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Illinois School Board Journal
November/December 2006

Sticks, stones and what you say
Everyone watches local school boards

by W.A. "Tony" Brunson

W.A. "Tony" Brunson is vice president of the Rich Township High School 227 Board of Education, Olympia Fields, and resolution chair for South Cook Division.

Public schools are typically regarded in the same category with other public services: public libraries, public safety, public parks, public transportation, public sidewalks, public housing, etc. Society sets up these public institutions for the efficient and effective delivery of services for the common good of the community. As such they all receive some type of public support or subsidy via the collection of various taxes.

As citizens, we all have a say — through the electoral process — on how these services will be provided and who will be responsible for seeing to it that these services are equitably and proficiently performed. This responsibility often comes with some kind of implied, if not explicit, authority to get the job done and as such the people in these positions are often viewed as some of the most prominent within the community. Sometimes, the smaller the community, the greater the prominence becomes.

For schools, society has chosen to elect a representative Board of Education to establish district policies and delegate the day-to-day operations of the district to a superintendent and staff, with funding coming primarily from the local property tax. Because of that policy role, the school board member is key to the proper functioning of the district.

As a public institution, schools deal with our nearest and dearest — our children — on a daily basis. School board members are responsible for the expenditure of hundreds of thousands, even millions, of tax dollars toward the education of these children. With these important responsibilities, school board members — who are unpaid — may well be one of the most prominent elected officials within a community. It is paramount, therefore, that they act like it.

Within the community, an individual may be short or tall, plump or pleasant, older or younger, a church-goer or non-believer, native born or immigrant. But once the community has elected that individual to be their representative on any given public board, especially a school board, then that board member may no longer go out to the driveway for the morning newspaper with hair in curlers, walk down the sidewalk with shoe laces untied, yell down the street at the kids to come in for dinner or posit a thought that could in the least little way reflect negatively on the board.

Upon election or appointment, that person is now a public official — a school board member — and may no longer harbor the thought that a private opinion, spoken in public, is still a private opinion.

Shortly after my election to a local high school board, I was assigned to chair the board's properties committee. Contracts were approved for some work on our running tracks. I happened to be passing by and thought I would merely look at how the work was progressing at one of the tracks. A worker was marking sections of the track to be repaired. I innocently asked why another section of track — also with cracks — had not been marked. Then I left.

Days later, I learned much more work on that track had been completed than originally scheduled simply because of my off-hand remark. The workman had discovered that I was a school board member.

On another occasion, my wife and I arrived a few minutes after the curtain had gone up at a school play. I could see inside the darkened auditorium and about six or eight people were standing along the back wall. I was pleased that the performance was well-attended.

Just as we entered through the auditorium door, a school administrator approached from the back wall and greeted us. I no sooner had said, "Hello," than he quickly ushered us to a pair of seats nearby after telling those already seated there to please move over so that my wife and I could sit down. To say that I was surprised would be an understatement, but I was never late again!

At numerous public events, with no prompting by me, I have been singled out by the chairperson as a school board member. Some people get used to this treatment. I never have, but this attention demands a constant awareness. (Remember those curlers and shoelaces!)

Along with the individual attention that a school board member will receive is the concurrent connection made with the board of which he or she is a part. Thus, as goes one, so goes the rest. How the public perceives an individual board member as acting, saying or believing will be how this same public may well perceive the rest of the board.

I'm reminded of the effort some parents make to assure that their children act appropriately away from home. How these children act reflects on how well they have been raised. We are all, to some extent, the product of our environment — the milieu to which we have been exposed.

Board members must have this same sense of awareness of their public persona and the others they represent as long as they are attached to that board.

Board members live in those proverbial "glass houses." Not only must they refrain from throwing stones, they must conduct themselves in a fashion that discourages stone throwers.