Stepping stone or proving ground? The reality of school board governance

For many aspiring directors, school boards are often seen as a natural starting point – a way to gain governance experience while giving back to the community. 

But as two experienced directors point out, the reality is more nuanced. 

School boards can open the door to governance. They can also quickly expose whether someone is ready for it, and the experience itself can vary significantly depending on the type of school. 

A deliberate starting point 

Rae Gunn CMInstD

For Rae Gunn CMInstD, joining a school board was a conscious step. After reflecting on her career direction, she identified governance as a future goal and saw a school board as a practical way to build experience. 

She also saw it as a way to give back to the school community. 

“I realised I needed to be more strategic about my future direction,” she says. “A really good place to start is the school board.” 

Her experience at Rototuna High Schools – a large state junior and senior secondary school with around 2,000 students and 200 staff – was immediate and demanding. With a small board and broad responsibilities, trustees were required to cover everything from finance to personnel and health and safety. 

“You have to be all things to everybody,” she says. 

In that environment, governance is hands-on and time-intensive, shaped by Ministry of Education requirements, with less autonomy than many other governance settings. It also comes with visibility – and at times, scrutiny. 

“You’ve got to have quite a hard skin.” 

Very different boards, very different experiences 

Andrew Johnson CFInstD

Andrew Johnson CFInstD has seen a different side of school governance. 

As chair of the Waikato Anglican College Trust (St Paul’s Collegiate School), he operates within an independent, private school model where trustees are appointed rather than elected and board composition is deliberately skills-based. 

“You can identify the gaps around the table and fill them,” he says. 

That structure creates a board dynamic more closely aligned with commercial governance. It also highlights a broader point: there is no single “school board experience”. 

“These are not small organisations,” says Johnson. “St Paul’s, for example, has an asset base of more than $100 million and annual revenue of around $40 million, serving not only its enrolled families, but a number of external- facing partnerships.” 

That is comparable to a mid-sized enterprise, underscoring that school governance – particularly in some private settings – is far from “entry level”. 

Across New Zealand, boards differ widely. A large urban secondary school operates very differently from a small rural primary. State schools work within tighter regulatory frameworks, while private and integrated schools often have greater autonomy. Some boards inherit whoever is elected; others are built around a deliberate skills mix. 

Those differences affect not just the workload, but the type of governance experience trustees gain. 

 Both directors agree that school boards should not be underestimated. “These are complex enterprises,” says Johnson. “They’ve got significant assets, multiple stakeholder groups and real strategic challenges.” 

Schools must balance the expectations of staff, parents and students – often highly engaged and vocal stakeholders – while maintaining long-term direction. In some environments, particularly smaller or rural schools, trustees may also need to stretch across multiple areas simply due to limited resources. 

That complexity is exactly what makes school boards valuable, says Johnson.  

“They are a very good way to test whether you actually want a governance career.”  

Learning, and applying, governance 

For Gunn, the experience provided a rapid learning curve. 

She developed a practical understanding of board dynamics, risk oversight and the distinction between governance and operations – lessons that have carried into her other roles. 

“It was a good learning curve – a quick one,” she says. 

That experience has since supported her move into other governance roles, including co-chairing Progress to Health and chairing the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) local committee. 

Johnson’s own trajectory reflects a different stage of the governance journey. 

His governance portfolio now spans multiple sectors, including energy, property and professional services, where he chairs and serves on a number of boards. 

He agrees on the importance of governance discipline, but is firm on where many boards go wrong. “School boards fail when they get involved in operations,” he says. 

In his view, the board’s role is well-defined: appoint and oversee the chief executive (or headmaster/principal), set direction, and hold leadership to account. 

“We employ one person – the headmaster. That’s the relationship.” 

Maintaining that boundary can be challenging in school environments, where stakeholders often expect direct involvement. Many, he notes, do not fully understand the role of the board, requiring trustees to actively communicate and reinforce those boundaries. 

A pathway – but not a shortcut 

While school boards can provide valuable experience, both directors emphasise that experience alone is not enough. 

Gunn highlights the importance of building capability alongside practical exposure, including undertaking IoD training and working towards Chartered Member status. 

For Johnson, the bar is higher still. “I’m always wary of people who say they want a governance career but haven’t mastered anything themselves,” he says. 

Aspiring directors need either deep expertise or broad, senior-level experience – something that demonstrates they can add value at the board table. “You’ve got to have something you can hang your hat on.” 

He also cautions against treating professional development as a box-ticking exercise. 

“Turning up doesn’t equate to professional development,” he says. “You’ve got to take that learning and use it.” 

School boards can be both a stepping stone and a proving ground. 

They offer real governance experience, exposure to complex stakeholder environments and the opportunity to build core skills. But they also demand time, discipline and the ability to operate in very different contexts depending on the school. 

For many, it is also a meaningful way to contribute to their community while building governance experience – but the expectation remains the same: be deliberate, build capability and treat the role as real governance from day one. 

As part of its commitment to strengthening governance across all sectors, the IoD offers a School whole board membership package. This includes a 33% discount on annual subscriptions for board members (with no joining fee), complimentary associate membership for student representatives and free access to the Health and Safety online course for NZ School Boards Association members.