School Boards were established primarily as a response to
requests by parents to be more active participants in Catholic Schooling. Today
they are available to each Catholic education community in Queensland and
provide a structure and process for genuine partnership in planning and
decision making involving the key members of these communities.
The existence of boards as components of the governance
of Catholic schools is a good and desirable phenomenon, reflective of (among
other things) the basic value of participation embedded in any real
understanding of governance, and certainly in any Catholic comprehension of
that concept.
The governance of Catholic schools reflects the reality
of Catholic education as a partnership between Catholic schools and – crucially
– parents.
Recent developments in education at state and national level
in Australia have challenged Catholic schools to ensure that they develop and
maintain forms of leadership which will support the educational mission of the
Church well into the future. Within the Church the changing face of Catholic
parishes and schools calls for courageous and visionary leadership.
Boards of Catholic schools are communities of leaders who
share in the educational and pastoral leadership responsibilities of principals
of schools. The experience of board members over the last twenty years reveals that,
far from being an onerous task, service on a Catholic education board has been
a occasion for personal and community growth in faith, spirituality and
understanding of the vision and mission of Jesus and of Catholic education, and
the particular school community they serve.