Stuart O. Yager is an associate professor of educational leadership at Western Illinois University in Macomb.
Looking back at my years as a school superintendent, several old sayings come to mind:
“They won’t care what you have to say until they know you care.”
“Who you are speaks so loudly that people may not hear what you have to say.”
“The true character of a man is seen when he is given power.”
These quotes truly relate to education for the following reasons:
School board members model what is expected in the district regarding collaboration by the way they treat each other at the board table. When board members don’t care about each other, dysfunction sets in, time is wasted at the board table, and morale is impacted negatively throughout the district.
In times of financial unrest, it is easy for boards to be consumed by fear: fear of failure, fear of declining enrollments, fear of state funding shortages, fear of not making AYP, fear of contract negotiations, fear of negative media coverage and fear of community outrage.
Two flawed reactions in coping with fear are (1) to blame employee groups within the district or (2) to blame each other while at or away from the board table. By blaming teachers, boards quickly establish an adversarial relationship and realistic solutions to calm fears are frequently squelched.
Remember the 1970s when domestic manufacturers blamed U.S. workers when Japanese competitors began to take market share? It took decades before most U.S. manufacturing companies understood the importance of the teachings of W. Edwards Deming and Total Quality Management. We learned that industry’s failure was not in its workers but in the system under which they labored.
When boards point blame fingers at each other it’s like circling the wagons and firing inward. Often this coping mechanism becomes a tactic led by bully board members preying on weaker, softer spoken board members. The bully board member hurls insults during public meetings at the other board members who aren’t aligned with the same thinking or opinion.
Even worse, bully board members hold meetings before the meeting to strategize and plot against other board members. Bully board members are really no different than a bully on a playground at an elementary school. School boards must realize that they have to bully-proof their board before they can expect to see bully-proofed schools.
Quality boards, on the other hand, view themselves as a trusting team. They can agree to disagree without becoming disagreeable.
These boards understand that they model the vision. They understand that how they treat each other at the board table models how administrators should treat employees, how teachers should treat students, and ultimately how students should treat each other.
Striving for quality
The most successful boards understand that the best way to improve all aspects of the district is to model cooperation and collaboration. They believe deep down that it is a people-help-people world, not a dog-eat-dog world.
If your board is not a “quality board,” fear not, because you can improve.
Several things can help move your board toward quality functioning.
First, look at board training through low threat/high challenge board retreats and workshops. These workshops should not be led by board members or the superintendent. The superintendent should participate alongside the board during the sessions, which should be led by a neutral, independent facilitator.
Second, look carefully at contract negotiations strategy and move away from a positional approach and toward interest-based bargaining. An interest-based approach models openness, trust and inclusion. The best interest-based strategy is sponsored by the National Education Association and has shown success nationwide.
Finally, model the love of learning at the board table. Schools are all about learning, and a board that learns together demonstrates a school district’s core purpose. Read and study a book or article together. Share current events at the start of the board meeting and ask thoughtful questions of each other.
As schools in America move forward with all of the fear and tension in America, board members need to step up and realize that they model what the district stands for and believes in. How board members treat each other at the board table gives the example of how everyone else in the district should treat each other.
Remember the old saying, “You’re perfectly set up for the results you’re getting”? Well, if you don’t like the results you’re getting, you need to change the way you’re set up.
Look at the way you deliberate at the board table and decide if that’s that kind of role model you want to be.
Board members are like coaches. Some coaches coach not to lose. Some coaches coach to win. Those who coach to win are not consumed by fear or scared to make decisions. They don’t sit paralyzed and afraid to move or speak up. They are winners and risk takers and know that their winning attitude and the way they treat those around them permeates down throughout the team. They surround themselves with trusting others who collaborate and strategize together.
Board members have an opportunity to move their districts into an exciting future and they must do it first with what they model at the board table.