Some research on School Boards and their Interactions with Administration

A school board provides high-level guidance and direction for the school district. Its job is to:

Build community support by pursuing a broad base of involvement.

Communicate clearly with all school district stakeholders.

Adopt policies to support district initiatives

Approve comprehensive plans developed by the superintendent.

Allocate adequate funding and align resources.

Monitor progress toward the achievement of district goals.

The superintendent, on the other hand, serves as the chief executive officer of the school district with more concrete responsibilities for leading and managing day-to-day operations. The superintendent must:

Implement school board decisions.

Lead strategic planning initiatives.

Make recommendations to the board.

Develop, monitor, and evaluate the effectiveness of programs.

Model support for district change initiatives and ensure that they are implemented.

The models - - -

1.  The Corporate Model - the school board is seen as a board of directors whose responsibilities are designing the district’s “comprehensive educational strategy,” selecting an operations manager for the organization, and answering to the “shareholders”—in this case, the community, all of whom have a stake in the success of the school district (Brown, Peterkin, & Finkelstein, 1992).

2.  The Accountability Model -   Author D.B. Reeves (2000) suggests that a relationship built on accountability “can provide board members with a blend of very specific school-level information, along with qualitative and narrative data that puts this information in proper context." District operations also benefit from the accountability model since it ensures that administrators have access to the same information. This system, says Reeves, becomes a functional framework “within which all other initiatives, programs, evaluations, plans, and other educational policy matters” facing the district can be considered.

3.  A Collaborative learning communities model -

Within this model, the board and other members of the school community work together and learn together for the benefit of the school district. Author Peter Senge and his coauthors (2000) emphasize trusting relationships rather than a data or functional structure as the basis for board-district interaction. To establish a trusting relationship, Senge suggests it is good practice to make public as much information as possible, including creating a public record of private conversations. He stresses that if school board members model the civil behavior they would like schools to demonstrate, their own tendency to disagree for the sake of public drama will be eliminated. The school board also can deflate emotionally charged decisions such as closing a local school or funding special programs by focusing discussion on the observable data that have been collected. Senge further suggests that a school board that wants to operate as a learning community needs to practice talking about its values and take steps to ensure that discussions occur with calm consideration.

Let's think about which model, then, fits Irvington- I personally favor the third model as I feel it fits the community and borrows a critical element from model 2 - in that data is a critical piece.  My thinking is directly in line with how the current board set their goal of creating and implementing differentiated curricula that use data and best practices. 

Rather than "drive the curriculum", I hope to provide knowledge that is new to even the most seasoned educators and to fulfill the role of a board member that seeks to allocate adequate funding and align resources effectively for our children and monitor progress toward the achievement of district goals.

Thanks again for your continued interest in me as a candidate and I hope to engage further!