Vickie.

For nearly a decade, Kadima has run smoothly primarily because of the efforts of our office manager, Vickie Barocas. Vickie is the most efficient person I have ever met. She is organized, knowledgeable, and supremely talented. Yet, she is purely a "back of the house" person. Few parents or members of our community know what she does or how good at it she is.

Most importantly, Vickie is one of the nicest people on the planet. She not only manages Kadima efficiently, she does it nicely, professionally, and with care. She always wants to help everyone else.

Now she needs our help. Last week, Vickie became seriously ill.

Please keep her in your prayers. Her Hebrew name is Chaya bat Kallah.

Schechter, again.

The Executive Committee, plus Rabbi Camras (a member of our Board), had a great meeting last week to discuss school philosophy and the issue of being a Solomon Schechter School. Kadima, after all, is a Solomon Schechter School. We've talked before about what this means; two articulations of the Schechter difference are here and here.

Kadima Heschel West Middle School was not a Schechter School. But since the middle school is now part of Kadima again, we're examining the Schechter issue. We recognize that we can't have a middle school and an elementary school with different philosophies.

It was a great discussion. We wrestled with cultural differences, the meaning of Conservative Judaism, and all sorts of issues. The Executive Committee is meeting this week to continue to the discussion so we can present it to the Board in late August at our Board retreat.

YU Study Says Day School Boards Could Do Better.

A recent study by Yeshiva University, entitled Survey of the Governance Practices of Jewish Day Schools argues that Day School Boards could do better in financial planning and fundraising. The study is based upon survey data from Day School presidents.

You can read more about the study here, here, and here.

It raises some interesting questions about Boards, Board members, and how schools function. I'll be commenting about the study's findings in the near future.

What Do Trustees Do?

Now that we know what the Board does as a whole, here are some thoughts about what Board Trustees do--again from the Schechter Association and NAIS.

The following principles of good practice are set forth to provide a common perspective on the individual responsibilities of members of the Board of Trustees.

1. A trustee helps define and actively supports and promotes the school’s mission both in the school and in the broader community.
2. A trustee holds the institution in trust and preserves its institutional integrity as a Jewish Day School. A trustee acts with the realization that the school is held in trust for future generations of Jews.
3. A trustee is knowledgeable about the school’s mission and goals as well as current operations and issues.
4. A trustee attends meetings regularly, is well prepared and participates fully in all matters.
5. A trustee acts so as to preserve the schools institutional integrity as a Jewish Day School affiliated with the Conservative Movement.
6. An individual trustee does not become involved in specific management, personnel or curricular issues.
7. Once a vote is taken, a trustee accepts and publicly supports board decisions and always respects board confidentiality.
8. A trustee guards against conflict of interest, whether business related to personal.
9. A trustee takes care to separate the interests of the school from the specific needs of a particular child or constituency.
10. A trustee will actively participate in committees of the board.
11. A trustee has the responsibility to support the school and its Head and to demonstrate that support within the community.
12. Trustees are expected to show their support for the school by attending major school functions.
13. A trustee who learns of an issue has the obligation to bring it to the Head of School, or to the board President, and must not deal with the situation individually.
14. A trustee contributes to the development program of the school, including financial support and active involvement in major fundraising activities.
15. Each trustee, as well as the treasurer and the finance committee, has the fiduciary responsibility to the school for sound financial management.
16. A trustee works to strengthen the school’s relationship to the local Jewish community, through active participation in synagogue, Federation or other Jewish communal organizations.

What Do Boards Do?

Before I started serving on the Board, I often wondered what exactly occurred in those meetings and what the Board actually did to run the school. Here's one view, from the Solomon Schechter Day School Association:

The board is the guardian of the school’s mission. It is the responsibility of the board to ensure that the mission is appropriate, relevant and vital to our school community. The board monitors the success of the school in fulfilling its mission and by establishing policies reflective of the mission. The following principles lay forth the responsibilities of the board. The board and the head work in partnership in fulfilling these principles.

