The Auditor General recently released a report on school board governance in BC: http://www.bcauditor.com/pubs/2013/report2/school-district-board-governance-examinations

School boards create an important linkage between local communities and the
British Columbia school system. Effective school board governance demands a great deal from elected trustees and the need for good governance cannot be overstated, as school boards are responsible for a large number of duties, including establishing and closing schools subject to the order of the minister; managing schools, school property, class size, school calendars and student records; student enrolment; providing educational programming; and submitting approved achievement reports to the Minister. How school boards accomplish these tasks is by establishing policies, delegating responsibility for accomplishing operational tasks to school district administrators, and providing effective governance oversight.

Effective board governance requires commitment to learning and improvement. To that end, the government of British Columbia produced some excellent good practice guidelines and direction pertaining to board governance a number of years ago. The guidance was intended for all public sector boards, including school boards, but what I discovered through this examination is school board trustees are not sufficiently aware of this guidance and need to strengthen their practices in some key areas.

I am concerned that school boards are at risk of becoming overly dependent on school district administrators in the areas I identified needing improvement. Trustees need to be fully aware of good practices related to board governance to effectively carry out their responsibilities.