Use these insights for educating people about school board work and to encourage community leaders to accept the challenge of school board service.
The Leader to Leader initiative supports veteran school board members in encouraging citizens with excellent leadership qualities to run for local school board seats. As an experienced and trained school board member, or veteran leader, you can:
Some of the key characteristics of highly effective candidates and school board members are:
Beyond these qualities, perhaps the most important one for school board members to have is a sincere passion for children and concern for providing a quality education for all.
Here are some points you may want to use when a potential candidate has concerns or questions:
As a veteran school board member, you can share information from your own board experience to help prepare a potential candidate. Helpful information includes:
The following list of questions may be used by community organizations or the news media to interview potential school board candidates:
Feel free to adopt the following article for district newsletters, blogs and business or community organization publications. Other options might include a letter to the editor or opinion-editorial piece.
What to look for in a school board candidate
By [Your school district name]
In this very challenging era for public schools, here and across the nation, highly effective governing is needed as never before. As you consider candidates for our school board, here are some qualities I believe to be crucial:
Strong interpersonal skills
If only one set of skills were available for an individual to select in order to be an effective school board member, I would advise the selection of solid interpersonal skills and attributes, including communication, trustworthiness, honesty, confidentiality, consistency and other such traits that allow interpersonal relationships to blossom.
Also key is concern for the entire school district – not for a special interest or a narrow philosophy. But face it, most of us have a “favorite” concern about schools. It may be sports, fine arts, technology, special education or something else. And that’s OK. A passionate voice on the board for a particular program can be a real strength for a board.
However, an elected school board member must also have a broad view of the district he or she is elected to govern. Every program offered by the district has value, or it should not be offered. Good board members recognize that, and try to build them all to their highest level of quality.
Sometimes individuals may also run for the school board to represent a particular political or philosophical point of view. School board elections are nonpartisan, but groups or organizations with a political agenda are often active in board elections.
Of course, this is OK, and it may even be good politics. Yet the best school board members are not so tied to a “cause” that they cannot fairly serve the entire school district. Voters should learn as much about school board candidates as possible in order to understand the philosophies of the people they elect.
Willingness to learn
State law requires very few qualifications for service as a school board member. Some individuals are elected with more immediate knowledge and skills than others. But in my experience, no member – regardless of occupation, intelligence or personal skills – knows all he/she needs upon election. Those school board members who approach their jobs with a commitment to fill those knowledge and skill gaps more effectively serve their school district and community.
Commitment to teamwork
Individual school board members have little power. But, by working well together as a “corporate body,” with the superintendent and other groups shaping public schools, virtually anything is possible for a school board as a whole.
Am I saying that every vote should be unanimous, that differences should not be voiced or that the board/superintendent
relationship should always be perfect? No, I am not. I am saying that reasonable adults should work toward a common
vision and be able to disagree agreeably without creating lasting divisions that assure loss of public confidence.
Commitment to engaging the community
As any current school board member will tell you, school board service is much broader, much more challenging – and even much more rewarding – than solving a single problem. School board service involves balancing a complex set of community values that affect education. This requires listening, collaboration and give-and-take within the school district and within the community as a whole.
Serving on a local school board requires lots of time. No longer is it reasonable to expect board service to take only one night per month. Public education has become far too complex, and community expectations far too great, for the leisurely pace of yesteryear. Today’s board members say they can easily spend 45 hours per month on board work: staying abreast of issues, attending regular board meetings, work sessions and community meetings – not to mention personal phone calls and other contacts made. But most will say it’s time well spent.
Serving on a local school board can be one of the most rewarding challenges any citizen could hope for. The system works best when able and committed people step forward and serve their communities. If ever there was a time when quality leadership was needed, it is now.
