As the school year wraps up and districts across Kansas prepare to close the books on one fiscal year and begin another, now is the perfect time to pause and reflect: What does your board want to accomplish in the 2025-26 school year? 

More specifically—do you know how your board has spent its limited time together over the past 12 months? 

School board members are volunteers, and your time is valuable. You meet for only a few hours each month, yet the decisions you make—and the discussions you choose to prioritize—set the tone for the entire district and influence the direction of the community. That’s why it’s so important to be intentional about how you spend that time. 

One tool I often return to when talking about priorities is the Eisenhower Decision Matrix—a simple but powerful way to evaluate where our focus goes. This is a helpful tool which organizes tasks into four categories: 

• Urgent and important 
• Important but not urgent 
• Urgent but not important 
• Not urgent and not important

This framework challenges us to consider: Are we spending time on tasks that are truly important, or just reacting to what feels urgent? Too often, boards get pulled into urgent but not truly important matters—or even into the quadrant that’s neither urgent nor important—because those items are noisy, emotionally charged or simply easier to tackle in the moment. 

The challenge for boards is that urgent items often feel like they require immediate attention. But when boards constantly prioritize what’s urgent at the expense of what’s important, they risk losing sight of their true governance role. 

It’s not that boards aren’t working hard—they absolutely are. But often, they’re getting bogged down in areas that fall outside their strategic responsibilities. School boards may spend hours discussing topics like: 

• Curriculum decisions outside approved frameworks, even when robust district committees already manage curriculum development. 
• Day-to-day building maintenance issues, instead of focusing on long-term facilities planning. 
• Focusing on small, line-item transactions rather than broader financial trends or priorities of your district budget. 
• Responding to individual complaints that fall outside policy oversight, pulling the board into administrative territory. 
• Getting involved in hiring, firing and discipline decisions that are typically managed by the superintendent, HR professionals and principals, following district policy. 

None of these actions are done with bad intentions. In fact, they often come from a desire to help, solve problems and be responsive. But they take time—time that could be spent on strategic planning, evaluating progress and guiding the district toward long-term goals. 

So, How Do We Shift the Focus? 

Start by carving out space to ask the big questions—without the pressure of making immediate decisions. That might mean dedicating a work session or retreat to reflect on: 

• Your board operating principles: How do you want to work together? 
• What strategic plan components matter most over the next 3, 6, 9, or 12 months? 
• What kind of updates will help the board track progress without stepping into operations? 

A powerful starting point is a Board Self-Evaluation. At KASB, our Leadership Team offers a tool designed to help each board member understand their personal strengths—and the strengths of their fellow board members. Once the evaluation is complete, we work with your board to highlight key growth areas and develop shared goals to guide your work moving forward. Each member also receives a personalized report to support their leadership journey. 

To learn more reach out to Linsey Evans at levans@kasb.org. 

You don’t have to be best friends to be an effective board. But you do need to understand how your fellow members think, what they value and how they work. Strong boards commit to collaboration, not just governance. 

If your board meetings are filled with “urgent” issues but your team is still struggling to find direction, that’s a sign it’s time to recalibrate.  This summer, I encourage every board to take a hard look at how you’re using your time. Are you focused on the work that matters most—not just today, but for the long-term success of your students and community? 

Be intentional. Be strategic. And as you plan for the 2025-26 school year, ask yourselves: Are we spending our time where it counts?