James Fox

Back on September 9, 1999, at the time of the Snowline Joint Unified School District elections, I wondered about the job parameters and responsibilities of the trustee's position, so I did a little research.

I found there was a tremendous amount of responsibility associated with the position:

Keeping current on legislation effecting any and all phases of education.
Diplomatic and fiscal management skills in working within a limited budget while controlling policy and the hiring and firing of personnel without micro- managing the individual schools.
And the moral responsibility of providing the children the education the trustee promised their parents that they would provide.

But nowhere did I find any reference to the tools they would be provided with to accomplish this humungous task, and it has bugged me ever since -- especially with the state closing down schools and taking over districts, so today I decided to do a little more research.

I found that the Association of School Boards has been trying since 1982 to force mandatory schooling for trustees but the individual districts have been fighting against it. The Association formed a task force in 1993 to define the job parameters of a trustee and here it is:

------------ The NSBA task force Campbell chaired in 1993 developed the first concise definitions of the governance responsibilities of boards, identifying four major tasks:

the establishment of a long-term vision for the school system;
the establishment and maintenance of a basic organizational structure for the school system, including employment of a superintendent, adoption of an annual budget, adoption of governance policies and creation of a climate that promotes excellence;
the establishment of systems and processes to ensure accountability to the community, including fiscal accountability, accountability for programs and student outcomes, staff accountability and collective bargaining; and advocacy on behalf of children and public education at the community, state and national levels.

After release of the NSBA task force report, CSBA divided the four key roles into seven categories and established subcommittees made up of CSBA directors and other education leaders to define the specific functions and responsibilities of each area.

CSBA’s new Masters in Governance program is based in large part on the work of those subcommittees.

Devising new and expanded training programs is just one of the strategies that members of CSBA and their colleagues in school board associations across the country are using to raise the bar for school board performance.

In recent years, school board associations and state legislatures have tried a number of different approaches to improve governance, including instituting voluntary codes of conduct and ethics for school boards, school board accountability systems and mandating that school trustees participate in some type of training ... training that included becoming familiar with the responsibilities covered in the BROWN ACT.

NSBA surveyed all school board associations in the country and found that 13 states have laws that call for mandated training of school board members.

The report by the National Center for Nonprofit Boards concluded that there is an urgent need for board training, but little recognition that board development can have a direct impact on a board’s ability to affect educational reform.

The report also found substantial barriers to board development. In some cases, the report said, board members themselves do not "appreciate the results that can be achieved" from sound training. Other obstacles include "concerns of time, money and community acceptance."

However, the report’s authors urged boards to cultivate "advocates and champions for board development among superintendents and board leaders and encourage community leadership in and sponsorship of board development."

Executive director Campbell said school boards must work hard, not only to hone their governance skills, but also to preserve the very existence of locally elected school boards.

"If we believe local school board governance is a fundamental premise of American democracy, then we must commit everything in our power to fight to protect that institution," he told members of CSBA’s Delegate Assembly. "We have an obligation — a responsibility — to ensure that we never allow our support to diminish. The people expect no less."