The Governance Seal · Founding Pilot Study

Six boards will set the standard for how school districts are governed.

One day in the room. One year building your own instruments, on your own data, with your superintendent.

Virginia · Jan 22–24, 2027  ·  Florida · Feb 19–21, 2027  ·  one board per day

Community Voices · Aug 31 – Sep 25

Before the boards, the listening.

Thirty minutes, face to face. We're learning what people need to see and understand about how their schools are led — and what already works. De-identified, aggregate only, shared back in the open.

75 Listening seats
25 Reserved for Detroit
8 Questions behind it

Ask six board members how the schools are doing. You will get six different answers.

Not because anyone is wrong. Because there is no shared instrument to read from.

✦ You already know your community, your budget, your families. What has been missing is the instrument.

Your first training taught the rules. This teaches the how.

Eight questions a child could ask. Most boards cannot answer them.

Not because the board fell short. Because no one ever handed them the instrument.

1
Are our kids going to graduate?
How we know: How many are on track — and how many are not — school by school.
2
Are our kids showing up?
How we know: How many are chronically absent right now, and who is on it.
3
Which kids are we missing?
How we know: Every group counted on its own. Never blended into one average.
4
Do the kids who need extra help actually get it?
How we know: What each group is funded for — and proof it reached them.
5
Do we catch a kid early, while it is still small?
How we know: How we respond by grade and subject, and how many kids are in it today.
6
When we decide something, does it actually happen?
How we know: A name on it, and money behind it.
7
Are our buildings and our buses okay?
How we know: The condition of each — and at this rate, when it needs fixing.
8
Will the money still be there next year?
How we know: What is one-time money, when it runs out, and what happens then.
Answered in public — once your instruments run.

Year one you build them. Year two you post them, on a date set in advance, every quarter. Aggregate only — never a child's name. A count, who manages it, the next date, and which way it is moving.

The questions are fixed. The answers are yours.

Your superintendent is in the room.

Half the data lives in their office. Half the decisions live with you. The instruments are where the two jobs meet.

✦ Invited — not summoned, not evaluated. The work does not hold without them.

Eight questions. Three minutes. No cost.

Run on documents already in the public record. Never a score, never a grade on your board — a map of where you would begin.

A quick warm-up
Could you point, right now, to how many of your students are chronically absent — who owns that number, and whether it's rising or falling?
That's what these eight check. No data pull, no wrong answers.
1 of 8
What your board builds here
📋 Your self-map
0
we can point to today
0
not yet — a build item
0
to find out with our superintendent
    Four quick questions
    📋 You're in
    Your self-map is captured.
    Email the chief directly, too →

    One instrument a quarter. Then a year of posting them.

    Months 1–3
    Status Board
    Months 4–6
    Reach Map
    Months 7–9
    Follow-Through Log
    Months 10–12
    Footing Panel — all four live
    Year 2
    Four quarters posted in public

    ✦ Certification runs 24 months, renewed on evidence. A board is certified — not accredited. We hold that distinction carefully, and we will hold it with you.

    Level 1 of 3
    Governance Ready
    Every member trained. Portable — it survives an election.
    👤 The individual
    Level 2 of 3
    Systems Built
    All four instruments live, built by the board, end of Year 1.
    🏛 The board
    Level 3 of 3
    Systems Proven
    Four straight quarters posted in public, end of Year 2.
    🏛 The board
    📋 The longer read — what you keep, what the town sees, what this replaces tap to open

    What your board keeps. Four instruments, built during the year and used at the next meeting. A public commitment on the record. Governance Ready, earned member by member. A certificate of completion — IACET Authorized Provider status is in progress, not held, and CEUs cannot be awarded retroactively.

    What the town reads. Once the instruments run, the board reports from them in public on a set cadence — aggregate only, never a student's name:

    • 📍 Count — the number, in the aggregate.
    • 🏛 Manages the strategy — the superintendent, with the team. Metrics, never evaluations.
    • 📅 Deadline — when the next move is due.
    • 📋 Trend — which direction it's moving.

    The microphone test. Someone stops you in the grocery store and asks how the schools are doing. Right now most board members reach for a feeling. After the year you reach for the instrument: seven of our ten schools are on target for attendance, three are not, our director owns it, and the next read is in October.

    What this replaces. The nearest adjacent product is a two-to-three-hour session and a completion record. This is a year of demonstrated practice. See for yourself:

    One board per day. Three days per window.

    📍 Virginia
    January 22–24
    2027
    Boards lock by Nov 20, 2026
    📍 Florida
    February 19–21
    2027
    Boards lock by Jan 15, 2027
    • Five to nine members — fewer than five and we run the anchor data instead of yours.
    • Your superintendent invited.
    • Your own documents — and they stay yours. EJC never takes custody.
    • A real year — four quarterly reads and one annual read.

    Become part of the pilot study.

    Six boards, nationally, once. What your board builds becomes the reference for every board that follows — including the last two seats, filled by invitation from boards these six put forward.

    Signing up is itself a public signal — your board choosing excellence before anyone required it.

    Apply to bring your board →
    📄 Take the one-pager with you
    ⬇ Download the PDF

    Certified, not accredited. IACET Authorized Provider status in progress, not held. Systems proven — never outcomes promised.