School Board Talk-Build on the Good Change your District is Ready to Make

This year, I was up for election to the school board for a fifth term, and after almost fourteen years of school board service, I decided not to run.  I'm proud to say that our district attracted an outstanding field of candidates: among them two former Minnesota legislators and two highly respected formerly retired board members returning for another run.  Its a relief to know that the voters have a chance to keep the school board strong.

I've decided to start a series  of posts with ideas on the role of school board members.  Urban public schools face tremendous challenges.   The legislative framework provided to school districts is deeply dysfunctional.   Finding and keeping outstanding leadership requires teamwork, political savvy, and a bit of just plain luck.   The state systemically underfunds school districts, and there are systemic structural issues that push even the most resilient school boards to allocate more money than they have to compensation, and less to needed programs and reforms.  

But good school board governance can make a huge difference, and here during the last six months of my service,  I'm going to take a crack at sharing some thoughts for aspiring school board members on how to make a difference as a school board member, while drawing as well on some of the mistakes that I would do over again if I could. 

My first lesson for any new or experienced board member is to never lose sight of your responsibility to be a part of an accountability team that consistently seeks to aspire to do better as a school district.   It's not your job as a board member to try to defend the status quo.  Board service is not about giving speeches about how great your school district is, and how your perceived shortcomings are beyond your control. That can make you really popular: telling people in the system how great we are all.   But we desperately need to improve public education, and if you are not willing to be a part of that improvement, then why the heck are you running for school board in the first place.  In my future posts, I'm going to discuss some ways that school board members, working as part of a governance team can help their district become a true continuous progress organization. 

When you take board training, one of the first things you get taught is that "you are just one board member," and that is true. You can't order anyone to do anything, and if you could, you'd probably be ordering people to do the wrong things at the wrong time.  Most public school districts in the United States are doing a dreadful job of teaching elementary students mathematics, for example.  If you don't know that, you have some reading to do, because part of being a great school board member is knowing something about your product:  the field of education.  But no matter how much you know, and no matter how hard you try, a school board is not going to fix elementary school mathematics, not even if all seven board members order it to happen.  

 Across the country, and certainly here in Minnesota, most school districts are completely neglecting students with dyslexia, the most common specific learning disability, by far.   As a board member, you should know that, because it is one of the central keys to attacking the reading proficiency gap that plagues our schools. But here again, you would most certainly find that as a school board member strongly committed to solving the dyslexia problem, there are deeply embedded systemic barriers to making the needed reform.   If you are coming to the school board because you want to improve education for young people, good for you:  that is the right reason.   But it takes more than commitment and persistence, and my hope is to provide some posts that may be of assistance in your quest. 

So here is my first pointer:   Identify the good change that your school district is ready to make; discover the leaders who are ready to make that change, and give that change a boost.    If you are a lover of mathematics, and you came to the school board because your kids had a terrible math experience at their school, you are not going to "fix" math, if your school leadership isn't ready to go after math. Public schools are being asked to make dozens of changes.  If reading needs reform, the transformation will take all hands on deck:  professional development; leadership; buy in from principals and the curriculum people; and several years of persistent hard work and self correction.   If the board were to demand changes in mathematics at the same time --- and I don't advise ever demanding that kind of change in that way --- all you will get is two incompetently executed reforms, and a lot of angry overloaded teachers.  

The time to get on board math reform is when the superintendent or the appropriate teaching and learning exec says, "we need to make some changes in math,  will you support the resources that we need to make those changes."   A school board member can be extraordinarily effective, when your leadership tells you that they are ready to make good reform.  So identify the good change that your school district is ready to make and get behind it.

Now if a properly trained school board member is reading this, I might hear this:  why are you even talking about math reform; that's not your job; that's the exclusive realm of the educational experts you hire to make operational decisions.   I disagree, but let's save that argument for another day.   I'm going to suggest that the law expects school boards to be an important partner in achieving the highest possible academic standards.   If you are just coming to school board meetings to cheer for the home team, why are you there.  Right now, I'll just leave with the suggestion:   "Build on and support the Good Change your district is ready to make."