How well do you know your School Board and what they do?

So how well do you know your local school board?

Do you care?

Why should you care?

What do they do and what powers do they have?

When and where do they meet?

Let’s see if we can give you some links and information that may be useful:

List of school districts in Washington State: http://www.k12.wa.us/maps/SDmainmap.aspx 

• After clicking the link above find your district in the alphabetic list
• When you get to the district’s website click the “Search” box and type “school board” (no quotes)
• That should get you to the boards calendar with details on where and when they meet

Should you care?

• We hope so. These people are making decisions about building and renovating schools; curriculum; text books; policies and a whole host of issues
• They choose whether to support programs like Common Core, SBAC testing and much more

What powers do they have?

• There are a set of “standards” you may want to read about here: http://www.wssda.org/Portals/0/Resources/Publications/standards.pdf 
  • The School Board Standards comprise five core principles:
    1. Responsible school district governance
    2. Communication of and commitment to high expectations for student learning
    3. Creating conditions district-wide for student and staff success
    4. Holding the district accountable for student learning 5. Engagement of the community in education
    5. Engagement of the community in education
• Each Board has their own list of goals and vision
• The Washington State Legislature defines the legal aspects:
  • https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=28A.215.010
• Boards meet every two (2) weeks with some taking breaks in the summer.
• Boards must have the next school years budget completed and in place by the end of August.
• Boards ask for and manage levy’s; capital bonds; hire the Superintendent; set policies; handle budgets and may attend school functions

An interesting missing element – school boards are NOT required to respond to questions from the public.

WSSDA – Washington State School Directors Association

What is it? It’s a group that receives funding from every district in the state (it’s law). The WSSDA uses the money to lobby the state legislature on the behalf of the school board directors. You can read about the group in more depth at: http://www.swweducation.org/?p=3603 

They even train new Directors in what to say and what not to say: http://www.wssda.org/LeadershipDevelopment/BoardDevelopment.aspx 

Does this help? We hope so. Most people simply don’t know how important school boards are, the power they wield and the impact they can have on our children and the future of America.