FAQs - Procedural issues

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Q. A new Governor attended one meeting but has now said she will be off sick for nearly a year. What procedures do we use to sort out what is in effect the loss of a governor for a year. She says she will be back and has not offered to resign as yet.

The governors should be formally asked to approve this governor's absence for this period.  If they accept apologies and reasons then there is nothing that can be done about the absence.  If, on the other hand, the governors are not prepared to accept apologies for absence for a period of a year then the governor will be disqualified from membership after 6 months from the first meeting missed leaving the position to be filled by someone else.  There are no provisions for allowing substitute governors except in the case of Ex-officio governors at church schools.

Q. Can a Governor be on more than one school's Governing Body at a time? Specifically if they are already a Chair?

Yes, governors aren’t restricted to only one governing body – they can be on as many as they want, and technically could chair the lot (assuming they aren't employed by that school)!

 

Q. Can you please advise if I should be sending out election forms now for the election of Chair & Vice Chair for Autumn term 08? Our chair has been in place for about 20 years and I don't want to offend him; how do I ask others governors to stand?

First you need to be clear about the term of office for the Chair and Vice-Chair – your GB can choose a term of office from between one and four years (and the decision should be minuted)– Chairs are not in post for ever!

If you still have a full GB meeting scheduled you could mention that you will send out a letter to all eligible governors about three weeks before the meeting asking for nominations. If you have more than one nominee you must have a secret ballot!!! (V exciting)  If you haven’t got the opportunity to bring this up I suggest you mention it to the headteacher and the governors to remind them that this has to be a regular election, and then send out the letters - they may choose to ask eligible governors to self-nominate or be proposed and seconded by another governor.

You can find example letters and forms in the good practice documents section.

Q. Can you tell me what the expectation is for dispatching Minutes of meetings? I try to send them off to Governors as soon as they are agreed in principle after the meeting. Is the timing up to individual Governing Bodies?

You are correct in that each governing body can determine the timescale for approving and distributing minutes. It is useful to have this clarified at a full governing body meeting if it not included in the clerk's job description or at the “expectations” meeting with Chair and Head before you start as Clerk (see the article about taking on a new Clerking position).

Some governing bodies like their minutes as soon as possible so that they can see what action each governor needs to take - others prefer them with the agenda for the next meeting as they tend to get lost in the intervening period.

If you work for the Essex Clerking Agency the time is specified in the contract as 15 school days for preparing the draft and sending to the Chair (and Head) for comments and 30 days for sending to other governors.

We would consider it reasonable for a governing body to require their minutes to be circulated to all governors within a period of four weeks from the meeting being held, but the final decision on this is for the governing body.

Q. The Chair has asked me for the meeting quorum and I don’t understand it. Please explain?

The quorum is the minimum number of members who must be present before the meeting can legally proceed with business. However different meetings have different quorums.

The most common is the Governing Body meeting where the quorum is 50% of appointed members, rounded up to the nearest whole number. This includes all members eligible to vote, but excludes Associate members, Deputy Headteachers and guests.

Committee Quorums can vary from one committee to another. They must be at least 3 members, but you will need to consult the terms of reference for the committee to find out the approved quorum. At some committees Associate members can be granted voting rights and will then be able to count towards the quorum.

Further reading: GTTL (Chapter 3 Para 61 and 81) and The School Governance (Procedures) (England Regulations) 2003. Para 12 (These will be found on the GTTL CDR).

Q. When the Headteacher is a governor, is s/he entitled to vote at Governing Body meetings in the same way as all other Governors? At a recent election for a new Chair the Head didn’t vote as she thought she wasn’t able to, as she is ex-officio.

 

Yes, yes, yes! – the headteacher is a governor (unless they have expressly decided not to be, and have written to the clerk to inform them) and has the right to vote on all decisions (except when there is a direct conflict of interest) just like everyone else. The ex-officio bit simply relates to their position, i.e. their term of office exists while they are in post.