The COVID-19 pandemic pulled at the fabric of institutions in our daily lives, and schools were not exempt from its effects. The social fabric that I am referring to is the tapestry of civility and shared responsibility that existed in our daily lives. During the pandemic and as it fades from our collective consciousness we are left with a society that is still looking for a rudder to provide direction for how we should function in groups and treat one another as compatriots. I am writing on this topic as a school leader because schools are uniquely positioned to do this work. Schools can rebuild expectations for civility and create a sense of shared responsibility and purpose. That work is desperately needed for our nation's civic health, but is also needed to support our nation's most precious resource, our children. Schools can work to repair the social fabric of our communities, by utilizing shared governance to create a sense of agency for its stakeholders.

Agency is at the heart of feeling empowered and agency was lost for many Americans during the pandemic. Governments in many places enforced stay-at-home orders, which limited the ways people could exercise freedom and liberty. In reaction to that loss of agency, there was an uptick of incidents where coffee shop baristas were subject to verbal lashings, flight attendants were endangered and teachers were not viewed as partners, but as an enemy. These were reactions to a loss of agency that pulled at our social fabric, but we can repair the situation and leave our communities better than we found them. That work centers on empowering parents as partners rather than adversaries. How do we appropriately empower parents in a way that results in them being the partners that schools want and need, rather than empowering them to be combatants in a zero sum game filled with winners and losers? A potential answer exists in the world of higher education, which is the use of shared governance. 

Shared governance is a tool that is often used in higher education to create empowered community constituencies, which recognize the need to collaborate to come to the best possible outcome for the institution. However, cultures that utilize shared governance exist in all school settings even though the verbage has its roots in higher education. At City Academy we are working to create a culture of shared governance that will appropriately empower parents and give them a sense of agency which will lead to belonging and partnership. We are engaging in this work by leveraging our reaccreditation process that requires the school to engage parents as partners, but we are also doing this work by crafting community documents that will give our school direction and help clarify who we serve. Shared governance leads to empowerment and empowered people can utilize agency for the common good. 

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Questions to consider:

• How is your school actively working to create parents that have a healthy sense of agency? 
• Are there programs in place where parents can connect with one another that deepen their sense of community and connection? 
• Does your community have a common language that is mission driven and supports shared governance? 

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