…Holding Fast to the Personal Agenda
Here are some common reasons for
pursuing a position on a local school board:
1.
The superintendent needs to be fired.
2.
I want to ensure that my kid gets the best
education possible.
3.
The schools need fixing.
4.
I want to cut waste, fraud and abuse.
5.
This will be my ticket into the political arena
where I can run for county supervisor, the assembly and, maybe, statewide
office.
6.
I want to take care of the students and the
folks we pay to take care of the students.
There
is a correct answer. Yet, too many
candidates for Trustee positions either don’t know the correct answer or, once they
assume office, forget why they’re there.
Here’s a closer look at the varied
rationale for seeking a seat on the Board of Trustees:
1. The superintendent needs firing. A Board Member friend I know opines, “The
most important – in fact the ONLY important – thing a Board does is the hiring
and firing of superintendents.
"But,” he adds immediately, “Trustees must do their homework about both
the disconnect between the current administration and the needs of the students
and the establish with as much surety
as possible that the new supe can meet the needs better than the old guy
did.” It is painstaking and time
consuming. He adds, perhaps
cynically, perhaps realistically: “At best it’s a crap shoot.”
So
you’ve got the perfect superintendent.
Now what are you going to do?
2 I want to ensure that my child is offered the
best education possible. From
that follows: I will get my child
into the classes of the teachers with the best reputations; I will have an
avenue to be in the classroom monitoring that teacher’s work with my child; I
will have access to the school site’s leadership so that my complains/concerns
can move to the front of the line.
A
former Trustee and bicycling buddy tells me: “Once you become a member of the
Board, you give up being a parent.”
Sage advice. Ethical Board
membership means Trustees do not throw their weight around on the school site
or in the classroom.
In
practice, absent a quorum of members at a calendared Board meeting, a Trustee
is elevated to the position of citizen with all of the privileges and
limitations that any other citizen has.
Able and competent administrators will protect teachers from irrational
demands of expectations of favorable treatment from parents who happen to be
trustees just as they would protect staff from the unreasonable expectations of
any parent. Courageous educational
leaders lose their jobs all the time because of this. But it is the right stand to take.
3 The schools need fixing. Yes, they probably do. Unless “fixing” is simply replacing one
unfavorable practice with one less favorable – not research based, not data
driven, not practiced in buildings with similar demographics but better
results, then the correct way to effect change is to engage in a collaborative
process involving stakeholders with multiple points of view because of the
varied experiences they bring to the table. A Trustee really can have but one point of view and one set
of experiences to guide him or her: his or her own. In order to create measureable growth in a sustainable
manner, a Trustee demanding a specific change or a particular program will only
serve as a speed bump in the fast lane toward progress. Better that the leadership takes input
from the entire public and the educators engineer the change. Trustees can scrutinize a
recommendation and evaluate the information, data or process by which the
recommendation is achieved – they can even participate as an individual member
of the public on a specific committee – but the effective Board member will not
demand some different outcome simply because he or she can.
4. Waste, fraud and abuse: if we repeat it
often enough, it becomes a false truth that can drive policy. Are there instances of these three
mismanagement stooges? Certainly. Are they the prevalent way of doing
business? Probably not. If they are, the Board should taken
action. If the Board does not, the
voters should by firing the Board.
The
truth of the matter is that school districts are highly legislated, adjudicated
and regulated institutions. Budget
requirements are clearly defined.
Audits are frequent and rigorous.
Personnel actions are governed by labor law and education code
provision, not Board action.
Curriculum material decisions are seriously limited – for better or for
worse – by a state screening process.
There is little opportunity for local malfeasance. And when malfeasance rears its
unprofessional head, savvy boards take care of bid’ness by holding
Superintendents accountable.
“But
you read about malpractice all the time in the paper!” Remember the adage “If it bleeds, it
leads.” Along those lines: Schools
following the rules do not make news.
In the scope of the decisions made in 1,000 different California school
districts and many times that may California school sites, the percentage of
bad-apple decisions is remarkably low.
Run for a Board on a platform of eliminating waste fraud and abuse and
you’ll likely find yourself twiddling your thumbs quite a bit. Or ill-advisedly meddling in items one,
two or three, above.
5. This is the ticket to my political future. Because you what? Twiddled your thumbs on a school board
for four or eight or twelve years?
Sorry, if you’re not dedicated to the following, please find another
avenue…
6. I want to (1) take care of the students and (2) take care of the people we employ to take care of the students.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Through
a maze of procedural, budgetary, experiential and, yes, political
considerations, this is what educational leaders do and this is what School
Board members need to ensure happens.
© 2013
Church of the Open Road Press
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