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PCAG Board Members

  • Board Chair: Dr. Tim Austin
  • Vice Chair: George Schwab
  • Secretary: Christian Logan
  • Faculty Representative: Heather Evans
  • Jennifer Cathcart
  • Kela Wright
  • Joe Lax
  • Michael Petrella
  • Eric Hawthorne
  • Bill Crowell

PCAG Board Governance

The board of Palmetto Christian Academy of Greenwood has chosen to use Carver’s Policy Governance model of governance. This method holds the board accountable as agents of the school’s moral owners. Moral owners of PCAG are those parents who believe in and uphold the school’s vision, mission, and values. The board’s role is to set the vision for the school, hire the Head of School, and hold him or her accountable for reaching the vision the board has embraced. The board also uses a variety of means to monitor to ensure unacceptable activities (which are clearly stated in the policy) are avoided by the school’s administration. The board takes care to avoid taking on management issues and takes the responsibility of governance seriously. For more information on Policy Governance, see summary below, or visit www.policygovernanceassociation.org.

 
 

Philosophical Foundation of Policy Governance® as given by Dr. John Carver on p. xvii of the forward to The Policy Governance Fieldbook ©1999, Jossey-Bass

Accountability

Given its owner-representative role, the board’s obligation to the true owners is to see to it that the organization achieves what it should while avoiding unacceptable activities and situations. Governance is part of ownership, not part of management. Defaulting to staff, to vocal consumer groups, or even to individual board members is a dereliction of this stewardship. Assuring this accountability and being at arm’s length from its fulfillment must coexist.

Servant-leadership

As owner-representative, the board is both servant to and leader of the ownership. Failing in either part of this dual trusteeship—whether because of conflicts of interest, self-aggrandizement, or even simple passivity—is an abuse of authority. Thus the board adds value to the owners (not to the managers), in that owners not only have their wishes served but also become more enlightened, responsible owners. Providing leadership to the owners and being their servant must co-exist.

Clarity of group values

The board is vested with group responsibility and group authority, whereas no single member has any. Yet the platform of authority afforded by board membership tempts members to impose individual desires on the organization. Expressing individual values is requisite to the forging of group values but is not authoritative outside the group. Group wisdom that emerges from this active interchange must be made explicit in order to be expressed with certainty. Rigorous diversity and group wholeness must coexist.

Empowerment

Although staff are employed to serve the board’s will, both productivity and humanity are better served if the staff’s latitude to make decisions, to try new ways, and to make mistakes is maximized. The board is accountable for the organization’s ethics about people and promises, just as with any other aspect of the organization. Productivity and human dignity must coexist.