Theoretical principles of the activity of boards of trustees in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century were described in the thesis; normative and legal support of the activity of boards of trustees in educational institutions of Ukraine was analyzed; organization, content and spheres of the activity of boards of trustees in secondary educational establishments of Ukraine (the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century) were revealed; and prospects of positive experience usage of boards of trustees in modern educational institutions of Ukraine were determined.
Organizational and pedagogical principles of the activity of boards of trustees in educational institutions of Ukraine (the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century) and grounds for formation of a trusteeship institution were found out and revealed; essence and content of the concepts of «a trustee», «a trustee of the educational district», «a trustee of the gymnasium (or progymnasium)», «school trusteeship», «a carer», «a board of trustees», «organizational and pedagogical principles of the activity of boards of trustees» were specified for the first time in the national history of pedagogy with the help of a complex of complementary methods (general scientific, specific scientific, constructive genetic, comparative, historical systemic, problem thematic, chronological).
On the basis of the different going near interpretation of essence of educational reforms (L. Berezivska) in research follow such determination organizationally pedagogical principles of activity of trustees : in the wide understanding both a process of realization of different is after a scale and character of transformations of the system of school education on the whole or its separate constituents, initiator and expandable as «from above downward» (governmental level), and «from below upwards» (public-pedagogical level) in the context of interdependent external.
It was established that during the analyzed period «trusteeship» acquired a clear system precisely due to a thorough normative and legal base that defined the principles of state and public control over the activity of secondary educational institutions, namely: decentralization, encouragement of public initiative in education reforming, providing of a certain independence and autonomy in educational process, selection of professional staff, unity in education management to educational institutions and pedagogical associations,.
The main forms of the activity of boards of trustees in secondary educational establishments aimed at social protection and financial support of the students of secondary schools: building of boarding houses, appointing of state scholarships, exemption from tuition fees and providing of one-time financial aids; creation of trusteeship as societies to help poor students were considered and analyzed.
Unknown and not popular archival documents were introduced to scientific circulation; organizational and legal, educational activity of boards of trustees in the 19th century, activity of a temporary board of trustees of Kyiv educational district in 1917, and certain facts and provisions that broaden the notion on the activity of boards of trustees in educational institutions on the territory of Ukraine in the 19th and at the beginning
of 20th century were determined and revealed.
It is noted that such realities as «a trustee», «trusteeship», «a board of trustees» disappeared in the Soviet period but they revived in the form of caring councils at present stage. However, nowadays the activity of such bodies of public and state management of educational institutions has not understood in the society yet. Attempts to revive «trusteeship» have reflected the need perceived by society and state to create public mechanisms for supporting a secondary school.
