An introduction to board meetings

The official work of a board gets done at board meetings.

Learn about how often your board should meet, how long meetings should last, what happens during them, the rough order they run in, and the documents that support them.

The article also explores some ways you can help ensure your board runs productive meetings.

What happens at board meetings?

The simple answer is that board members come together, have discussions, and make decisions.

These decisions should be made in the best interests of students, staff, volunteers, parents, the proprietor (for state-integrated schools), local iwi, hapū, and anyone else connected to the school.

Your board must also make decisions in accordance with legislation set by the Crown (the government).

Another big part of being on a board is reviewing the decisions you’ve made and looking for ways to improve, so the following things also happen at board meetings:

• Strategic planning
• Operational and board performance review
• Compliance with policy and the law
• Managing any real or potential risks
• Supporting the principal in their management role.

How much time will you spend in board meetings?

Boards will typically meet twice a term (once in week 2 or 3 and again in week 8 or 9) or once a month from February to December.

There is no fixed rule about when your board meets, as long as it is within 12 weeks of your last meeting. 

The timing of board meetings is often determined by the availability of board members, significant events occurring within the school, and the availability of reports.

If meetings are too short, there may be a lack of informed decision making. Too long and members may become tired and lose concentration.

We recommend that boards aim for around 2 - 2.5 hours for each meeting, depending on the requirements of each agenda item.

Therefore, you may spend around 20 - 27.5 hours in board meetings a year.

Some boards will have committees to undertake the work of the board outside of formal meetings.

The time requirements for these committees will vary considerably.

Board members also often get involved in volunteer work that the principal has asked for help with.

This work is done as a private individual under the instruction of the principal. It is not part of your role as a board member.

Do you get paid to attend board meetings?

Yes, every board member gets paid to attend board meetings.

This payment (called an honorarium) helps ensure there are no financial barriers to members attending meetings.

It does not usually cover additional work, such as committee meetings.

For more information, refer to our article Board member honoraria and expense reimbursement.

What documents do your meetings need?

Alongside the policies and procedures that outline how your meetings will run, each board meeting should have well-organised, easy-to-read documentation.

There are three main documents required for every board meeting:

Agenda

• The agenda sets out the order of business for the meeting.
• Your board processes should also outline who is responsible for compiling this information, how board members can submit potential motions for the agenda, when the agenda will be published, and other relevant details.
• Effective boards have an agenda arranged with the most critical discussions at the top, including the wording of any proposed motions.

Board papers

• These contain all the information you will need to have an informed discussion on the motions put forward in your agenda, excluding any confidential papers for public-excluded business discussions.
• They will also contain regular monitoring updates from the principal on items like student attendance, finance and property, staffing, etc.
• Your board processes should outline how and when board papers are provided to your board and anyone requesting to view them.
• The most common board papers include your strategic plan, the principal’s report, financial statements, board policy reviews, curriculum reviews, and specific topics such as school trip forms for approval.

Minutes

• The minutes are the official record of your board’s business. They must be concise, accurate, and written so that anyone reading them can understand the decisions and why they were made.

In what order do things happen?

Because the legislation allows for flexibility in this area, no one school board needs to be organised in the same way as another.

This allows your board the freedom to use your school’s tikanga, values, and other cultural norms to determine how your board meetings will be run (in terms of formality and flow).

In saying that, the general flow for most board meetings is:

Whakawhanaungatanga

• This is a time for board members to connect, settle, and “change hats” from parent, student, teacher, proprietor, etc., to board member.
• Some boards share a meal, and others allow time for a quick catch-up before the meeting starts.

Open the meeting

• This may be done by a karakia, whakataukī, prayer, or other welcome that signifies you are now starting the business of the board.

Board administration

• This includes confirming the agenda, noting who is present, the time the meeting started, any apologies, declarations of interest, and potentially noting incoming/outgoing correspondence. It also involves granting speaking rights to visitors, accepting previous minutes, and other relevant tasks.

Strategic thinking

• Refers to your role in planning and monitoring progress towards meeting your strategic goals and specified student educational targets.

Regular monitoring and assurances from the principal

• Along with strategic thinking, the principal (in their CEO role) should provide your board with clear, well-analysed, and easily understood evidence to either assure the board that the school is performing as expected or to identify reasons for it not performing as expected and what will be done to improve performance.

Board policy review and evaluation

• Your board should spend time ensuring that your policies and curriculum delivery programmes are working and meeting legal and community requirements.
• Regularly reviewing your meetings can help you to be more productive and effective.

Public Excluded Business (PEB)

• All discussions that are sensitive or identifiable to individuals must be conducted without the public being present in PEB (even if you do not have any visitors at your board meeting).
• For small schools and kura, this will normally include discussions about student progress and achievement because once data is broken down into cohorts (year, gender, ethnicity, students on specialist programmes, etc.), the data will likely be identifiable to individual students. 
• If PEB is done last, visitors can leave and do not have to wait around for the next agenda item.

Confirmation of the next board meeting’s date and time

• Finally, just before closing the meeting, your board must determine the date and time of your next meeting.
• There may also be a brief discussion on actions to take before the next meeting, potential agenda items, acknowledgments, and farewells, among other matters.

Close meeting

• It is often done using the same method your board uses to open the meeting.

The meeting is then officially closed by the presiding member.

No further discussions on board meeting topics are to be held by any board members, unless they are specifically delegated to do so.

No secret “car park” conversations!

What legal requirements do board meetings have?

For an in-depth look at the requirements and which laws they are pulled from, please read our article on board meeting policies, procedures, and legislation.

What helps keep board meetings productive?

The keys to productive meetings are planning and relationships.

If board members don’t understand the purpose of a meeting or cannot work together, the meeting will become dysfunctional.

Your board’s governance policies and procedures outline what your board is there for, what it will do, and how you will do it.

The presiding member should ensure everyone adheres to these policies and procedures.

Good relationships and a healthy board culture go hand-in-hand, especially because board members bring different levels of confidence, motivation, communication styles, backgrounds, and experience.

By complying with the mandatory code of conductopen_in_new, board members will help support a healthy board culture based on respect, integrity, trust, and transparency.

Your board should also be conscious that it is modelling the school’s values at all times – through how board members interact with each other, engage with the school community and mana whenua, and conduct board meetings.

Your board may already have governance policies and procedures in place, or you can refer to our Board Governance Framework.

How do you know your board meetings are effective?

Your board should regularly review its processes and procedures.

The focus of these reviews should be on the effectiveness of meetings, if processes are being followed, and the way board members work together and support school staff.

You can read more about this in our article An introduction to board culture.

Questions your board could ask

• Do our policies and procedures help us conduct productive board meetings?
• Do we regularly evaluate the success of our board meetings?
• Do we notify the public before our meetings, and are our public documents readily available?
• Are our board documents easy to understand?
• Are we ready for, and do we encourage the public to attend our board meetings?

Templates, resources, and references

Click on the link(s) below to access this topic’s templates, resources, and references.

Depending on your device, these may download or open in a separate browser.

Links from us

• Board Governance Framework
• Public-excluded business (In-committee)
• Board member honoraria and expense reimbursement
• Board meeting policies, procedures, and legislation

Ministry of Education

• Code of conduct for school boardsopen_in_new