Board of Trustees

Our trustees are volunteers who offer St. John’s sound judgment, professional expertise, practical skills, and donations.
As an independent school, St. John’s Parish Day School is governed by a Board of Trustees whose members serve the school on a voluntary basis.

Governance

The Board of Trustees is responsible for the following:

• assuring the relevance and fulfillment of the school’s mission;

• hiring, supporting, and evaluating the Head of School;

• securing the financial sustainability of the school.

Stewards & Cheerleaders. As stewards, Board members guard the school’s human, physical, and financial resources. As cheerleaders, they embrace the school’s mission, promote the school in the larger community, and support the school’s development efforts.

Visionaries. Board members see the school’s current reality with clarity, deeply understand its mission and potential, and think toward the future. They see the school as a whole (even as their vision is informed by their particular experience of the school) and understand it in a larger context. In a way, Board members are more focused on how the school could serve their grandchildren than on how it serves their own children today.

Active Planners. Board members create a strategic orientation or plan and use it as a living document to keep them focused on goals (and not personalities, passing crises, or minutiae).

Collaborators. Board members work extensively with one another, with committee members from across the school community, and especially with the Head of School, whom they hire, evaluate, and support. Authority is vested in the Board as a whole, and each Trustee must support the decisions of the Board and respect confidentiality.

Committees:

Executive Committee – Consists of Board’s officers, the Church Rector, and the Head of School. Reviews all matters that it determines to be of strategic importance to the school that will come before the full Board. The Executive Committee also evaluates the Head of School.

Committee on Trustees – Determines and evaluates the composition of the Board and its leadership, takes responsibility for policy and by-laws, and leads the ongoing effort to support the growth and development of the Board and its individual members.

Finance Committee– Develops and monitors the long-range financial plan and annual budget of the school and oversees the endowment, audit, and financial policies of the school.

Development Committee – Oversees all advancement activities of the school including fundraising, marketing, communications, and enrollment management.

Buildings & Grounds Committee – Oversees all aspects of the campus grounds and physical plant, including monitoring the cleaning service as a joint school/church committee.

The Board of Trustees pursues best practices and often refers to standards set by NAIS, the National Association of Independent Schools, which publishes these Principles of Good Practice for a school’s Board of Trustees.

Meet the SJPDS Board of Trustees

Effective July 1, 2025

Maria O’Donell

Member

Kevin McGill

Member