Two years later, Washoe's baby takes major steps.

In December 2005, the strategic governing team--board of education, superintendent and executive cabinet--of the Washoe County, Nev., Public Schools took a dramatic step forward on the governance front.

After four months of intensive involvement in several facilitated work sessions within the framework of the school district's High-Impact Governing Initiative, the governing team reached unanimous agreement on several concrete steps to strengthen the school board's governing role, processes and structure, most notably:

* Adopting a detailed board governing mission describing the board's primary governing functions (for example, "playing a leading, pro-active role in the district's strategic decision making");

* Putting in place a structure of four board standing committees to accomplish the detailed governing work of the board: board operations; planning and budget; performance monitoring; and external relations; and

* Adopting detailed guidelines to empower the standing committees and ensure they function effectively (for example, all action items be introduced by--and all informational reports be made by--committee chairs at regular board business meetings; that committee chairs are regularly rotated).

Interestingly, rather than dividing the seven-person board into separate standing committees, Washoe created a virtual committee structure, involving all trustees in every committee meeting (except board operations, which is a coordinating committee consisting of the other committee chairs). Although obviously sacrificing the efficiencies of a real division of governing labor, this approach does channel and focus the school board's deliberations along broad functional lines.

Investment Returns

I recently talked with the School Board President Jody Roggerio and Superintendent Paul Dugan about the lay of the land in governance inside the district two years later. They agreed that implementing the new governing structure had produced powerful benefits. As Roggerio put it: "Making the investment of time, energy and money in the High-Impact Governing Initiative has paid off in a big way. Most importantly, our board focuses on the strategic agenda--addressing the really high-stakes issues--and doesn't get mired down in micromanagement."

Among the major achievements of the new board standing committees, according to both board president and superintendent:

* The planning and budget committee's work with the superintendent in redesigning the annual budget preparation process to allow for early, issue-focused full board involvement in the process rather than trustees merely thumbing through a finished document at the tail end.

* The performance monitoring committee's work with the executive cabinet in developing dashboard indicators for monitoring student achievement and administrative performance rather than burying trustees in reams of paper reports.

* The external relations committee's oversight of the development of a comprehensive district strategy for managing relationships with the community-at-large and key community stakeholders and the organization of a broad-based citizen's committee to pass a critical bond levy.

Explaining Success

Roggerio and Dugan identified three principal factors that account for the success of the board's revamped governing structure and processes.

First, implementation of the new committees began with a high degree of board ownership, resulting from trustees' detailed involvement in the intensive work sessions that generated the action steps that were adopted in December 2005. As Dugan observed: "By the time we began implementing the new structure in January 2006, our board members were enthusiastic 'change champions.' Our challenge wasn't to push the board forward. On the contrary, the members of my executive cabinet had to run to keep up!"

Second, when implementation began, everyone involved was armed with detailed functional descriptions of each standing committee that had been carefully crafted, thoroughly reviewed and meticulously fine-tuned over the course of the prior four months. All board members and executives, therefore, had a clear understanding of the committees' primary responsibilities, so, as Roggerio pointed out, "we really did hit the ground running and didn't waste any time debating the division of labor."

Third, the superintendent and his senior executives devoted considerable time to supporting the committees. For example, he appointed members of his team to serve as chief staff liaison to each of the standing committees. Liaisons are responsible for developing future committee agendas, and they also make a real effort to ensure the committee chairs are well-prepared to lead their committee meetings and that committee reports to the full board are carefully crafted. The executive cabinet dedicates a monthly meeting entirely to the governance agenda, reviewing upcoming agenda items and materials being sent to the committees. As Dugan points out, "We take governing very seriously at the executive level."

Doug Eadie is president of Doug Eadie and Co. in Oldsmar, Fla. E-mail: [e-mail]