Alison O’Neil, Educate Together School Support & Volunteer Officer
Primary school boards of management are slightly more than half-way through their four-year term of office. The next board changeover in 2027 may seem like a long way off but as we all know, it will come around very quickly.
Now could be a good time for succession planning. Preparing the way for another candidate to take over the role of chairperson makes very good sense for chairpersons and Boards.
Sudden chairperson resignations can be very disruptive for the school and stressful for the Board and principal. If you have not contemplated succession planning, please consider if this would be useful for your Board. If you haven’t yet thought about the next board term of office, perhaps now is the time to give it some thought. A discussion amongst Board members may be useful.
If you do intend to seek renomination at the next board changeover in 2027, then succession planning may not be necessary this time around, but if you feel that you have served as chairperson for long enough and would like to put a plan in place that helps to minimise disruption then you may wish to consider succession planning.
Simply put, succession planning may be as straightforward as recognising the future leadership needs of the Board and identifying a skilled individual willing and available to take on that role. The reality may not be so simple, but starting to think about it now may mean that in December 2027 the transition to a new chairperson is seamless, and the right person is ready to take over from you.
Please contact Alison on alison.oneil@educatetogether.ie if you have queries about this process.