It’s about responsibility with a Pilot School. There’s an opportunity for everyone to take part in decisions, and that’s empowering.
—Frank Pantano, teacher and governing board member, Boston Community Leadership Academy

   Pilot Schools are held to high levels of accountability through the School Quality Review process and regular assessments, and are in turn given greater authority at the school level. Through governing boards, increased responsibilities are granted to the people closest to the students and most familiar with the school. Governing boards are responsible for:
   • Setting and maintaining the school mission;
   • Principal selection, supervision, and evaluation (with the      superintendent having final approval). In Boston,     “principals” are the leaders of elementary and middle      schools, and “headmasters” are the leaders of high      schools. For high schools, “principal” and “headmaster”      will be used interchangeably here.
   • Budget and election-to-work agreement approval.

The Boston Pilot Schools Manual states:

Essentially, it is the governing board’s charge to the keep the vision of the school front and center, to ensure that the school is performing at high levels, and to enable all of the school’s constituencies to have a voice in the school’s development.

   Governing boards take the place of state and district school site councils, which typically serve in an advisory role to the principal. In contrast, governing boards exercise greater decision making in key aspects of school operations, and are similar to the role of a nonprofit board of directors. The Mason Pilot Elementary School summarized governance before and after their conversion to Pilot status in a chart, “Piloting Improvements in Our School.” Before Pilot status, shared decisions were made by the principal with input from the School Site Council (SSC), and a fixed budget made it impossible for the SSC to make meaningful budget-related decisions. After Pilot School status, the governing board, which includes the principal, makes shared decisions through voting, and the flexibility with the budget gives more freedom to the governing board to make necessary decisions.    Laina Cox, a sixth-grade teacher at the Harbor School, explained, “I had a lot to take part in as a beginning teacher at the Harbor School,” including sitting on the governing board. “Any ideas you have, you get to put them into place. That has been a great part of my experience [in a Pilot School].”

   Governing board decision-making power is shared among constituents, as boards are comprised of staff, administration, community representatives, families, and for high schools and some middle schools, students. Principals are always governing board members. The Mission Hill School governing board, for example, is comprised of five staff members, including the principal, five parent/guardian members, five community members, and five student members. One to two alternates for each constituent group have a seat at the table and participate in discussions, but only vote if a regular member is absent.
    Board members are elected by their respective groups, with the exception of community representatives, who are appointed to the board by the other elected representatives. Community representatives are generally selected from businesses, foundations, colleges and universities, local government, and the district. They are important additions, as they are able to widen the board’s perspective and leverage resources for the school.
   Standing or ad hoc subcommittees of the board are often created to address different issues pertaining to the school. At the Mason Pilot Elementary School, the governing board includes subcommittees on budget; personnel; development and Friends of the Mason; after school; and professional development (For more information on the Mason Pilot Elementary School governing board, visit http://www.masonpilotschool.org/board.htm). TechBoston Academy’s governing board chairperson and community representative, Steve Miller, called governing boards “a focal point for communication” among constituents, and noted that boards provide schools with internal guidance through evaluation, and external legitimacy through partnerships and fundraising.
   All governing boards must have a set of written and approved bylaws that outline the board’s membership, election procedures, terms of office, duties, officers, number of meetings per year, decision-making procedures, and methods of communication with the larger school community.
   Governing boards, which also assume the role of state-mandated school councils, must meet the requirements of state law on school site councils. In Boston, as part of the Boston Teachers Union contract, governing boards must have at least four teachers as members. Governing boards are able to be powerful advocates for their respective schools and collectively as a network. Over the years, Pilot School board chairpersons and principals have advocated together on behalf of all Pilot Schools on many issues, including creating a common template for memorandums of agreements, influencing union contract language, building political support for increasing the number of Pilot Schools and Horace Mann charter schools, establishing an equitable funding formula, and developing a fair plan for the placement of students with special education needs. In 2000, the Pilot School governing board chairpersons urged the creation of more Pilot Schools:
   We now have promising findings that in four short    years…the Boston Pilot Schools have begun to    demonstrate that, when urban public schools are provided    increased autonomy to adopt innovative practices while    being held accountable for results, student outcomes will    improve.
   Governing boards are continually working to develop their roles. An annual session is held by CCE for governing board members to review roles and responsibilities and to share practices across schools. The 2007 session included workshops on election-to-work agreements, shared decision making, and principal evaluation. To begin, governing board members were asked to share successes their governing boards had experienced during the school year. A Young Achievers staff member shared that this year “the governing board represents the racial diversity of the school.” For a teacher from Boston Community Leadership Academy “putting together a successful work agreement the past five years that has changed with the needs of the school” was a success. A Lilla Frederick Pilot School parent added, “We brought in a variety of resources for the school, including a mental health partnership and over one million dollars in new laptops and technology.”
    Board development also takes place in the Pilot Schools Network leadership meeting. During one meeting, leaders broke into small groups of grades K–8 and 9–12 leaders to discuss governing boards and share copies of board bylaws, principal evaluation processes, and election-to-work agreements. A new leader had specific questions about the governing board. “Just pick up the phone and call us” with questions, said Amy Marx, principal of the Harbor School, on behalf of veteran Pilot School principals to new principals.