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Illinois School Board Journal
September-October 1999
School boards govern best
by Angie Peifer
Angie Peifer is an IASB Field Services Director.
Every so often, in the name of school improvement, a task force studies school governance and proposes alternatives to school boards. Most recently, the National Commission on Governing America's Schools (NCGAS) has taken up that challenge. But the alternatives offered generally sound a lot like school boards -- and that's no accident. It's because elected boards of education are the best way to govern schools. When boards of education are actively engaged in governing, they are in a unique position to enhance the quality of America's public schools. Locally elected school boards are able to leverage their connection with and accountability to the community in the pursuit of academic excellence.
Task forces such as the commission provide an opportunity and a challenge for boards, the individuals who serve on them, and the associations and organizations that provide training, support and information to assess the work they do and to ask the critical questions:
"Is this governance? Are we doing board work?"
These questions are critical because school boards and individual members can make their greatest contribution only when they focus on governance and board work (as opposed to work more effectively handled by the district administration).
It is worthwhile to review the "basics" of school board governance.
The board convenes the community. The board regularly engages in two-way conversation with the entire community. The purpose of the conversation is to enable the board to hear and understand the community's educational aspirations and desires, to serve effectively as an advocate for continuous improvement, and to inform the community of the district's performance. During these conversations, the board is able to elevate the level of the community's conversation about teaching and learning, about the district's responsibility to the community and the community's to the district, and about the strengths and weaknesses that impact academic excellence and student achievement.
The board clarifies the district purpose. As its primary task, the board continually defines, re-defines and articulates district ends that answer the recurring question, "Who gets what benefits for how much?" Informed by its ongoing conversation with the community, the boards' deliberations at meetings will be focused on how to allocate the district's resources in order to best fulfill its mission, vision and goals.
The board employs a superintendent. The board employs one person -- the superintendent -- and holds that person accountable for the performance of the entire district. Other employees are responsible to the superintendent or his/her designee.
The board delegates authority. The board delegates authority to the superintendent to manage the district and provide leadership for the staff. Such authority is communicated through written policies that specify ends desired by the board and define operating limits. The board clearly states what is to be accomplished (ends) and the parameters within which the work is to be done (operating limits) and then empowers the superintendent and, through the superintendent, the staff to use their expertise to get the job done. In this way the board allows its hopes to be pursued by the work of the staff.
The board monitors performance. The board constantly monitors progress toward district ends and compliance with written board policies. Because the board has made the ends and limits absolutely clear, they are able to demand full accountability.
The board takes responsibility for itself. The board, and its individual members, take full responsibility for board activity and behavior. Board deliberations and actions focus on board work, not staff work. A board committed to effective governance will make time to regularly assess itself and the quality of its work.
Boards that are engaged in governing have neither the time nor the need to manage, direct, control and oversee the day-to-day operations of the district. They have more important work to do. And they appreciate that real "board work," the work of governing, is more essential to the students, parents and community they serve than anything else that may compete for their attention or consideration.
Individual members of governing boards often find themselves in a leadership role different from any other in which they have served. Many will recognize a need to learn new skills or to sharpen others as they assess their own abilities and contributions to the governing process. They ask themselves questions like:
Am I able to think systemically?
Can I pull back from the details and look upward and outward at the bigger picture?
Do I have a good command of effective interpersonal skills such as listening to learn and understand rather than to respond? Collaboration and consensus building skills? The ability to value different opinions without abdicating my own?
Do I know how to read and interpret pertinent data to inform my decision making and to monitor progress effectively?
Furthermore, effective board members understand that they sit in trust for and at the will of the entire community rather than any narrower constituency. They recognize that they are accountable to that community to be a prepared and responsible participant in all aspects of the board's work. They accept and respect the fact that the board speaks with one voice, with no individual authority among its members.
Perhaps most importantly, these board members model their commitment to continuous improvement. They monitor for the purpose of learning and improving rather than finding fault and assigning blame. They establish and maintain a climate that encourages staff to take considered risks in their efforts at improvement. They support adult learning and professional development -- including making time to honestly evaluate their own performances and then taking advantage of opportunities to learn and grow as district trustees.
Early fall will be a time of transition for most school boards, as they say good-bye to retiring members and seat those who were elected in April. It's a good time to review school board performance and discuss ways that the board can contribute to excellence in each school district.
The Illinois Association of School Boards exists to help your board meet its goals. The IASB Board of Directors, in its mission statement, has defined the purpose of IASB as "excellence in local school governance and support of public education." With that directive before it, the staff is committed to researching principles of effective governance, internalizing those principles, and incorporating them into training efforts, publications and program planning. As your school board plans its fall activities, take a look at IASB's Yearbook and Guide to Services and Staff. Consider which programs and services will enhance your board work.
As veterans know, and new members will soon learn, effective school board work is some of the hardest -- and the most rewarding -- work you will ever undertake. Your community has placed its schools in your keeping. Those who elected you trust you to develop a vision of the kind of education your community wants for its children. The work you do will have an impact on the lives not only of this year's students, and but of those in years to come.
The board of education does work that no one else is in a position to do. And -- to return to the beginning of this article -- so far, no one has figured out a better way to do that work.