You are absolutely right about school boards. They are a significant part of any problems. In Texas, they are supposed to hire / fire, make district policy, and do the budget.

Unfortunately, they often get involved in the day to day activities and try to micro-manage. School board members, on the whole, have NO idea what is going on in the classrooms or on campus. This is partly because they get a very distorted image when they listen to complaints from the few disgruntled parents and assume that those complaints are the norm. They also don't ask the parent if they 'followed the chain of command' by talking first to the teacher, then the principal, etc. Years ago, my district got in trouble for 'governance' issues, and those problems have improved somewhat.

I agree with the posts that said a school district will reflect the community and perform up to what the parents demand. However, a principal can make or break a campus. Leadership is of primary importance. I have worked under six principals. One was a walking nightmare who caused many of the staff to become ill from stress, one was pretty good, one (the current one) is EXCELLENT, and the rest were borderline.

School boards and communities need to understand that good leaders go for top dollar. It's just the way it is. You get what you pay for.

Ummm, school board members aren't paid.

-- Rose (open_rose@hotmail.com), April 12, 2002

Answers

Many school boards operate as you said Rose, however, not all. I was a a member of the local school board in a small town in western NYS> I was elected to a 4th term but resigned when we moved to VA. Being on a school board is a thankless job and no, not unless you are on a school board in a city school do you get paid. In many of the districts in the south they are appointed such as the school I taught at in VA, then a few yrs later they went to elections. So, if he school board is appointed then there isn't much the community can do, except vote out the official appointing them. And yes, some board members do try to run the school. But there are also for that many, many more school board members who care. I think personally my being a teacher helped me be a better board member, I could see both sides. An effective school board member is usually a teacher since they know whats going on.

I also agree that some stick their nose in too far and then smooze the superintendent to bid their will. I spent many a night at meeting til 2AM discussing issues. Case in point: a school board member didn't like the football coach because he felt he didn't give his son more play time and was hard on him. But, my husband had this very coach when he was in school and played football. The team did well for yrs under him. In fact our son played on the team and started. So this guy goes to the superintendent, raises holy hell and then starts digging the grave. Yep, was a big mess. I had the phone ringing all hrs of the day and night from angry parents. I also encountered angry parents at the local watering hole when we went ofr chicken wings sometimes. Because I abstained from voting because of a conflict of interest our son wa shammered on. he even lost his opportunity in his sr yr to get exposure to more scouts. he already had Alfred Collge looking at him pretty close.

You mentioned Texas, I personally knew the state school superintendent or assistant, Skip, shoot, forgot his last name, Mino? Skip rose up the ladder fast in western NY in the schools as a administrator. In fact he was in his late 20's when he was hired in TX, but gosh, that was 12 yrs ago.

Being on a school board was a definate headache. I don't regret this though. After our superintendent made headways the local yokles as I called them began running for members and got elected, school went downhill from there. And, yes, we paid him a good salary, and like you said, you get what ya pay for. I can't find the post you are referring to, which one was it? You definately gave some insights in reality. i swore one day I was going to write my school board and teaching memoirs.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), April 13, 2002.

Scroll down to post about public school bashing.

-- Rose (open_rose@hotmail.com), April 13, 2002.