(49 Questions to Ask Your Board)
Vision without action is a dream, and action without vision is aimless. Board policy represents the intersection of vision and accountability…Policies can and should reflect local values and principles designed to address local needs and what the board cares about.
– Katherine Gemberling et al1
Policy can be strategic when it gives broad guidance to district leadership, including the board itself. It can be operational when more routine district activities receive detailed direction.
Scenario: While reviewing the district’s student personnel policies Nancy, the board president, complained about the size of the policy file which seemed filled with hundreds of tedious documents. “Why is it so large?” she asked, adding “It seems that everything we say that is truly important gets lost among all those details.” The superintendent pointed out that a large number of policies are required by state law, and in many cases even their voluminous wording is dictated in law. Mary Ellen wondered aloud, “If everything is prescribed from above, how does the community have its say?” The board decided to conduct a review of the policy file, highlighting policies that appeared to be strategic in nature, telling people what to achieve and why. The board then marked them as a strategic subset of all district policies and prioritized them over more operational policies that tell staff and students in detail what to do and how to do it. Policies designated as strategic were then scheduled for more frequent annual review, and thereby gained more attention in future board deliberations.
The sort of operational policy that is mandated in state law should not be allowed to subvert the purpose of board policy, which is to communicate principled board guidance to the district as a written expression of the community’s vision and values intended to benefit students.
On the campaign trail, board members get a sense of the community’s pulse when they go door-to-door, connecting with voters and listening to their concerns, values, and priorities about their schools. The most effective boards seek a continuous connection with the community to keep its understanding of that voice current between elections. They then use community input in the review, adjustment, and refinement of policies, to ensure those policies reflect the community voice. An example of a policy created as an expression of the community’s values follows:
Success in the Early Years. Every student will engage in meaningful learning opportunities that foster curiosity and joy of learning while developing the academic and social skills to meet/exceed standards by the end of Grade 3.
– North Thurston SD2
The board views elections, whether involving candidates running for office or bond/levy measures, as the community’s periodic authoritative voice of approval or disapproval for how its vision and values are being implemented. In between elections, the board must provide that voice.
Because the board can’t be everywhere all the time, policies enable the community’s representatives to guide the district on a strategic level. The superintendent also benefits from policy in doing her job of managing the district, again because she cannot be everywhere all at once. Operational policies give voice to the many management directives and instructions that would otherwise be needed to keep the district running.
The effective board incorporates the community’s vision for long-term student results and its values guiding prudent, moral, and ethical behavior into district policies that are written in terms of broad principles rather than detailed rules or directives to guide the district.
NOTE: Please feel free to comment. The opinions expressed in these blog entries are informed by references cited herein, and the experiences of the author. Your comments are welcome additions to the conversation.
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Excerpt from:
- A Framework for School Governance (2017), Rick Maloney
Additional References:
- 1Key Work of School Boards (2009), Katherine Gemberling et al
- 2https://www.nthurston.k12.wa.us/cms/lib/WA01001371/Centricity/Domain/9/Policy%20E-1%Ends.pdf retrieved June 2024
Next: Question #22 – External Voice Does Your Board Reflect Vision and Values Through Advocacy