Bylaw V
Responsibilities of the Board
1. The Board shall exercise general oversight of the management of the business and property of the school except such as are specifically reserved to the members of the association by law or by these Bylaws.
2. The Board will set itself a clear set of goals in each school year no later than August, and will also develop indicators and assessment measures for that goal.
3. The Board is responsible for the integrity, viability and continued existence of the school. Board members are subject to direction by the Chair of the Board. The entire Board is accountable to the collective membership. Board and committee members shall keep secret any financial, personal and other information which is marked confidential or is of a nature that may reasonably be deemed to be confidential.
4. No official external communications shall be made by members of the Board unless with the prior approval of the Chair and the Head of School.
5. The responsibility of the Board is to hold the school in trust, taking the necessary steps to ensure that the school’s mission is fulfilled now and in the future. Specifically, the Board must:
uphold the credibility of the school by ensuring the quality and appropriateness of its programs;
ensure the financial viability of the school through careful planning, decision making, and auditing;
oversee the management of the school’s assets and protect their value;
manage its own affairs to ensure effective decision making, orderly transitions, supervision of the chief executive, and regular self-appraisal.
In addition the Board members accept the following mutual commitments to one another and to the board as a whole:
We will organize our work and our meetings to fit our priorities.
Our committees will receive their charges from the Board as a whole and keep the membership informed about their work.
We will empower each other with timely and substantive reports and with regular opportunities to ask questions, understand issues, and participate genuinely in decision making.
We will regularly assess our performance as a Board and the performance of the Chair.
We will maintain a clear separation of our roles as parents and as trustees.
We will listen to the concerns and complaints of community members and direct them to theHead of School to be addressed.
We will form our opinions about the effectiveness of the school and its personnel on the basis of evidence rather than anecdote.
We will practice respect and restraint in our discussions.
We will remain conscious of the impact of our individual words and actions on the integrity of the Board as a whole.
6. The Board recognizes the importance of orientation and continuous training for all its members. To help the introduction of new Board members, the Board shall have an appropriate orientation program. New Board members, shortly after their election and before the first Board meeting in June, shall participate in an extensive orientation program. This includes meetings with the Head of School, principals and other members of the administration, as well as visits to the various school campuses. The Board Chair and the chair of the Trustees Committee will also meet with new Board members and assist in their orientation. The Head of School in particular will introduce new Board members to Board duties and responsibilities as well as the key challenges facing the school. The new Board members shall be provided with material that will help their orientation, such as pertinent information about the school’s structure, finances, Board proceedings, faculty and curriculum. Special attention will be drawn to the policy manual and other relevant material available on the school’s website. Each new Board member shall be assigned a mentor. To help the introduction of new Board members, as well as the further training of current members, every effort shall be made by the Board to have an annual workshop. This should normally take place in August.
7. Should the spouse of a Board member become an employee under written contract with the school, the Board member’s term of office shall automatically expire as of the date of the spouse’s employment, at which time the Board member automatically becomes a special member of the association and therefore is no longer eligible to be a Board member.