Friction among school
board members and between boards and superintendents makes recruiting
people to serve on boards or work as administrators harder, Dr. Paul Houston,
executive director of the American Association of School Administrators,
told Education World. A recent report from the New England School Development
Council offers strategies to help build strong school board-superintendent
teams. Included: Practical suggestions from the report
and comments from officials of national school leadership organizations.
School boards need to focus more on setting policy and less on micro-managing
superintendents and school systems, according to a
New England School Development Council (NESDC) report. The council
advises boards and superintendents to work more as teams and less as adversaries.
"I thought it was a good step forward," Houston told Education World.
"Governance is a huge issue right now. I don't think [the report] solves
all the problems, but if some of the recommendations are implemented,
it's a good start."
CONFUSION ABOUT ROLES
Highlights of the
NESDC Leadership Report
The New England School Development Council (NESDC) made several
recommendations for building school board-superintendent leadership
team relationships in its report "Thinking Differently." Among
the council's recommendations are the following:
* Clearly define roles of board members and superintendents.
* Provide boards and superintendents more training
in working together.
* Develop better college training programs for superintendents.
* Adopt national certification requirements for superintendents.
* Create a national center for school board-superintendent
leadership.
* Revise state laws to enable boards and superintendents
to meet privately to periodically evaluate their work.
Printed copies of the report are available from the Educational
Research Service in Arlington, Virginia, 1-(800) 791-9308.
Confusion about board and superintendent responsibilities -- sometimes among
members of the same board -- bogs down progress in school systems and frustrates
both administrators and board members, according to Houston.
"I think there has been a sense that communities wanted to take back
some control of the schools," Houston commented. "A lot of people think
the board is there to fix things rather than be a policy body." Increasingly,
people are running for school boards to pursue issues that concern only
them, and boards become a clash of philosophies, he said.
"People run for school boards with an adversarial attitude," Welburn
told Education World. "They don't approach the superintendent as an employee
who needs to be supported."
Dr. Richard H. Goodman, a senior associate at NESDC and one of the report's
authors, added that he would like to de-politicize boards of education
by having candidates run without party affiliations.
TENSIONS DISCOURAGE CANDIDATES
Friction among school board members and between boards and superintendents
makes recruiting people to serve on boards or work as administrators harder,
Houston said. "There is a huge shortage of superintendents, and a lot
has to do with governance. Part of it is, they just don't want to work
with boards."
School board members who try to work on broader issues often become
discouraged by board politics and decide not to run for re-election, Houston
added.
"More people would [run for school boards] if they could focus on education
issues aimed at improving education for all children," commented Goodman.
Bryant, though, said the climate in a community determines whether people
run for school boards, and there is more than one reason behind the turnover
among superintendents.
Both board members and administrators are under pressure from the public
to provide quick fixes for educational problems, which can cause stress,
Bryant explained. New programs can take a year or two to produce changes.
"It's important to give boards and superintendents time to see results,"
according to Bryant.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
The report calls for school boards and superintendents to better define
their roles and then work together toward common goals. School boards,
for example, should focus more on setting policy and leave management
issues -- such as contracts, personnel matters, and transportation --
to superintendents.
Both school boards and superintendents need more training in working
together, the report said. Superintendents also need better college preparation
for their jobs, and national certification requirements for superintendents
should be adopted.
Also recommended is the creation of a national center for school board-superintendent
leadership, which would train boards and administrators to work collaboratively
and effectively.
REVISIONS PROPOSED FOR SUNSHINE LAWS
One suggestion the report makes is that states revise "sunshine," or
open meeting, laws and allow boards and superintendents to meet privately
to evaluate their work. Although a school board must conduct its business
in public, boards and superintendents should be able to speak openly about
their relationships in private, according to the report. Participants
would continue to refrain from taking action behind closed doors.
"Sunshine laws in many states require all school board sessions to be
open to the public," the report states. "Despite certain clear advantages,
we believe such laws can sometimes impede the smooth working of a collaborative
leadership team."
Victor Perpetua is a lawyer with the
Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission, which monitors the
state's right-to-know law. He said relaxing sunshine laws might make it
easier for boards to operate but that easier is not always what is best
for the public.
"Without question, sunshine laws, which make people operate in the public
eye, add a layer of complexity and scrutiny to the work of school boards,"
Perpetua told Education World. "But legislation in every state has determined
that the benefits outweigh the costs."
Existing legislation does provide opportunities for boards to meet privately
on certain issues, Perpetua added. "Obviously, it would be easier for
everyone in government to work in the dark," he said. "But that increases
the risk of abuse of authority."
Contributors to the NESCD report, though, maintain that certain matters,
such as board and superintendent evaluations, should take place out of
the public eye to allow for more-open discussion.
"There is a huge conflict between the public's right to know and right
to gnaw," Houston said. Some people attend school board meetings just
to gnaw on, or rehash, certain issues. "There is a level of scrutiny that
can impede functioning. Certain candor needs to take place between the
board and superintendent that can't be done in public. ... But that does
not mean that everything should be done in secret."
Goodman, another contributor to the report, agreed. "If we are going
to get boards and superintendents to work as teams, they should be allowed
to meet privately and settle issues, report back to the public what they've
done, but take no action on policy."
Current sunshine laws allow boards very little room for self-critique,
according to Bryant. "A board should be able to do strategic planning,"
she said.
REASON TO HOPE FOR CHANGE
Feedback from school board members, administrators, education professors,
and educational organizations has been very positive since the report
was released to the education community last spring, according to Goodman.
"People agree that governance is crucial to high student achievement,"
he said.
All the panelists said they hope local boards and superintendents will
review the recommendations and begin some implementation and that state
legislatures will consider funding for teamwork training and upgrading
standards.
"We all are trying to look at leadership in different ways,'' said Welburn,
of the National Association of State Boards of Education.
The report also supports efforts by the
National School Boards Association to spell out school board responsibilities,
said NSBA executive director Dr. Anne L. Bryant. "It helps people to define
what they are supposed to be doing," she told Education World.
Boards,
Superintendents Should Collaborate More