The Education Policy and Leadership Center: Information Clearinghouse
Local School Board Service - An Opportunity for Leadership!
A guest editorial for the Harrisburg Patriot-News
by Sharon Brumbaugh, Manager of Leadership Programs, The Education Policy and Leadership Center
and Patricia Garcia, President, The Council for Public Education of Greater Harrisburg
January 15, 2003
In the 2002 statewide election, Pennsylvania voters ranked education as a top
public policy priority, according to many pollsters. Citizens look to
Governor-elect Rendell and the Pennsylvania General Assembly to provide
leadership and to address critical policy issues in education such as school
funding and early childhood education. We are expecting them to take action
and to produce sound policy that will serve the best interests of all of the
children of Pennsylvania.
But the Governor and the members of the legislature are not the only players in
the field of education governance. Sharing that responsibility are nine-member
Boards of School Directors, which were created by the General Assembly to
establish local district policy and to provide oversight of local school
districts. In 2003, the public will elect citizens to serve on those Boards in
most of the 501 school districts in the state. Will education still be at the
top of the public policy agenda? Who will step forward to accept the
responsibility of running for the unglamorous and unpaid, yet very important,
job of school director? What is required of those who are willing to serve?
The legal qualifications for the job are minimal. You must be a citizen of the
Commonwealth, of good moral character, at least 18 years of age, and a resident
of the school district in which you are running for election for at least one
year. If you meet those qualifications, the next step is to get your name on the
ballot. In Pennsylvania, candidates for election to school boards can cross-file
in primary elections and run on both major party tickets, provided a sufficient
number of signatures have been obtained on nominating petitions. Petitions and
guidelines for circulating them, as well as reporting requirements, are available
at county election offices.
Getting elected to a school board is the easy part - becoming an effective member
of the local school district governance team is the challenging part of the job.
Individual school board members have absolutely no authority, so in order to be
effective, you have to be able to work well with others. That doesn't mean that
you all have to agree on every issue, but it does mean that you should have a
shared vision and some common goals for your school district. Ideally, you are
all there because you care about children and their education and you want the
schools in your district to provide a quality educational experience for all of
them. So, the first task for a newly-elected school director is to find out how
your ideas, beliefs, and values fit with the current vision and goals of the school
district. Working with the staff and community to create a shared vision and to
plan strategically to make that vision a reality are important leadership
responsibilities of school boards and superintendents.
Boards govern through policy, not by micro-managing the day-to-day operations of
the school district. The irony is that many good people who get elected to school
boards are "doers." They have a track record of getting things done and they
like to be directly involved in the process. Effective school board members
channel that energy into establishing good policy that states the board's expectations
and provides overall direction for district operations. It is the superintendent's
job to manage the school district, to supervise the staff, and to implement the
board policies. Individual school board members should not interfere with the
superintendent's ability to do his or her job. To that end, it is helpful for
boards and superintendents to clarify in writing the delineation of
responsibilities and to set aside time for regular reviews.
School boards are, in effect, trustees of the public school district, overseeing
the affairs of the organization on behalf of the owners - the taxpaying public.
As trustees, they must focus on the results that they expect from the
organization. Some of those expected results will be process oriented, such as
the efficiency of operations, but the primary product result is student learning.
Board members need to develop an understanding of how student progress is measured
in the district, and the board should expect the superintendent to provide regular
reports on student achievement. Ideally, this will include multiple measures so
that board members are not making judgments based on a single test score.
Boards also have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that sufficient resources
are available and used for programs and activities that will produce the desired
results. It's not realistic to expect that we will have a high quality educational
system without a significant investment in qualified teachers and administrators,
ongoing professional development, good curriculum, and adequate instructional
resources. Effective school boards understand that reality, and they work to
establish a climate in their school districts and in the state that supports an
investment in public education. Establishing such a climate requires frequent
and open communication with the public that board members represent about the
results that are achieved through their investment in education.
In this era of standards-based education reform, with statewide academic standards
and the recent federal legislation, "No Child Left Behind," some people believe
that the role of local school boards is diminished. We see the current reforms
as an opportunity for boards to assume more of a local leadership role and to
become more focused on the educational mission of the school district. Our
system of public education has served the commonwealth and the nation well for
most of the past two centuries. If it is to continue to serve us well in the
future, we need professional and lay leaders at both the state and local level
who are committed to working collaboratively to build a stronger system that
helps every child succeed. If you are ready to make that commitment, consider
running for election to your local school board.
EPLC and CPE are offering a two-part School Board Candidate Workshop at
the Capital Area Intermediate Unit on January 23 and 30, from 5:30 to 10:00 p.m.
both evenings. To register, contact the Council at 231-4553.
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