Welcome to The Effective School Board Member. You ask tough questions and twice per month we get nationally certified school board coaches to provide answers. We include resources to help school board members become more effective, like readings and school board meeting analysis.
QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES
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Question: We need to hire a new superintendent. Do you have any recommendations for what that process should look like? -- Board Member in California
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TESBM: A major leadership mistake school boards make is hiring a superintendent and expecting them -- often new to the area -- to tell the board what the community's vision and values are/should be. It should be the opposite: the school board should listen for the community's vision and values, document them -- we call these Goals and Guardrails -- and then use those to screen out superintendent candidates who lack the skills to accomplish the Goals and Guardrails.
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Clarity about vision and values is step one in the search process. If your school board isn't clear about the community's vision and values, you're not ready to hire a superintendent that's a match for your community. Absent that, superintendent selection often comes down to the shiniest suit and the slickest pitch. Our students deserve better.
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Arrogance and lack of preparation lead to poor hiring. Here are additional strategies for an effective superintendent search:
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Before posting the position, develop a search timeline and clear board member expectations for appropriate/inappropriate behavior during the search.
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Create a set of exclusionary criteria -- indicators that automatically remove candidates from consideration. Aim to eliminate as many candidates as possible early in the process.
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Create a set of qualifications. Candidates who don't meet these criteria should be labeled as unqualified.
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Create candidate application requirements for applicants to submit evidence of their impact on student outcomes. Applicants who fail to do so or who fail to do so effectively should be labeled as unfocused.
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Have the application receiver -- whether you've chosen a search firm or to conduct the search without one -- present the board with a red list (unqualified & not student outcomes focused), a yellow list (qualified but not student outcomes focused), and a green list (qualified and student outcomes focused). The board should not consider red candidates and should avoid yellow candidates. If there aren't enough green candidates, keep the search open and keep looking.
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As a full board, collaboratively design a strong list of interview questions, including rubrics/scoring mechanisms for each.
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Question: When is the best time to have a school board meeting? -- Board Member in Michigan
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TESBM: It depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If the intention is to be as responsive to the needs of the current school board members as possible, survey the members for the best weekday and time -- likely a weekday morning if none of them have day jobs, a weekday evening if any of them do. If the intention is to be as available as possible to families, then pick a day of the week and time of day that would have the fewest conflicts with school and family life -- likely a Saturday morning or afternoon. If the intention is to be as convenient as possible for school system staff, then have it in the middle of the week during work hours -- likely a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon. If the intention is to avoid conflicts with school's extracurricular activities, then pick a day without any -- likely a Sunday afternoon or evening. I could go on, but I think you get the point. First figure out what you're trying to accomplish and prioritize, then go wherever that leads you, even if it means deviating from the way you've always done it.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
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In the last newsletter, we shared about the school system where three board members recommended dividing the school district in half to create the original district and a new one. Most of you said you'd need more information. Some said it sounded like a horrible idea (your words, not ours). Perhaps unsurprisingly, our coaching is that we strongly disagree with pursuing this conversation without extensive community input -- and ideally after a set of Goals and Guardrails has been adopted since that should guide decisions of this nature. Absent clarity on the community's vision and values (as codified in policy via something like Goals and Guardrails) and absent a rigorous community outreach/engagement process, nothing of this sort should be considered. The logical next step for this board is a deep community listening campaign to set their 5yr Goals and Guardrails. If, once those are adopted, the path to accomplish those priorities involves restructuring the school system, then it's appropriate to discuss. But not before.
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In this district, board members are accused of violating board policy by creating fake Facebook accounts to speak against district efforts. What would you do? Go here to share what you would do in this situation. In the next newsletter, we'll share your responses and our coaches' thoughts.
INTERESTING READS
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The new NAEP scores are out. If you're secretly a data nerd, there's a treasure trove here. For local school board members, knowing your state's performance relative to other states can offer a fascinating insight into your students’ likely degree of readiness compared to their national peers.
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A school board chair shares her perspectives on the recent NAEP scores.
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A superintendent recently announced their retirement and shared their proudest accomplishments in a letter to the community. Notice anything?
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Completing the organizational charter
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Cutting $800,000 in expenditures and revising the initial design of the administration building
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Opening the Sports Complex
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Enhancing safety initiatives, including implementing random metal detector and drug dog checks starting
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Naming two new athletic directors and providing all full-time staff with a $500 bonus
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Opening four new campuses to accommodate the district’s rapid growth
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Breaking ground on the new administration building
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Ensuring all full-time staff received $2,000 bonuses
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Raising starting teacher salaries significantly to help recruit and retain teaching staff
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BOARD MEETING ANALYSIS
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A subscriber asked us to watch a January school board meeting in Texas. Here are the highlights from the combined workshop/business meeting:
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Total Minutes: 220
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Minutes Focused on Student Outcomes: 167
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Key Topics: student performance, goal monitoring, public comment, voting
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What Coach Celebrates: This was a very well-designed meeting where the overwhelming majority of it (76%) was focused on student outcomes! Not included in that 76% was a ~15min artistic performance by multiple student groups (only not included because the board doesn't have a goal about the arts) which was quite lovely. It appears that this board rotates which board member is responsible for facilitating the monitoring conversation, a practice we encourage.
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What Coach Recommends: Invite more people to your board meetings! Share about your board meetings at state and national conferences. Board meetings that are inspiringly focused on student outcomes are rare and hard to find, so let people know what you all are doing!
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UPCOMING OPPORTUNITY
- What Is An Effective Superintendent Evaluation Process?
- We are hosting a 30-minute webinar to go over the basics that most school board members aren't told about evaluating a superintendent. This quick overview will provide a sample process and create authentic accountability to the community's vision and values.
- 11am central on Friday, March 14th, 2025
- RSVP Here
- Did you miss last month's 30-minute webinar? Email Greg for a make-up session.
BONUS MATERIAL
For paid subscribers, here are links to additional resources:
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Additional details about the analyzed meeting -- including a video link, monitoring report, and more.
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Board Meeting Video
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Monitoring Report
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Monitoring Self Eval (they used this during the meeting)
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Asking Effective Questions: Tactical vs Strategic Inquiry
- Special event for paid subscribers: Join us for a zoom conversation with this board chair as she shares details about what it took for her board to make the jump from dysfunctionality to the student outcomes focused meetings they have now.
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A guidance document, including recommended questions and rubrics for screening, interviewing, and selecting a superintendent.
Question we can answer? Submit it to our coaches.
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Responses