Fall Goal-Setting Starts Now — The Foundation Work the Board Does in July
July 14, 2027
The board adopted goals in January 2027. Those goals drove the entire governance year — the data reviews, the budget alignment, the superintendent evaluation, the community reporting. The board’s work over the past six months tells you whether those goals were well-designed. If the goals were specific enough to drive decisions, the data reviews were productive. If the goals were vague enough to mean anything, the data reviews were informational.
The quality of the board’s next governance year depends on the goals the board adopts in January 2028. And the quality of those goals depends on the foundation work the board does between July and December — starting now.
Why goal-setting work starts in July
Most boards treat goal-setting as a January activity. The board holds a meeting in January, discusses goals, adopts them, and moves on. The problem with that approach is that January is too late to do the work that produces good goals.
Good goals require: baseline data (where are we starting from), previous-year outcome data (what did last year’s goals produce), board member input (what does each board member believe the priorities should be), community input (what does the community want the district to focus on), and district capacity assessment (what is achievable given current resources and conditions).
None of those inputs can be gathered, analyzed, and discussed in a single January meeting. Each input requires time — time to collect the data, time to analyze it, time to discuss it with the superintendent, time to resolve disagreements among board members. If the board starts collecting those inputs after the winter break, the board will adopt goals based on whatever information is available — not on the complete picture.
The July foundation work
July is the month to start the goal-setting process. The foundation work in July covers four specific pieces:
Collect baseline data. The board’s current goals have performance metrics attached to them. The board needs to know, as of the end of the 2026-27 school year, where the district stands on each metric. Not the mid-year data the board reviewed in May — the end-of-year data that shows the final outcome. The board president or designated board member should request the end-of-year data from the superintendent in July, with a deadline of August 15. If the data isn’t available until September, the board knows the schedule it’s working with.
Review previous goal outcomes. The board’s January 2027 goals are finishing their one-year run. The board needs to review each goal’s outcome and ask: did this goal produce the intended result? Was the target realistic? Did the metric drive the right behavior? Were there unintended consequences? The answers to these questions inform what the board does differently with next year’s goals. A goal that drove improvement in one area at the expense of another area needs redesign. A goal with an unrealistic target needs recalibration. A goal that produced exactly what the board intended provides the model for the next set.
Survey board members on priorities. Each board member has a perspective on what the district’s priorities should be for the next governance year. Those perspectives need to be collected, consolidated, and discussed before the board starts writing goal statements. A board member who believes teacher retention is the district’s most pressing issue and a board member who believes early literacy is the priority are not disagreeing on goals — they are disagreeing on priorities. The board needs to resolve that disagreement before it writes goals, not after.
Schedule the fall goal-setting work sessions. The board should have a clear timeline for the fall goal-setting process: an October work session where the baseline data is reviewed and board member priorities are discussed, a November work session where the goal framework is drafted, a December work session where the draft goals are reviewed and revised based on community input, and a January board meeting where the goals are formally adopted. If the board waits until November to schedule these sessions, the timeline will be compressed and the goals will suffer.
The distinction between preparation and adoption
The critical distinction is this: the board is not adopting goals in July. The board is preparing for goal adoption. The board that does the foundation work in July enters the fall with data, analysis, and alignment. The board that waits until November to start thinking about goals enters the fall with whatever the superintendent puts in front of them in January.
The board’s ability to adopt strong goals in January is determined by the work the board does between July and December. And that work starts with the four actions described above — baseline data collection, previous goal review, board member priority survey, and work session scheduling.
Do this work in July, and your board will adopt goals in January that are specific, measurable, achievable, and grounded in evidence. Skip this work, and your board will adopt goals that are broad enough to mean anything — and therefore drive nothing.
Your free CTA: Reply to this email with the keyword GoalStart and I’ll send you the Fall Goal-Setting Prep Checklist — a complete timeline covering the July foundation work, the October-through-December work session structure, the baseline data collection template, the previous goal outcomes review protocol, the board member priority survey instrument, and the goal adoption timeline planner.
Your paid CTA: I offer a Fall Goal-Setting Work Session Facilitation — a half-day engagement covering the baseline data review, the priority-setting discussion, the goal framework drafting, and the timeline for fall-through-January adoption. Reply to this email for pricing and availability.
This continues the July Summer Governance Deepening & Fall Prep arc. Friday July 16’s piece covers summer reading for school boards — what to read, how to discuss it, and why it matters for board governance improvement. Subscribe at effectiveschoolboards.com to continue the series.
Backlinks: This piece builds on the January goal adoption arc (Jan 11 piece) and the December goal-setting preparation pieces. The baseline data collection framework extends the progress monitoring infrastructure established in the February-through-May data review cycle. The previous goal outcomes review methodology follows the same evidence-based assessment structure the board used in the superintendent evaluation process. The board member priority survey instrument follows the same design as the board self-assessment (Jun 21 piece). The fall work session timeline connects to the fall governance calendar drafted in the Jun 23 piece.