Education Law

Communities, the Web, and school board elections

BoardBuzz came across an impressive website about school boards by a group called the
"Committee for Good School Governance" in California's Pajaro Valley Unified School District. This group has made endorsements in that district's upcoming school board elections, but what got our attention was the detail their site features about the role of a school board and its members. As the site explains:

We have adopted the California School Board Association?s Professional Governance Standards for School Boards recommendations. We found the Association?s standards to contain the fundamental principles required in governing responsibly and effectively. Adding to the Association?s standards, the Committee has incorporated additional standards that will advance improvement in student learning and achievement. These additional standards largely include expectations for academic achievement goal setting, progress measurement compared with goals, and frequent improvement cycles to advance District progress.

Here's another example, from a group that calls itself "Take Back Perry Schools" and is organized around elections in the Metropolitan School District of Perry Township in Indiana. We like that this one includes links to NSBA's Key Work of School Boards, an article by Missouri School Boards' Association executive director Carter Ward and former Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board member Arthur Griffin Jr. on five characteristics of an effective school board, and the Center for Public Education's "All In Favor" brochure about the importance of school board elections and related resources for voters.

Committees that run slates of candidates can be controversial, and the Pajoranian Register reports that this is true of the Pajaro Valley one. Let's be very clear here: BoardBuzz doesn't know a thing about the candidates running in these races, these groups' agendas, or the validity of their endorsements.

What we do want to applaud, though, is organized community efforts, using the power of the Internet, to give these vital contests more attention and—even more important—to direct voters' attention to the principles of effective school governance. That's something we've said before should be part of a community's discussion at election time. It may not help much to immerse school board members in these principles if the people choosing them base their voting decisions on entirely different considerations.

Some school board elections can be complicated, with lots of candidates and little help from news media unless there's something sexy going on. Don't expect reporters to spill a lot of ink on principles of good governance. But if communities do this on their own, that can only bode well for children.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on September 26, 2008 (boomark / email).