School Board Consulting
Six ways I work with Indiana school boards, from a single training session to a year of steady support.
Every board I work with arrives somewhere different.
Some are in genuine trouble: split votes, a superintendent halfway out the door, meetings that generate headlines instead of decisions. Others are functioning fine and want to stay that way. A few are simply new, four fresh faces seated in January, all of them learning the job in public.
The work looks different in each case. What stays constant is the starting point: a board that governs well makes better decisions for students, and almost every board can get there faster with someone outside the room asking honest questions.
Below is what I offer. If you’re unsure which fits your situation, that’s exactly what the first conversation is for.
Board & Superintendent Evaluation
Evaluations go badly when they’re improvised.
I help boards build a fair, defensible process for both superintendent evaluation and board self-evaluation, grounded in goals set at the start of the year, so the conversation lands on performance rather than personality.
Resolving Board Dysfunction & Conflict
Split votes that never move. Executive session details on social media. A superintendent quietly taking recruiter calls.
Board dysfunction is rarely a people problem, nearly always it’s a role problem, and it seldom resolves on its own. I work with boards in genuine conflict to name what’s actually happening, rebuild operating protocols, and get the focus back where it belongs.
New Board Member Orientation
Indiana requires no training for newly elected school board members. None before taking office, none after.
That leaves new trustees learning budgets, policy, Open Door Law, and their own job description on the fly, usually in public.
Orientation gets them productive in ninety days instead of eighteen months.
Referendum & Community Communication
Most failed referendums don’t fail on the merits. They fail because the board couldn’t speak with one voice, or nobody translated school finance into language a taxpayer could follow.
I’ve been on the winning side of that campaign. We’ll work on message discipline, plain-English finance, the legal line between informing and advocating, and what happens the morning after either result.
Board Retreats & Strategic Planning
A well-run retreat resets a board for the year. A poorly run one burns a Saturday.
As an outside facilitator, I handle the agenda, the materials, and the difficult conversations, which frees your board president and superintendent to participate instead of moderate. We’ll set priorities you can defend, goals you can measure, and a plan short enough that people actually remember it.
School Board Governance Training
Boards govern. Superintendents manage. Every board member has heard that line — far fewer can apply it at 7:40 on a Tuesday night with a parent at the podium.
Practical training built around your board’s actual situation, covering board authority, the board-superintendent relationship, meeting effectiveness, and accountability without micromanagement.
Who These Services Are For
I work with public K-12 school corporations, elected boards, superintendents, and the governance teams they form together.
That includes:
- Boards seating new members after an election
- Boards in open conflict, or quietly heading there
- Boards facing a referendum, a bond issue, or a superintendent search
- Boards navigating enrollment decline or budget pressure
- Boards that are working well and want to keep it that way
Engagements typically involve the full board and the superintendent together. Governance is a team activity, and training that includes only half the team rarely holds.
Based in Northwest Indiana
Forty-seven years in public education took me from high school principal to superintendent to Executive Director of the Northwest Indiana Education Service Center, where I coordinated collaborative purchasing that saved member corporations more than $35 million and staffed the region’s Superintendents’ Study Council.
I know these districts, and I’m close enough to come back.
Serving: Lake · Porter · LaPorte · Newton · Jasper · Starke · Pulaski counties
Common Questions
How much does school board consulting cost?
It depends entirely on scope. A single training session is a very different commitment from a year of governance work. You’ll have a written proposal with clear pricing before anything starts, and the first conversation costs nothing.
How do we get started?
Call or send a message describing what’s happening with your board. We’ll talk for half an hour, and you’ll leave that call with a straight answer about whether I can help.
Do you work with boards that aren't in crisis?
Frequently, and those engagements often deliver the most value. Boards that build clear protocols and a solid evaluation process before trouble arrives tend not to have the trouble.
How is this different from ISBA?
Do you travel outside Northwest Indiana?
Let's Talk About Your Board
The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Tell me what's happening with your board, and I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right person to help.