School Boards: What I Wish You Knew

I have been reading a series of responses from kids who replied when asked, “What do you wish your teacher knew about you?”  Equally powerful and interesting series in this same genre include kids’ responses to “What do you wish your Mom knew about you?” and child-free women’s responses to “What do you wish women with children knew about you?”  There are a host of insightful opportunities here for wives and husbands to answer regarding each other, employees and supervisors, police and criminals, spouse and in-laws, etc., etc.  Though I find these responses to the same prompt fascinating, I am not qualified in most cases to respond.  There are several areas where I feel more than qualified to respond, and I shall do so.

What do I wish school board members knew about superintendents and schools?  A list comes rapidly to mind:

I wish board members knew they are not qualified to run a school system.  They lack the training, education, experience and background knowledge to make a system operate successfully day after day.  I perceive that many board members do not know this, or do not believe it.  Board members who feel qualified to run a school system should apply somewhere to do so.

I wish board members knew they are not qualified to evaluate personnel.  Again, they lack the education, experience, training, and background knowledge to evaluate staff.  I perceive that many school board members do not know this, or do not believe it.  Board members feel qualified to inform superintendents which principals, coaches, teachers, etc. should be terminated while having no working knowledge of how professional evaluation should be conducted.  Patrons or parents may call board members with complaints resulting in a board member’s perception, but that approach is more like American Idol than a professional evaluation system.  Perception in such cases becomes more important in evaluation than professional observation and coaching.  Boards tend to suffer from the popularity syndrome in that a staff member who is unpopular for one reason or another may be encouraged to leave when in fact that employee is doing a great job.  Further, untrained supervisors tend to hire people who think just like they do rather than seek a variety of divergent thinkers to better strengthen the outcomes.  If a superintendent is to be held accountable for the district, he or she must pick the staff, not the board.

I wish board members knew they hold a position of public trust that has no power until they meet as a group.  I perceive that many individual board members seek power by individually interacting with patrons and friends and as a result become a board member of single issue which means more to them than the system as a whole.  The same board member may wish to direct the superintendent but has no power to do so unless it is by board action.

I wish board members knew that as public officials their job is to approve the budget, set the tax rate, approve district goals and objectives, and set board policy.  They should do so and then get out of the way.  Even Jerry Jones does not call plays.

I wish board members knew that public education is a state function, not a local function.  Local districts are given authority to act by the state, and what the state gives the state can take away.  Professionals are licensed by the state, not the local district.  Most policies and procedures and curriculum and budget and assessments are dictated by the state.  I wish they could see beyond district boundaries and local football wins and losses.  There is a very large world outside the boundaries of the school district and it improves the success of the district if the superintendent is involved in that larger world.

I wish board members knew that the superintendent and the board must operate like a team.  They must have the courage to say what is on their minds, they must have the honesty to report what they perceive and hear, and they must have the personal integrity to do so.  If a board member hears a complaint he or she is obligated by policy and integrity to share that complaint with the superintendent.  The same is true of the superintendent in his or her relationship with the board.  No member of the board should attack another member of the board or the superintendent.  Differences should be resolved by more sophisticated means.  Boards govern an educational institution and therefore have the responsibility to act in the most informed and mature manner possible.  The superintendent should work not to ever surprise the board and likewise board members should work to never surprise the superintendent.  Board members may not personally like the superintendent, or disagree with him or her on some issues, but the greater mission of teaching kids should supersede personal feelings and taste.  If a board and a superintendent can establish that kind of relationship a district is most likely to improve.  They do so by perceiving their relationship as a member of a team, not a boss and subordinate.

Because of board and superintendent relationships superintendents learn that they are professional nomads, likely to move on after the 2 to3 year average tenure of a superintendent.  Building strong ties in the community will make such a move more painful, but remains essential.  Superintendents will likely never have the background knowledge and experience board members have.  They will never understand the local culture as well as board members.  They will never have memories of growing up in the community and attending the schools they have been hired to lead.  Board members have a huge responsibility to share those insights with the superintendent, just as the superintendent has a huge responsibility to recommend and defend the best practices known to professional educators. 

I wish board members knew how vital it is to a system’s success that the superintendent and the board continue to learn from each other and have the courage to be honest with each other.  That relationship is difficult to build, and unless a board has mature, experienced members the burden of forging that team will likely fall to the superintendent.  When the relationship fails, it is likely due in some ways to behaviors on the part of the board and the superintendent, just as both parties tend to hold some responsibility for the end of any relationship.  And yet, the burden of maintaining and building the relationship between the board and the superintendent should be equally shared.  It is more likely that the superintendent who has received much education and training in leadership, team building, decision making and conflict will find him or herself in the position of teaching people who perceive that they are the boss and that they know all they need to know.

I wish board members knew it is critical that they protect, defend and support the superintendent just as it is critical for the superintendent to protect, defend and support the board.  We should brag on each other, not complain.  Worse, if a board member is complaining about the superintendent and has not told the superintendent then he or she, in my humble opinion, lacks courage and integrity.

I wish board members knew that serving on the board is an important role in the community and they should do their homework before deciding to do so.  Potential board members should attend meetings prior to running for office.  Potential board members should let their employers know they intend to run for office and seek support for the number of hours such a role will require.  Some of the weakest board members I have ever worked with walked onto the board never having attended a meeting with no background knowledge regarding the role of the board, and no advance approval from employers to serve on the board.  Such a member will begin their service with a huge deficit in knowledge and experience that will take years to overcome and cannot be overcome without the help of experienced board members.

I wish board members knew that while they directly deal with the school system for several hours once or twice a month the superintendent is totally immersed in the system every single day.  Superintendents live and breathe their school systems, constantly interact with staff, parents, patrons, kids and external organizations.  School systems are highly complex, multi-mission, human systems and cannot be directed from one perspective only.  I wish board members would listen more than they talk.

These are my “biggies” for board members.  No doubt I have now irritated multiple members of multiple boards, but from my perspective as the CEO of school systems for over 17 years, I wish board members knew the above.  The school system will work much better for all kids if board members did know.  The inherent conflict between boards and superintendents arises when superintendents know and the board believes they know when the board does not know what they do not know and it falls to the superintendent to attempt to teach a group who already knows everything. 

I have other lists of things I wish legislators knew and things I wish teachers knew and things I wish parents knew.  Ah, but those lists shall be fodder for future digestion.