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In our last two articles(1)(2) on the Policy Governance® model, we expressed our outrage to the assembling mentality of Dr. Carver in conceiving two mutually exclusive roles, one for governance by the Board, and the other for management by the Chief Executive Officer. The Board takes care of the ENDS (goals) and the Chief Executive Officer takes care of the MEANS (procedures and methods to accomplish the goals). As we have found out, the summing up of these two roles is pure predetermined chaos among all the stakeholders of the organization within an ever increasing autocratic and policing social environment. In particular, we have found out that the exclusive management power of the Chief Executive Officer is above the law, above the organizational bylaws, and above the pertinent legislation.

The Carver's Policy Governance® model has been adopted by different school boards across Canada, and I want to quote some thoughts expressed by Gordon Titsworth, a school trustee in British Columbia, in regard to the relevancy of the Carver's model in addressing the educational needs of the students, the needs of their parents, the needs of their community, and the needs of their society at large. Gordon Tisworth shares my own concerns about the conflict of this Policy Governance® with the law and the artificial assembling of the two roles, governance and management, and states the following:

The Carver model is at variance with the role of the elected trustee because it isolates the governor from the governed. What is needed in education is a model which engages the public and connects the governor and the governed. It is through this connection that the system can match the goals and aspirations of the community and build trust in decision-making... Locally elected trustees are -- and must be -- accountable to the public for both the educational framework they provide, and the quality of the educational opportunities which result. They must be able to hold the system accountable for the way in which that is translated into programs and services... The role of school trustees must be defined by their status as "elected members of society" representing the public in governance of the institution. Constantly visible in their decision-making, locally elected trustees engage the public in serious discussion, and create the accountability structures which give "ordinary citizens" influence... In his essay, "Trustees as Servants," Robert Greenleaf states: "Trustees have a kind of power that administrations and staff do not have -- they have the legal power to manage everything in the institution; they have all the legal power there is. They may delegate some of it, but they can also take it back. They cannot give any of it away, irretrievably, and still be Trustees."(3).

Endnotes

1. A first impression of the Carver's Policy Governance® Model, by Mario deSantis, September 18, 2000 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000_200/desantis229/Carver.html

2. The Essence of Carver's Policy Governance® Model: A Machiavellian plot to reinforce an authoritarian Saskatchewan Healthcare, by Mario deSantis, September 20, 2000 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000_200/desantis230/CarverMach.htm

3. Governance, policy, and the elected trustee, by Gordon Titsworth, School Trustee (Kootenay-Columbia), EDUCATION LEADER, British Columbia School Trustees Association, March 27, 1997 http://www.bcsta.org/pub/leader/el_mar27.htm