There are three types of Boards or Councils that are most common to Catholic or independent schools, each of which varies in structure and authority:
A “Board of Trustees” (BOT) model is typical of most independent schools. It is comprised of either elected members (voted by the parents of the school) or appointed members (by the recommendation and approval of existing Trustees). As its name implies, an “independent” school BOT operates distinct from any higher “authority,” like as a bishop or superintendent, such that is serves as the highest "authority" in the school. It hires the headmaster and decides if the headmaster's contract will be extended. It establishes tuition rates and salary increases, approves budgets, creates policies, and in rare circumstances, handles appeals of the headmaster’s decisions.
A “Board of Limited (or Specialized) Jurisdiction” (BLJ) model is typical of some diocesan Catholic schools, whereby a bishop or pastor delegates specific areas of authority to the Board within the broad parameters of parish or diocesan policy, while retaining authority in all other areas. A bishop or pastor could delegate to the Board the authority to create general school policies, for example, but retain authority to approve budgets, salaries and tuition increases. The constitution of the BLJ, signed by the pastor or bishop, would make these distinctions explicit.
An “Advisory Council” (AC) is the model for St. Michael, the schools of the Archdiocese of Mobile and many other dioceses in the country. The Council recommends actions to the principal, pastor or bishop, whereas the pastor or bishop (or his delegate, the superintendent) is the authority who approves. If the Council is doing its work well, the vast majority of the time, the church’s leadership accepts the recommendations of the Council, so the practical impact of the Advisory Council’s work ends up similar to the other models.
With AC’s, the evaluation, hiring and firing of a principal are the responsibility of the pastor (in the case of a parish school) or the bishop/superintendent (in the case of a diocesan high school). Pastors and superintendents would typically ask for candid feedback from the Council as part of their evaluation.
In all three models, the purpose of the Board/Council is primarily to extend and promote the mission of the school in terms of strategic planning, policy making, and securing and protecting the financial resources of the school. Wheres a Board or Council recommends policies that are broad in nature, indicating a direction--the "what?" and "why?"--the principal's job is to operationalize these policies in the day to day life of the school-- "who?" the "how?" and usually, the "when?" The Board or Council, for example, might recommend the expansion of the school’s foreign language offerings, providing the means for doing so in its upcoming budget, whereas the principal would hire the additional language teacher and supervise that person. If there is a dispute regarding the discretionary judgment of a principal, properly functioning Boards or Councils will generally defer to the principal’s judgment, until such time as his or her discretion is no longer trusted, whereby a BOT would typically move to replace the principal upon the completion of his or her contract, or members of a BLJ or AC would bring their concerns forward to the pastor or superintendent.
At St. Michael, the “Advisory Council” is comprised of appointed representatives of each of Baldwin County’s Catholic parishes, chosen by the pastor and approved by the Archbishop of Mobile. These may or may not be parents with children in the school. The “Vicar Forane” for Baldwin County ( a priest, designated by the bishop, to oversee other priests in the area) is the final member of the Advisory Council. Advisory Council parish representatives serve three year terms, with the possibility of serving a second term, not to exceed 6 consecutive years. The principal of the school serves as the "executive secretary" of the Council.