The National School Boards Association has written a Key Work of School Boards guidebook, detailing 8 key areas describing what School Boards should be doing, how they should be doing it, with action items, etc.
This is a wonderful site! Their ideas and the details well frames the issues and points in directions which many have been espousing for some time.
From the Forward to Key Works of School Boards:
“In an effort to help local school boards best fulfill their role, the National School Boards Association has created the Key Work of School Boards, a framework for raising student achievement through community engagement…. The framework is based on the premise that excellence in the classroom begins with excellence in the boardroom…. The guidebook provides a framework of eight “key” action areas that successful boards have focused their attention on: vision, standards, assessment, accountability, resource alignment, climate, collaboration, and continuous improvement.”
Their presentation gives an overview.
2 thoughts on “Ed Blume’s Ideas and a Citizens’ BOE”
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I actually have this book and a few others from the NSBA. It was given to me a few months after my election last year. I think it is an excellent reference. In my budget amendments, I asked for $500 a piece for board members to attend training and community events ($3,500 total). My rationale with that is “How can you get better with no training?” It is the same question you’d ask teachers. At the same time dialoguing with the public is very important as well. However, it is very difficult to do this when tickets to an event are X amount. I realize that the district is in financial constraints related to the budget but if the leaders don’t have the opportunities for training and community involvement that is problematic.
Johnny, as much as I value your energy and willingness to try new approaches, I must say that I am pretty skeptical about the expenditures for training. The entire board has had these materials all along, and the majority have chosen to ignore the best practices models put forth by the NSBA. I don’t think that training is going to convince people who don’t feel that they have anything to learn.
I do think that individual board members, like you for example, implementing some of the NSBA models would provide far more effective leadership by example.
Again, thank you for engaging, for understanding the value of the blog, and for your willingness to consider many ways of moving forward.
Lucy