Question 3: The BOE is essentially the board of directors of our schools. In a corporate setting, board members bring best practices from the outside world to the company they serve. What one best practice would you like to share with the Verona BOE?
John Quattrocchi: This is a great question as it reminds us of the role of the Board – “to not run the schools, but to ensure and govern that they are well run”. The Board – regardless of our individual careers, skills, and experiences – must recognize our responsibilities. That includes recognizing the line between interfering with the decisions and actions of our staff and Board leadership and governance. The staff are trained, skilled, licensed/certified and have the legal responsibility of running the district.
My career as a business strategist, product development leader, and global manager of staff around the world allows me to apply those skills and experiences to our district. Verona schools are a people enterprise. We don’t manufacture anything. Rather, we all lead people, efforts and strategies, and execution of the services we provide. The successes I’ve enjoyed in my career and on the Board all reflect those objectives.
Our schools – as reflected in our Strategic Plan – call for us all to balance our academic growth, finances, staff development, staff contracts, facilities and building maintenance, technology use and opportunity, school culture, and endless ideas to improves all those things.
I cannot stress enough how easily many school boards, and leaders/staff become distracted away from the continuous goals and improvements of a school program as we are constantly confronted with the issue of the day. With over 2,250 students, 300+ staff, and the concerns and opinions of the community, we require constant sound leadership and management so we stay our course while the interacting with our community of constituents.
I am a firm believer, and my experience on the Board reinforces this, that there is no single skill more important for an effective Board member than the ability to lead in this sense.