1. Authority and fiduciary responsibility is vested in the board as a whole.
2. The board defines a clear statement of the school’s mission.
3. The board reviews the mission on a regular basis.
4. The Board relates to faculty, staff, students, parents, and the community according to the ethical standards of Judaism. It seeks out Jewish knowledge to inform its practice.
5. The Board is guided by the realization that it holds the school in trust for future generations of Jews and that a fundamental purpose of the school is the Jewish education of parents, children and staff.
6. The Board in its policy making and practices reflects the fact that the school operates within the parameters set forth by Jewish law (halakhah) as interpreted by the Conservative Movement, Conservative Jewish practice, and the Rabbi or Rabbis chosen by the school as its rabbinic advisor(s),i.e., mara(marei) d’atra.
7. The board reviews and maintains by-laws, and establishes policies and practices consistent with the mission on recommendation of the head and pertinent committees.
8. The board is accountable for the financial well-being of the school, including capital assets, operating budgets, fundraising and endowments.
9. The board provides and secures financial support necessary to ensure the continued strength and viability of the school.
10. The board and administration are partners in the well being of the school. While the focus of the board’s energy is on policy and the administration implements policy, in a healthy, creative partnership, the Board and administration share ideas in appropriate ways with each other and together deliberate about the future directions of the school.
11. The board selects, supports and nurtures the head.
12. A committee of the board conducts a written annual evaluation of the performance of the head and works with the head to establish goals for the following year.
13. The board evaluates itself annually and establishes goals for the following year.
14. The board establishes a strategic plan for the school.
15. The board works to ensure all its members are actively involved in the work of the board and its committees.
16. The composition of the board reflects a balance of expertise and perspectives needed to achieve the mission of the school.
17. The board is actively involved in its own education and in ongoing leadership development.
18. The board keeps full and accurate records of its meetings, committees and policies.
19. The board assures compliance with applicable laws and regulations and minimizes exposure to legal action.

The Stockdale Paradox.

As any conscientious newly elected president would, I've been reading a variety of material on organizational leadership. In particular, on my long commute to my day job, I've been listening to Jim Collins' Good to Great. (The Los Angeles Public Library is the mother lode when it comes to books on tape, and they make it easy to find and get the books or tapes you want. And my office is accross the street from the Central Library, so getting access to knowledge is easy). My wife Laura-Beth, who used to be a Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing at a major financial institution, has spoken about the book, as has Rabbi Camras, one of our Board members.

It's an interesting book, although like many "advice" or "how to" books, much of the time is spent justifying why you should listen to the advice given in the book, instead of just providing the advice. So some of the book is ballast. In any event, much of the book is self-evident (or was to my wife, who said that many of the recommendations were obvious to her based upon her nearly two decades in the corporate world), and the book, written in 2001, now is a bit suspect. Several of the "great companies" no longer exist. In particular, Collins mentions Circuit City and FannieMae, both of whom, well, are no longer great, and in the case of Circuit City, are no longer anything at all.

But during this morning's commute Collins spoke about the Stockdate Paradox, named for James Stockdale, a navy admiral who was held prisoner in Vietnam for eight years. Those of you who followed my old blog will recall that I linked footage of Stockdale's less than impressive turn as Ross Perot's Vice Presidential candidate. Stockdale told Collins that the ones that did not survive in the Hanoi prison camp were the optimists; the ones that believed that they would be released in a matter of months when it was clear that they would not be. Conversely, the ones that survived were the ones that believed that they would survive, but also did not ignore that the struggle would be horrific and thus tried to deal with the facts on the ground. This is, Collins says, the Stockdale Paradox. It is the idea that in addition to having faith in the ultimate ability of the organization to prevail and thrive, the organization and its leaders must possess the discipline to confront the "brutal facts." Hence the paradox: on the one hand, you have to believe that you will succeed; on the other hand, you can't ignore the brutal facts before you.

This resonated with me as I thought about Kadima. We have a great school. We have a great purpose and a great vision (more on that, later). We've got a great new HOS and and we've got a good program, and we are working to make it the best. But we can't ignore our challenges. And we won't. Collins makes clear that an organization can only become great if it both has faith in the merits of its underlying vision and purpose, and the intestinal fortitude to look at the facts realistically and honestly.

When I think of our Board, I know that we will be spending time this year examing and aligning the school's purpose, and being honest with ourselves and our constituencies about what we need to improve. And how we must all work to improve the school. While the Board are the fiduciaries and leaders of the school, Kadima cannot succeed without the help and commitment of everyone at the school.

Committees and Structure.

Sorry about the dearth of posting. I know that silence is a good way to kill a blog, but it is summertime, and the livin's easy...

But we haven't been sitting in the sun having an umbrella drink. Rather, over the last two weeks, I, along with Bill Cohen, have had the chance to meet with several of our Vice Presidents as we all plan for 2009-2010. It is terrific to be part of a committed and competent leadership team. Each of these individuals is dedicated to promoting Kadima's welfare, and working to improve the performance of their various portfolios. We've got a great team, and we're working hard to meet a variety of important goals for the school.

One of our priorities is to formalize and improve our committee structure. We want to make sure that we have some active committees. Many of these committees relate to fundraising (unfortunately, that's a painful reality for Kadima and every other school--we need to raise funds), but others involve publicity, volunteer organizing, and building and grounds.

I'll be writing about the committees in the coming days, but the idea behind having strong committees is not only to get work done, but also to be an entry point for people to become involved in the school. People who serve on committees not only assist the school, but also develop their own leadership skills and may move up to Board and Executive Committee positions.

Kadima only works if everyone recognizes that they have an obligation to play an active role in building Kadima's success.