Board Interview Questions Flashcards
What would you define as the primary responsibilities of the school board?
The board is responsible for the stewardship of the school’s mission. It exists to protect and further the mission. It fulfills this responsibility by formulating sound policies.
The board is responsible for long-range issues and big-picture planning and budgeting.
Primary functions include:
-developing a strategic plan
-developing and approving policy
-hiring a headmaster
-approving an annual budget
-overseeing financial accountability
-ensuring that the school is fulfilling its mission
How does the board select new board members? What is the process?
Two or more board members nominate new seats. We also allow for 10 or more member-parents to nominate seats. The list of nominees are made available to members for at least a month prior to election. Election will be affirmed by the greatest number of votes.
Some qualifications we look for are:
-a Christian in good standing
-a person who exhibits biblical wisdom, maturity, and leadership
-a member-parent
-fully supportive of CCE
-fully supportive of SA’s 5-year plan
-able to communicate SA’s mission
-able to work as a team
-capacity to maintain confidentiality
-ability to give of their time
We also have pre-training requirements:
-Read “The Lost Tools of Learning”
-Read “Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning”
-Know SA’s statement of purpose
-Be able to explain the basics of CCE
-an application and interview
How are new members trained for service on the board?
-Encouragement of reading within CCE, with recommendations given
-Paired up with a current appointed seat for mentorship
-Board members are encouraged to attend the ACCS Annual Conference, and shall attend at lease once per 5 years. Members have been given access to past year’s recordings.
How does the school board protect against conflict of interest in its own make-up?
-Through the application process and interview, potential conflicts of interests will come to the fore.
-If any conflicts of interests do appear during the term of a member, they are asked to recuse themselves during the decision making process.
-Public transparency
What is the role of the headmaster with regard to the board?
The board establishes policy and governs and the headmaster manages the execution of those policies.
The headmaster is hired by the board and serves as an ex officio member. The headmaster attends all board meetings but is not eligible to vote.
What does the board do to encourage and support the headmaster?
-Part of our next 5 year strategic plan is to establish a Headmaster Support and Evaluation Committee.
-The board maintains open and transparent communication with the headmaster.
-The board maintains clearly defined roles delineating between headmaster and board responsibilities.
-The board communicates its full trust in the headmaster to lead the school effectively and gives public support for the headmaster.
-Prayer
How large does the board want the school to grow? What is the board’s basis for this?
We seek to maintain reenrollement rates of at least 90%. We have recently been between 94-97%.
We plan to keep SA as a one-section (26 students) school for at least the next 5 years.
Included in our 5-year strategic plan is a feasibility study to explore becoming a 2-section school.
As a one-section school, this means we will maintain 260-338 students.
How does the board ensure that the school is adequately financed?
The board sets tuition rates based on the annually determined enrollment and the staffing necessary for each grade.
Rates are set in order to appropriately compensate staff and faculty, maintain the facilities and equipment, and cover all other operational expenses with minimum assistance from Development.
The board studies faculty and admin compensation in comparison with other ACCS schools, local private and public schools.
The budget is reviewed monthly.
Who creates the budget each year?
Admin and our financial controller/CPA presents the board with a recommended budget based on projected enrollment. Board finalizes.
What is the biggest item that the board is currently addressing?
-Beginning the process of working through our next 5-year strategic plan, which includes multiple feasibility studies.
-School safety
-Screen free policies
-Homeschool involvement on our sports teams
How does the board ascertain that the school is staying faithful to the founding mission and vision?
-All decisions and policies are reviewed in light of whether it fulfills and advances our mission. This is a regular discussion.
-During the process of hiring faculty/admin, the board evaluates the interviewees for alignment with SA’s mission and vision.
