our thoughts and feelings in the present moment. While the many definitions on the internet can be overwhelming, simply think of it as observing your internal experiences, emotions, thoughts and physical sensations without judgment. Mindfulness can be profoundly helpful in the boardroom, where navigating difficult conversations can be emotionally demanding. Practicing mindfulness creates space to identify internal reactions before they become responses, and provides a safe, compassionate and collaborative space for strategic and focused conversations on student achievement.
Here is a simple tip for practicing mindfulness in the boardroom:
- Pause: Like hitting the pause button on your remote, mentally step back from the flow of time and activity around you.
- Breathe: Focus on your breath as you take an intentional inhale and exhale fully.
- Observe: Turn your awareness inward to acknowledge your thoughts, feelings and sensations, and kindly let them be — setting them aside so that you can be fully present to the governing work.
Interested in learning more? The Advanced Governance Skills for Transformational Leadership Workshop on Dec. 2 in San Diego prior to at the Annual Education Conference and Trade Show is a good starting point. Visit aec.csba.org/pre-conference-activities to register.
Governance Corner is a regular feature of the monthly newsletter. In addition, CSBA Governance Consultants provide more in-depth answers to members’ governance questions in our BoardWise column in CSBA’s quarterly California Schools magazine. Send your questions about governance to gcs@csba.org.