Your Board’s First 90 Days of 2027: The Plan You Need to Write This Week
December 28, 2026
Series: Year-End Governance Reset & 2027 Planning
Research on organizational performance consistently shows that the first ninety days of a year determine the trajectory of the remaining nine.
School boards are no different.
January is where governance habits are set. The meeting structure you establish in January is the meeting structure you’ll follow in October. The data cadence you define in January is the data cadence you’ll use in December. The relationship you build with the superintendent in January is the partnership you’ll have for the rest of the year.
If you start January with clear goals and a plan for achieving them, you set yourself up for a year of progress. If you start January figuring out what to do, you set yourself up for a year of reaction.
The difference is planning. And the planning happens now — this week, in December, before the calendar turns.
The Q1 Plan
Here’s what your board’s first quarter of 2027 should look like. Three months. One clear action per month. A measurable outcome for each.
January: Set Goals, Establish Data Cadence
Your January board meeting should accomplish two things and two things only.
First: present your 2027 goals to the community. Not a draft. Not a work in progress. Finalized goals that the board has committed to. The community should leave that meeting knowing exactly what the board is trying to achieve, how it will measure success, and when it will report back.
Second: establish your data review cadence. At your January meeting, review the baseline data for each goal. Make it public. Show the community where you’re starting. The interim superintendent report should include the three to five metrics you’ve chosen, presented in a dashboard format that’s clear enough for a parent to understand.
That’s January. Two things. Done.
If your board is also doing reorganization — electing officers, appointing committee chairs — handle that at the end of the meeting. Or handle it in a separate fifteen-minute pre-meeting. Don’t let procedural logistics become the January agenda. They’re not.
February: First Data Check-In, Budget Review
February is where the discipline is tested.
Your board has goals. You’ve established a data cadence. Now comes the first real test: do you actually review the data at the February meeting?
I’ve seen boards do this. They set goals in January. They promise to track data monthly. February arrives, the agenda is full, and the data review gets pushed to “if we have time.”
It never has time.
Your February board agenda should have a standing data review item. Fifteen minutes. The superintendent presents the current data on each of your three to five metrics. The board asks questions. The board identifies any early warning signs.
Also in February: the preliminary budget discussion should begin. Your December budget guidance letter gives the superintendent direction. February is when the board gets the first look at how that direction is being implemented. Ask for a preliminary budget overview that maps each major expenditure back to a stated goal.
March: Community Progress Report, Superintendent Evaluation Prep
By March, you have enough data to tell the community whether you’re on track.
Schedule a community-facing progress update. It doesn’t need to be a formal State of the District. It can be a board meeting agenda item, a newsletter, a video update. The key is that the board — not the administration — takes responsibility for communicating progress.
Also in March: begin preparation for the superintendent evaluation. If your board evaluates the superintendent annually, March is the time to start. Review the evaluation criteria. Gather data. Schedule the evaluation conversation for April or May.
The Weekly Accountability Check
Here’s a tool I recommend to every board I coach.
Set a recurring weekly check-in for your board’s leadership team — the board chair and superintendent, at minimum. Fifteen minutes. Same day, same time, every week. The agenda is always the same:
- What progress have we made on our Q1 plan?
- What’s coming up this week that the board needs to know about?
- Is there anything that needs to be escalated?
That’s it. Fifteen minutes. No agenda packet. No binders.
I’ve watched this simple habit transform board-superintendent relationships. Because it turns the partnership from reactive — waiting for something to go wrong and then meeting to fix it — to proactive: checking in regularly, catching small issues before they become big ones, and maintaining alignment throughout the year.
The First Ninety Days
Here’s the truth about January, February, and March.
If you use them well, the rest of the year takes care of itself. The goals are set. The data cadence is established. The budget direction is clear. The superintendent partnership is active. The board knows what it’s doing and the community knows what the board is doing.
If you use them poorly, you spend the rest of the year catching up. Revisiting decisions you should have made in January. Explaining to the community why you don’t have data to show. Trying to retrofit a budget that was already finalized.
The difference is December planning.
The boards that take this week — the week between Christmas and New Year’s — to lay out their Q1 plan are the boards that walk into January ready to govern. They don’t spend January figuring out what to do. They spend January doing it.
Your Q1 Assignment
Here’s what I want you to do this week.
Write your Q1 plan. Three months. One action per month. A measurable outcome for each.
January: Goals are set. Data cadence is established. Community knows what we’re working toward.
February: First data review is complete. Preliminary budget direction is confirmed.
March: Community progress report is delivered. Superintendent evaluation preparation has begun.
Share it with your board. Share it with your superintendent. Put it somewhere you’ll see it every day.
Then walk into January and execute it.
The next ninety days will determine your year. Make them count.
Your free CTA: Reply to this email with the keyword January and I’ll send you the 2027 Board First 90 Days Planning Template — a month-by-month framework for January, February, and March, with clear actions and measurable outcomes for each.
Your paid CTA: Want help building your Q1 plan? I offer a half-day Board Q1 Planning & Strategy Session that walks your board through the full first-quarter framework — goal finalization, data cadence, budget alignment, and community communication strategy. Reply to this email for pricing and availability.
This piece continues December’s Year-End Governance Reset & 2027 Planning arc. The series closes Wednesday with the final piece: why January board meetings fail — and how to make sure yours doesn’t. Catch the full series in the newsletter archive at effectiveschoolboards.com/newsletter.
This series builds on September’s Three Gaps arc, October’s Community Engagement & Trust arc, and November’s Board Accountability & Governance Continuity arc. The full Q4 journey is available at effectiveschoolboards.com/newsletter.