Front Page
By Theresa Kelly Gegen
Remember in high school, when your English/Language Arts teachers cautioned you against doing a “dictionary intro”? Never start a paper, speech, or essay with a definition, a teacher would say, because that is low-effort and trite, and it will get you a C-plus at best. And then the class clown would stand up for their speech and gravely intone “Webster’s tell us …” and at most three people would laugh, four if you count the teacher trying not to.
Fair warning to current and former ELA teachers, because I — rebel that I am — deploy the forbidden trope in this issue of the Illinois School Board Journal, to define, disambiguate, and dive deep, with a little help from some friends. But first, here’s an example of the trope:
Disambiguate: to clarify (something ambiguous) especially by providing or considering additional information; specifically, linguistics: to establish a single semantic or grammatical interpretation for (a word, phrase, sentence, etc.). Disambiguate “to remove the ambiguity from” is based on the adjective ambiguous “open to or having several possible meanings or interpretations,” plus the affixes dis-, indicating reversal, and -ate, indicating a verb.
That’s fun, and that’s what we’re doing here with governance. More rule-breaking comes later, on page 13, when we take up the threads of Governance. It’s a word we use all the time, it’s something we do on the regular, and we take courses and read publications and hold conversations about it. But what does it really mean? How do we go about it? How can we understand it enough to have the best “governance” for our local school districts? And does it mean the same thing to everyone?
Short answer to that last question: No.
IASB’s governance work on behalf of boards of education and school board members is guided by the Foundational Principles of Effective Governance. In a recent Journal, IASB Director of Outreach & Training Patrick Allen interviewed his dad, John Allen, who in 1997 was on the IASB staff that was instrumental in formalizing the Foundational Principles.
“While the issues that face school boards have changed constantly since 1997, the core governance focus has not, and will not,” said John Allen in the April/May 2024 Journal. “School boards will continue to face difficult issues within their districts. If they aspire to follow the Foundational Principles, they will be able to effectively lead their district through any crisis it might face.”
In this issue, Allen the Younger and his cohort of Directors of Outreach & Training took the time to share, with Journal readers, their thoughts on governance and the Foundational Principles, starting on page 18.
This Journal also features “Leading with Vision: Insights from Successful School Board Presidents,” by Kara Coglianese, Ed.D., Superintendent of Crete-Monee CUSD 201U. Coglianese’s conversations offer a perspective centered on board leadership.
As we explore the topic of governance in this issue of the Journal, consider developing your own definition and disambiguation of “governance,” one that works best for your board and the communities you serve.