Governance Basics: Context is Everything

A recent Independent School magazine, Summer 2025 collab between Stony Creek Strategy, ISCA and ICAISA - PDF linked below

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Check out our Women’s Leadership cohort program for 25-26 at the end of this post. If you reach out by July 3rd, you’ll qualify for an Early Bird discount! This is a small program (5-6 participants) that meets seven times over the course of the academic year and focuses on the leadership dilemmas you bring to the table.

The article linked below, in the wild, on my desk

Hi all!

I am delighted to share the article below with you all. For those of you who don’t have access to a hard copy of the Summer, 2025 Independent School magazine or who don’t have access beyond a certain point with an NAIS login, I’ve attached a PDF below so you can enjoy the beautiful layout.

This article came from a series of conversations between me, Bethany and Bonnie over the course of last year. We are all in agreement that the governance function is a huge lift and sometimes it can be overwhelming for trustees, who are, after all volunteers with limited time, to even contemplate how to begin to make progress. And of course, many schools have competing urgent priorities given the state of the world. We hope this article can help you separate the signal from the noise.

Basics Training - Independent School magazine, Summer 2025

6MB ∙ PDF file

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This article was a collaboration between me for Stony Creek Strategy, Bethany Di Napoli, ED at the Independent School Chairpersons Association and Bonnie Ricci, ED at the International Council Advancing Independent School Accreditation. Quick summary: Governance isa huge responsibility and a board can't take on everything at once. This article provides guidance to a board in identifying their governance priorities for the year ahead. Also within the article is a link to a governance checklist that appears on the ICAISA website.

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See you next Tuesday for a new #TopFive! Next Friday we’ll be off for the 4th but back again on Tuesday the 8th. And then July will see a new “governance advice column” from me and Moira Kelly, President of EXPLO, an article on managing peers and another article in the succession planning series.

I hope you’re all off enjoying a little peace and a lot of quiet!

Julie

Stony Creek Strategy - Professional Development featured offering!

Women Leaders Cohort for 25-26

Finding and Leaning into Your Authentic Authority 25-26 cohort

Jane Moulding of SmarterWisdom and I are embarking on our third cohort of women leaders next year. This is for student facing senior administrators and the core of the program is learning and working within a peer consultant protocol to unpack leadership dilemmas. Check out more information by clicking on the link above. Hit return or shoot me an email at jfausltich@stonycreekstrategy.com if you’re interested.