Ask SSC . . .
[Editor’s Note: While this article was written for our K-12 school agency clients, we believe that many of these concepts can apply to community colleges and may be helpful to you.]
How Do We Handle a Micromanaging Board Member?
Q. We had a board member candidate in the upcoming election visit our business office. She indicated that she has a background in business and, if elected, planned on spending a lot of time on analyzing individual purchasing decisions. It seems like she is going to be micromanaging if she is elected. What would you advise?
A. Candidates come with varied skills, values, and perceptions when seeking a seat on a school board. Almost all are honorable and are seeking election for the right reasons. Being a sitting school board member is an important community responsibility that requires due diligence. As part of a board members due diligence should be to acquire the training necessary to become and effective board member.
The National School Boards Associations (NSBA) provides the following framework of eight essential key action areas that should focus and guide school boards in their efforts to improve student achievement. The eight areas include:
· Vision—Statements that identify the school district’s future, intermediate, and short-term goals, associated objectives, and supporting tasks
· Standards—Statements that define and explain educational expectations for all grade levels and that support the vision statements
· Assessment—Identified tools and processes that measure educational outcomes against stated standards
· Accountability—Assigned responsibility for educational outcomes
· Alignment—Dedicated resources that support educational visions, goals, objectives, and techniques
· Climate—Educational environment that facilitates board, administration, and learner productivity
· Collaborative Relationships—Established trust and confidence between educational stakeholders
· Continuous Improvement—Routinely seeking ways to improve the above 7 component areas so that student achievement is realized
As you can see, none of the above key action areas involves micromanaging the district’s operations. Instead, they are more value driven areas as opposed to skill driven areas like managing the day-to-day business operations of a school district.
So to answer your question, we would encourage all of your Board members to get involved with the California School Boards Association (CSBA) through its New Board Member Institute and its Masters in Governance program. CSBA promotes success for all students by defining and driving the public education agenda and strengthening school board governance at the district and county levels. CSBA also provides detailed board training in the areas of fiscal management, collective bargaining, human resources, facilities, and instruction from the perspective of a governing board member. Since we have been included in teaching in these CSBA programs for many years, we can assure you that the training demonstrates to Board members that far more can be accomplished through good policy decisions than by micromanagement. Go to http://www.csba.org/ for more information.
—Ron Bennett and John Gray