Board meeting policies, procedures, and legislation

A school board needs clearly defined governance policies and procedures to be productive.

Board meeting policies and procedures will help your board create an environment where everyone feels they can actively, safely, and confidently engage in robust decision-making.

While there is a lot of freedom in how your board chooses to run its meetings, there are some legal requirements that must be met.

What are governance policies and procedures?

Governance policies and procedures set out how your board will operate, what each board member is expected to do (and not to do), and how board members will engage with each other and the wider community.

For example, your board should consider having policies on:

• Roles and responsibilities of different board member positions, including expectations for how board members interact with each other, school management, and the wider school community.

• The mandatory code of conduct for state school board members, including any augmentation your board has ratified.

• The relationship between the presiding member and principal.

• A role description and terms of reference for the board’s secretary.

Board meeting policies and procedures

Your board should set out how these policies will be implemented during a board meeting.

The most common way to do this is using procedures (sometimes called processes).

For example:

• How you will identify and handle conflicts of interest.

• What to do if members of the public attend a meeting, along with how you go in and out of public excluded business.

• The procedure for inducting new board members onto your board.

• An outline of how to evaluate both the effectiveness of your board meetings and school performance.

• A procedure for how your board responds to complaints.

We recommend that you also have specific board meeting policies and procedures that:

• Clearly state your board’s expectations regarding the outcomes that will be achieved within the school.

• Any responsibilities and authority delegated from your board to the principal or any other individual/committee.

• Outline the process the board will use to evaluate its own performance.

• Accurately record board delegations, such as a board delegations register.

What are the legal requirements your board meetings must comply with?

The board meetings of all state and state-integrated schools must meet the following:

• A quorum of more than half your board’s members must be able to simultaneously communicate during the meeting.

• All board members have one vote (except those with a declared conflict of interest on an issue).

• The presiding member can cast a second vote when board member votes are tied (normally used to remove the motion from the table and keep the status quo).

• The principal is both a board member (when planning, decision-making and voting) and the board’s chief executive officer (CEO) (when reporting to the board on operational matters).

• A motion can only be decided by a majority of votes (ratified).

• Board meetings are open to the public, as well as your board’s documentation (agenda, board papers, minutes, etc.)

• Your board can exclude the public in specific circumstances.

• Your board can delegate some of its powers and functions to an individual (such as the principal) or committees, but not its accountability.

• Any board member who misses three consecutive meetings without prior leave is automatically removed from your board.

These regulations and procedures are set out in:

• Education and Training Act 2020open_in_new

• Education (School Board) Regulations 2020open_in_new

• Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987open_in_new

Ensuring these regulations are incorporated into your policies and procedures will help to make sure your board always complies with its legislative requirements.

We have included any legislative requirements throughout our Resource Centre articles to make understanding your legal requirements easier.

Any time you see a statement that implies the board “must” do something, it indicates a legal requirement.

You can refer to our board governance framework for further information on governance policies and procedures.

Questions your board could ask

• Do we have governance policies and procedures that outline how we conduct our board meetings?

• Do our board meeting procedures and tikanga helps us to work transparently on behalf of our community?

• Is it clear how we share our policies and procedures with our community? How could we improve this?

• Are we aware of our legal obligations when reviewing our meeting policies and procedures?

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

• Sample meeting protocols policyopen_in_new

• Board governance framework

Local Government and Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) 1987

• Clause 46 – Meetings of local authorities to be publicly notifiedopen_in_new

• Clause 46A - Availability of agendas and reportsopen_in_new

• Clause 47 – Admission of public to meetings of local authoritiesopen_in_new

• Clause 48 – Right of local authorities to exclude publicopen_in_new

• Clause 49 – Provisions applying when meeting open to publicopen_in_new

• Clause 50 – Maintenance of orderopen_in_new

• Clause 51 – Right of public to inspect or receive copies of minutes of meetingopen_in_new

• Clause 51A – Public notification of resolution at extraordinary meetingopen_in_new

• Schedule 2A – Resolution to exclude the publicopen_in_new

Other legislation

• Education (School Board) Regulations 2020open_in_new

• Education and Training Act 2020open_in_new