Board Development

School Board Members' Roles and Responsibilities

Two of the most important duties of school board members are to set goals and establish policy for the school system, from which all board decisions should logically follow.

A board member is expected to make decisions on a wide range of problems: some are routine, such as approving minutes of the last meeting; others are more complex, such as closing a school; some are the result of many lesser decisions - leading, for example, to the adoption of a corporation budget.

A board member needs to be a skilled decision maker, but he or she must remember that decisions are to be made only by the board acting as a whole in an advertised public meeting. Individual opinions on matters being considered can and should be defended vigorously, but once a decision is reached, it should be accepted gracefully and implemented wholeheartedly. No individual school board member may unilaterally commit the whole board to a particular course of action.

A crucial board responsibility is the selection of the superintendent of schools. No single decision a school board makes has more impact.

Effective board members establish good working relationships with the superintendent of schools. Although it has been frequently said that the board makes policy and the superintendent administers policy, the exact line between policy and administration is many times a very thin one.

A superintendent should be expected to recommend a needed policy to the board for its consideration. Once a policy is adopted, the superintendent is responsible for its effective implementation. The board, in monitoring the impact of a policy, will need periodic reports.

A school board member helps build public support and understanding of public education and leads the public in demanding better education. This requires:

communicating effectively with the staff, school-community and general public;
serving as a link between the school system and the public;
interpreting the schools to the public and the public to the schools
helping to establish a climate for change when change is necessary.

What kind of information does a school board member need? Where can it be found?

1. Policies of the school board. A board member will need a policy manual for perspective in decision making. Policies should be collected and systematically organized for easy reference and study. Interpretation questions should be directed to experienced board members or the superintendent. Unclear policies should be revised and obsolete ones rescinded.

2. Budget figures. A board member will be responsible for voting on what is probably the largest property tax bill in the geographic confines of the school corporation. The budget on which that tax is based must be understood. Those with direct responsibility for developing a proposed budget must also be prepared to thoroughly orient board members before its adoption.

3. Employees and students. The school corporation is probably one of the largest employers in town. Schools, at least during the instructional hours of the school day, are probably the heaviest concentration of population in the boundaries of the corporation. Their general welfare requires board members to have an intimate knowledge of such essentials as:

Number of students in each grade
Number of students in each building
Demographic projections
Socioeconomic information
Drop-out and retention rates
Number of children in the school corporation that attend non-public schools

 
The superintendent can help provide the answers to the following:

How many employees does the school corporation have?
How many of each type?
Who represents each group in negotiations?
Who represents the school board?
What is the duration of the contracts? When do they expire?

4. Program. This is the heart of the school system. The school corporation is a service organization - most of its budget (probably close to 85 percent) is spent on salaries and fringe benefits. The school superintendent and building principals can provide information on curriculum and programs but board members' inquiry should never cease.

Some questions that a board member might have are:

What are the educational goals of the school corporation?
How does your district work to attain these goals?
What is the organizational structure of the schools?
What courses are taught in the schools?

The Association staff and officers are here to serve. Please do not hesitate to telephone, write or e-mail.

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