Morning Keynote: Dr. Tom Miller

About the Webinar:

Dr. Tom Miller, a nationally recognized expert in charter school leadership and governance, delivered the morning keynote with a powerful call for charter schools to embrace disruptive innovation and avoid complacency. Drawing on lessons from once-dominant companies like Kodak, Toys “R” Us, and Blockbuster, Miller emphasized that failure to adapt leads to decline—even for organizations with strong reputations and resources. He reminded participants that charter schools were originally founded as disruptors in public education, but with the rise of homeschooling, virtual schools, and micro-schools, they now face their own competitive pressures. Unless charter schools evolve, he warned, they risk closures at alarming rates, as nearly half fail within their first 10 years.

Miller outlined the four “silent killers” of innovation in schools: complacency, leadership turnover, “destination disease” (believing an organization has arrived), and the law of the lid (where schools cannot rise above their leadership capacity). He urged boards and leaders to recognize that charter school principals are effectively CEOs of multimillion-dollar enterprises and must be equipped to think and act accordingly. Governance, he said, is the guardrail while leadership is the driver—and both must work together to keep the organization focused on mission and vision rather than getting stuck in the past.

A core part of Miller’s message centered on effective governance practices. He shared the five most common weaknesses he encounters in boards: micromanaging instead of governing, lack of focus on student learning, unclear roles and responsibilities, ineffective board meetings overly focused on the present rather than the future, and weak board recruitment. He encouraged boards to dedicate more time to strategic planning, succession planning, and monitoring academic results—the true purpose of schooling—while ensuring management executes day-to-day operations. His framework of “mission, vision, and people” provided a practical roadmap: anchor every decision in the school’s mission, cast a clear and compelling vision for the future, and recruit leaders and board members who are growth-minded and aligned with that vision.

Miller closed by sharing his own experience leading Seaside School in Florida through a $40 million expansion project, showcasing how innovative thinking, partnerships, and strong governance can transform schools. He challenged attendees to return to their schools with three immediate actions: evaluate their mission for clarity and relevance, cast a vision and set one goal to move the school forward in the next 12 months, and recruit or empower one new leader to strengthen their mission. His overarching message was that intentional disruption, anchored in governance and leadership, is the key to ensuring charter schools thrive in a competitive educational landscape.