What’s Next?

Another budget season battle has been fought, and the final motions have been passed.  During several meetings various school board members said the quiet part out loud – We have a dysfunctional board.

Those comments beg the question:  “What does an effective school board actually look like?”

It turns out that there is a wealth of information online about what an effective school board looks and acts like.  While chasing the information, we discovered an E-Book (one in a series) titled “Clarify Priorities – Setting Goals and Guardrails” by Airick Journey Crabill.  This book led to the discovery of an organization built to support and mentor communities and school boards across the country – Effective School Boards (https://effectiveschoolboards.com/).

Mr. Crabill’s books suggest that the sole purpose of school boards is driving student outcomes.  He goes further and states that goals that include happy parents, great buildings, satisfied teachers, school lunches, balanced budgets and employment opportunities all contribute to the horrid state of school boards because none of those catchphrases have anything to do with the core mission of a school board – and that core mission is to educate students. 

What interests us about this organization is that anyone – from educators to community members – can become school board coaches.  Coaches guide the change process.  It is not an easy or fast solution.  In fact, according to Effective School Boards, it could take two years or longer to go from ‘completely ineffective’ to a score of 80.  The process begins when the School Board decides that it must change for the good of the students.  We looked at the Effective School Boards’ self-evaluation tool and yes, our School Board is at ‘0’.  Take a look at the evaluation tool and let us know what you think (https://effectiveschoolboards.com/framework/ ). 

This information is shared for one purpose – we, as a community can help guide the process of turning our school board from a political status symbol to one solely focused on how students perform.  But we need to educate ourselves before we can offer guidance.  While this particular set of books and this particular organization may not be the only choice or even THE choice, starting somewhere is better than not starting at all – all options should be ‘on the table’.

We now seemingly have a talented, forthright and hardworking Superintendent who will likely  promote and foster a student outcome based environment.  The school board must align with Dr. Leslie’s vision for it to become a reality. 

As Mr. Crabill says, “Student outcomes don’t change until adult behaviors change.”  For the sake of our students, let’s hope that School Board members are willing and able to consider changing their adult behaviors.