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Illinois School Board Journal
November/December 2001

Engaging the community: The fundamental role of school boards

by Sandy Gundlach and Anthony Przeklasa

This month, approximately 3,000 school board members in Illinois will be seated. Of this group, nearly 1,500 will serve on a school board for the first time. All share the same goal with current board members: they want to make a difference in the education of their community’s children. But how can school boards best make a difference in public education?

The deep connection between schools and the communities they serve helps contribute to the greatness of public education in America. This connection also puts school boards in a crucial position to lead the district in identifying community aspirations for the schools and monitoring the use of district resources to achieve those aspirations for children.

How can the board engage the community in a dialogue on educational issues that matter most to them? It begins by understanding the board’s governance role.

Board members sit in trust for the community as members of a corporate board of trustees. As trustees, the board assumes responsibilities and duties for policy development, district monitoring and decision-making.

Boards of education are generally expected to govern in an efficient, effective manner. Effective governance stems from teamwork, communication and understanding the differences between board work and staff work. More specifically, the board clarifies district ends (answers the question who gets what benefits for how much), connects with the community, employs a superintendent (to whom they delegate authority to implement board policies and programs), monitors district performance and takes responsibility for itself. These basic obligations provide the lens through which all board actions, activities and decisions should be viewed.

Focusing on the big picture of defining the community’s aspirations for its students is the board’s primary task. Clarity of purpose keeps the board focused on community priorities, as opposed to whims or personal agendas.

Defining district ends is an ongoing, dynamic process that requires continual engagement of students, teachers, parents and community in a dialogue about the educational program. Different boards may need different approaches and strategies to hear community concerns, aspirations and expectations. Once the board has clear district ends identified, it can move forward to implement, support and monitor those ends.

Boards of education, like other elected public bodies, look for activities to help them engage the public more effectively. Some use strategic planning or dialogue sessions during or prior to board meetings. Others rely on focus groups, task forces and/or forums to hear community concerns and expectations on specific, predetermined problems. Still others use study circles and stakeholder satisfaction surveys and make better use of technology.

School districts often have similar approaches, and many have experiences with community engagement that can serve as models. Keeneyville School District 20 has a process of community engagement that has developed over time.

Keeneyville School District 20 is an elementary district with an enrollment of about 1,700 students. The district, located in northwest DuPage County, serves the communities of Hanover Park, Roselle, Bloomingdale and unincorporated Keeneyville.

Keeneyville’s engagement process began 10 years ago as a school board-directed initiative for district improvement. When the board and administration first convened for strategic planning, the school board represented the views of the community in the planning process.

After a few years, with the board still feeling comfortable that they represented the community, it was decided to include representatives of the teaching staff in strategic planning. All of the participants sensed an added richness to the process.

A third stage began when those three groups (board, administration and teachers) realized that all of the major stakeholders were not part of the planning. School board members, many with experience as leaders in tax referenda committees, active parents in the schools and PTO presidents, concluded they wanted an even broader input regarding community’s aspirations.

The current process involves parent and student stakeholders, as well as mayors, park district directors, library directors, the high school principal, senior citizens and business representatives. The board of education convened this group and hired a professional facilitator to coordinate the process to discuss aspirations for the schools.

Keeneyville has used this engagement process for the past five years to tap the aspirations of the community and other stakeholders in the schools. The result is a mission statement that summarizes what this group believes is important. The second is a profile of the ideal graduate, which consists of student characteristics that this group values. (See boxed information.)

These outcomes of engaging the community and other stakeholders serve the board and district well in decision-making, including the allocation of resources. Board decisions about expenditures on technology, learning center professionals, curriculum development, gifted education, full-day kindergarten, service learning, class size, special education, lunch programs and construction are viewed by how they support the mission statement and graduate profile. Administrators, meanwhile, are using the graduate profile to assess the characteristics of teacher candidates when they interview. Both serve to better focus decision-making on students and community expectations.

Annually, the school board convenes a different, but similarly represented, group of stakeholders to review the district’s progress relative to the mission statement and graduate profile. Current district goals are reviewed and revised; new goals are developed. The school board uses this process as one method of engaging the community in a dialogue about their schools.

As boards plan their community engagement activities, they may want to consider the following:

First, community engagement is not a public relations plan. A public relations plan usually focuses on selling or gathering support for an idea or initiative, whereas community engagement focuses on listening in order to solve a problem.

Second, boards must recognize that community engagement is an "over the long haul" commitment. There are times when the district convenes the community to give input on a specific concern, such as a change in student discipline procedures or a parent meeting to review curricular or program changes. While important, these examples focus on telling something to the group, rather than hearing their concerns to help develop policy or clarify district ends.

Third, different people are attracted to and respond to different engagement activities. Some people are technology savvy and are very comfortable using Web-based surveying and e-mail as methods to communicate about district concerns. Some have no interest in this medium. Others may be more comfortable in a focus group or other form of dialogue. As a result, boards of education need a variety of engagement tools in their toolbox.

Lastly, boards can use a variety of engagement strategies to model the value of inclusion. By its very nature, engaging the entire community means everyone, not just the parents of the best and brightest. Boards need to find ways to reach out to all stakeholders.

The Illinois Association of School Boards’ Principles of Effective Governance spells out three purposes of community engagement. The three purposes enable the board to:

• hear and understand the community’s educational aspirations and desires;
• serve effectively as, and advocate for, continuous improvement; and
• inform the community of the district’s performance.

Several recent publications provide more background on the purposes of public or community engagement. The National School Boards’ publication Communities Count defines public engagement as "an ongoing, collaborative process during which the school district works with the public to build understanding, guidance and active support for the education of the children in its community."

Authors of Just Waiting to Be Asked? A Fresh Look at Attitudes on Public Engagement wrote: "Public engagement holds out the promise that reforms will be more likely to succeed if the public’s concerns are heard and addressed." In The Key Works of School Boards, NSBA authors wrote of the importance of "engaging the entire community in creating the vision generates support for the resources necessary to make the vision a reality."

Whatever the method, wise boards actively engage the community to hear and understand their expectations for learning and to identify their willingness to support this agenda.

Carver, John. Boards that Make a Difference, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1990

Farkas, Steve, et al. Just Waiting to Be Asked? A Fresh Look at Attitudes on Public Engagement, Public Agenda, 2001 p.7

Gemberling, Katheryn W., et al. The Key Works of School Boards Guidebook, National School Boards Association, 2000

Oliver, Caroline, et al. The Policy Governance Fieldbook: Practical Lessons, Tips, and Tools from the Experience of Real-World Boards, Josey Bass Publishers, 1999

Resnick, Michael A. Communities that Count: A School Board Guide to Public Engagement, National School Boards Association, 2000