Why the School’s Board of Directors Should Matter to a PCS Parent

By John Young, Advancement Director

I have had the unique opportunity to view life as “a Paladin” from various perspectives in our 18 years here at Providence. I’ve been a PCS parent for all these years. I have served as a committee member, as a six-year Board member, and for the past four years, as the Advancement Director.

I must admit, in the first few years, I didn’t think much about the Board of Directors at all. I knew we had Board members, but I wasn’t sure what they did, other than making sure the doors stayed open. The truth is people really only focus on the Board and their actions when things go wrong, but I think this is really a short-sighted approach. We have a lot to be thankful for with our Board and their approach to governance, and I’d like to take a few minutes to consider how the Board is a true blessing and guiding force for Providence.

The Structure of the PCS Board

The PCS Bylaws state that the Board shall be comprised of no less than four and no more than twelve members. Members are allowed to serve no more than two consecutive three-year terms. We currently have nine board members. The terms are staggered to ensure continuity and prevent the loss of too many members, or valuable institutional knowledge, in a single year.

Unlike some schools, we don’t hold elections for Board seats. The Board is a self-perpetuating board, which means that it selects the members to serve. There are multiple reasons for this:

1. It ensures that the Board is able to seek a certain profile of skills that the Board needs to do its work (legal background, educational knowledge, corporate decision-making experience, parents with a good sense of the school community, etc.)

2. It protects against having single-issue board members that want to push for an agenda that represents one group of the school over and above the others.

3. It enables the Board to identify members of the community who are already organically leading and serving in the school, who are exhibiting wisdom and prudence, and who are promoting unity within the school.

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The PCS Board allows the school to be strategic for the future.

The Board views their constituency not only as current students and their families but also as future families who will join the school in 10 to 20 years. Our Board members always seek to lead with the next generation in mind.

They have a luxury that the Head of School doesn’t always have, because they aren’t focused on day-to-day operations. Rather, they focus their attention primarily on how to protect and promote the stated mission of the school.

The PCS Board provides strong support and stability for our Head of School.

A frequent phrase you may hear in the boardroom is, “The Board only has one employee, and that is the Head of School.” As I said above, Dr. Halloran is entrusted with day-to-day operations of the school, and the Board’s job is to ensure that he has all he needs to accomplish his objectives. The Board has input into, approves, and holds him accountable to those objectives, but other than that, the Board takes great pains to stay out of his lane.

The Head of School needs to feel confident that the Board’s priorities remain consistent year in and year out, and that both the Board and the Head are driving toward shared, common goals.

To this end, Dr. Halloran selects a Head Support and Evaluation Committee (HSEC) each year, comprised of three board members, to more informally, yet regularly, meet with him. As he updates the HSEC on school-related issues, they provide him with opportunities to seek counsel, “test the temperature” of the Board, and get a sense whether he’s on the right track when finding himself in unknown territory. This promotes both humility and confidence and builds great trust and provides essential feedback to ensure that we as a school remain on task.

The PCS Board enables the school to implement best practices and avoid common problems.

The Board and Administration adhere to Independent School Management’s (ISM) Stability Markers, which are 15 scored items ranging from debt ratios to hard income coverage, student surveys to faculty development benchmarks, and how much money we have in cash reserves. They do this to ensure that the school is always on the right track toward greater financial and cultural health and long-term sustainability. The Board is self-evaluated, both as a body and as individuals, so that they may constantly improve in their role as trustees of the school.

The Board undergoes continuing education at every meeting, and Board members attend summer workshops so that they may grow in their governance abilities and perspectives on classical Christian education.

The PCS Board provides the best opportunity for continuity and flourishing.

Our Head of School and Board hosts semi-annual meetings with former Board members and the school’s Founders to gain perspective on why previous decisions were made. This gives them a better understanding of our Founder’s intentions from the beginning, maintains institutional knowledge, helps them learn lessons from our school’s prior mistakes. The goal is to build a foundation of wisdom that grows with our school.

The Head, in conjunction with the Board, develops a five-year vision and strategic plan to guard against chasing momentary, temporary issues that may distract us from where we ultimately want to be. Once approved, it is the Board’s responsibility to hold the Head of School accountable to that strategic plan.

We all benefit from a Board that faithfully pursues progress in a unified direction. Does that mean that the Board is always in unanimous agreement on steps they should take? Not at all! However, I can say from my experience in Board service, I always left a meeting feeling that we made better decisions and arrived at wiser conclusions together than we ever would have individually.

As parents, we can be confident that the school we know, love, and trust will continue to uphold the same values and pursue the same mission for years and years to come.

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About John Young:
John and his wife, Heather, are the proud parents of three Paladins — two Providence graduates (one now serving as the Rhetoric School Latin Teacher) and their youngest, currently an 11th grader at PCS. A former Chair of the PCS Board, John has served as the school’s Advancement Director since 2022. He is also an elder at Klein Baptist Church.

Why the School’s Board of Directors Should Matter to a PCS Parent