Who We Are

The Senior School Business Officials Leadership Institute is an initiative of:
     The Association of School Business Officials of Alberta, and Banff Executive Leadership Inc.

This collaboration is aimed at developing the new generation of senior school business officials (SBO’s) in Alberta and across Canada, with a fully researched, competency-based curriculum of leadership development modules and ongoing short sessions on topical and senior management issues.

This initiative is extended across Canada in collaboration with the other regional associations: BCASBO, SASBO, OASBO, (others from Atlantic Canada)

Future Leadership Challenges for SBO’s
As school boards and institutions evolve into the future, it is clear that they will need to be better integrated and assertively collaborative with health and social services, community organizations, civic governments, parent councils and of course the students themselves.

The “business” side of school organizations will move ever-more integrated with the educational side. At the same time, business professionals will need to provide strong leadership in the creation of alliances, partnerships and novel new arrangements in a more holistic approach to developing our youth and communities together. This will require leverage of scarce resources, enhancement of learning environments through technology, and mobilization of various community elements including clubs, NFP’s, businesses, and local government.

On the “Governance” side of school organizations, senior school business officials often serve as Secretary/Treasurer to the Board, and/or CFO accountable directly to the Board in parallel to the Superintendent/CEO. This means the SBO’s exert leadership in Board Governance practices including community engagement plus enhanced accountability & transparency practices. Facilitation of the Board and other senior management team members through strategic thinking, decision-making and then planning & budget prioritization are significant leadership capacities for SBO’s.

The challenges facing senior school business officials is both exciting and demanding of a higher capacity of collaborative leadership skills!

ASBOA is dedicated to enhancing the professionalism of school business officials on a number of dimensions, and this leadership institute is one of several important initiatives it is leading into the future.