Nathan Quesnel is beginning his 10th year as superintendent in East Hartford, Conn., where he was previously a teacher and building leader. PHOTO BY CLOE POISSON/HARTFORD COURANT

The impact of COVID-19 on American education is a topic that will consume the next generation of educational research, capturing how superintendents and boards of education have worked together during this time. It should offer a unique snapshot of the importance of collaborative governance.

During this unprecedented time, superintendents and boards have succeeded in spite of the many challenges when their work has been grounded in what we consider the seven R’s of collaborative leadership. Embracing these measures will help educators get students back on track in healthy educational environments that can prioritize teaching and learning again.

LESSON 1: Respect for all

Leading and governing a school district through the pressures of COVID-19 have placed an unusual opportunity before superintendents and board members to benefit from — or be hampered by — the nature of the governance and leadership relationships.

Governance relationships that are based on respect recognize that monolithic agreement is not a gold standard worth sacrificing the integration of conflicting perspectives. In fact, effective leaders in times of crisis see disagreement as a wide-angle lens that strengthens response and action plans. In these school districts, superintendents and boards understand that while emotions naturally run high in times of crisis, taking time through governance workshops to listen, to learn and to solve, creates positive outcomes for students.

On the ground level, this looks like a meeting where parties honor air time, listen to learn versus listen to speak and take a disciplined approach to prohibit personal vitriolic attacks. These leaders make actionable commitments to civility, decency and collaboration in service to mutually developed and shared goals.

LESSON 2: Roles clarified

The concept of shared governance necessitates mission clarity for a superintendent and board team, particularly in a time of crisis. In this moment of extreme ideological polarization, leaders must release deeply seated beliefs, party affiliations and personal affinities for the purpose of unifying a school district around the mission of educating students in a safe environment.

As COVID-19 has evolved, this challenge has loomed as an emerging issue for leaders that is threatened by divisive and entrenched emotions. If a shared governance team is going to operate effectively in this moment, it must fully embrace and continually remind itself of this critical societal role.

This begins with a clarion call of purpose from the leaders of the governance team (board president/superintendent) refuting the ideological dilemmas that sadly cloud this discussion. This call is followed up by concrete reminders throughout the action planning and implementation, asking, “Is this conversation about our students, their learning and their safety?” By recognizing the dangers of politicization, this oversight helps teams to avoid being embroiled in liturgies leading to loss.

If a team is going to function during this crisis, the members must come together and focus on the clear role of the school district. As such, effective governance relationships realize the power of their community role and effectively position themselves.

LESSON 3: Responsibilities identified

Robert Villanova (right), director of the Executive Leadership Program at University of Connecticut and a former superintendent, with Miguel Cardona before the latter became U.S. secretary of education. PHOTO BY SHAWN KORNEGAY/UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT’S NEAG SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

Stepping into the weeds of collaborative leadership, well-identified responsibilities, organizational structures and decision-making protocols have never been more important. If a superintendent and a board want to succeed in a time of urgency, they must find the right balance between responsibilities for operational and political decision making.

Successful boards hire highly qualified leaders, share in the development of large strategic objectives and provide the administrative space for superintendents to conduct their work. Successful boards embrace this role, recognize its importance and refuse to devalue its relevance. Successful superintendents serve as instructional, operational and expert leaders to implement these plans as managers of district resources. In this balance, effective boards resist the tendencies to micromanage, to insert themselves outside their governance role or to pander to special interests.

LESSON 4: Realism practiced 

The well-worn saying, “It is what it is,” applies. Visionary leaders add, “and it is what it can be.”

As school districts responded to the challenge of operating schools in COVID conditions, these phrases, based on realism and hope, offer a backdrop for effective collaborative leadership. In these times, superintendents and board members were called to quickly recognize the ground-level context facing their community and to respond accordingly.

When COVID-19 first hit, successful districts were those that recognized reality and moved with urgency to fill gaps. This acceptance allowed leaders to step away from existing practices that were inefficient, outdated and ineffective. These changes include revisions to long-honored management/union agreements and the revision of vendor agreements with new terms and highly differentiated return-to-work plans for employees. In other words, these districts embraced the reality that COVID-19 was different and that the business of educating students would forever be different as well.

LESSON 5: Resiliency exhibited

As this health crisis nears the 18-month mark, effective collaborative teams recognized the vitality of leading with resilience for the betterment of students, faculty and community.

When the coronavirus first appeared in our schools, we, like most leaders, underestimated the duration of the challenge. This miscalculation resulted in short-term response plans, bursts of unsustainable energy and ill-conceived re-entry dates. We rallied troops, shot inspirational videos, identified two-week closures, Easter returns and potential in-person graduations. And yet, as we moved past each of these ill-contrived deadlines without realizing their promise, despondency and frustration threatened our organizations.

In the face of adversity, effective collaborative teams banded together with a renewed message of resilience and cooperation that recognized the emotional toll of the virus and wherever possible doubled down on flexibility, support and empathetic connections. This collaborative lesson broke down barriers and insisted on the commonalities of the human experience to overcome. Collaboration between administration and educators, teachers and parents, councils and boards, political and administrative leaders became the message of opportunity that would lift districts forward.

In this lesson of resilience, savvy collaborative teams embrace the difficulty of the moment and work together in ways that once might have seemed impossible.

A student in Meriden, Conn., shares his coding and music projects with superintendent Mark Benigni in a computer science class. PHOTO COURTESY OF MERIDEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

LESSON 6: Results shared

As the virus lingers, the public’s patience and trust for organizational leadership continues to be shaken. In this space, collaborative leaders have heeded the lessons of previous efforts to publicize assessment results and subgroup representations as a way of reinspiring confidence.

In this vein, superintendents and boards of education have found value in sharing high-stakes health data to assure families and staff that schools are safe and science is being followed. Leaders with an understanding of collaboration have created public dash-boards, updated daily, for monitoring COVID-19 cases to address concerns of their constituents. When superintendents and boards of education share data transparently, communities have greater confidence in the reliability of the results.

LESSON 7: Reflect on progress

While the urgency of collaborative leadership during the pandemic has not yet provided space for reflection, slowing the blur of response is vital for superintendents and boards. Many superintendents and boards have learned the vital lessons of prioritizing governance relationships based on respect and decency.

From the blitzing pace of decisions required to protect the health of a community, these leaders have defined the role of their organization and continually clarified individual responsibility leading to alignment.

Successful districts are those that embraced the realism of the present and modeled resiliency and purpose for a community relying upon their voice.

Finally, these leaders have shared data, embraced results and focused conversations on metrics and science rather than opinion or rhetoric. While COVID-19 and the demands of pandemic leadership may not yet be in our rearview mirrors, we would do well to reflect on our journey and the importance of collaborative leadership as we continue to advocate for all students.

NATHAN QUESNEL is superintendent of East Hartford Public Schools in East Hartford, Conn. Twitter: @EastHartfordPS. ROBERT VILLANOVA, a former superintendent, is a faculty member at the Neag School of Education at University of Connecticut and director of the Executive Leadership Program. MARK BENIGNI is superintendent of the Meriden Public Schools in Meriden, Conn.