Time Use, Public Comments, & High Expectations

QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES

• Question: How do we know if we're spending our time on student outcomes? What role do committees play? Are committees counted or not?     -- Board Member in Rhode Island
• TESBM: All board authorized public meeting time -- by any name, be it committee, task force, working group, working session, board meeting, business meeting, special meeting, etc. -- that isn't privileged (such as closed session meetings) counts in your calculation of the board's time use for the month. So if in May the board had a regular board meeting that lasted 2 hours, a taskforce meeting that lasted 1 hour, a committee meeting that lasted 1 hour, and a special meeting that lasted 1 hour, and none of that time was in closed session, then the school board had 5 hours of board authorized public meetings for May. Our coaching emphasizes that school boards prioritize student learning by spending 50% of their time each month on it. So the primary question regarding time use is this: of its 5 hours in May, did the board spend at least 2.5 hours monitoring progress toward its Goals about student outcomes?
• And that 2.5 hours can be split any way. The entire board meeting plus half of the taskforce could focus on monitoring Goals; that's 50% focus on student outcomes. Or none of the board meeting, but all of the committee meeting, all of the taskforce meeting, and half of the special meeting could focus on monitoring Goals; that's 50% focus on student outcomes.
• In general, the most common approaches are to either 1) have one board meeting per month where half of that meeting is focused on Goal monitoring OR 2) to have two board meetings of the same length -- one meeting each month that's purely Goal monitoring and another meeting each month that's purely business items -- as the way of having half of all meeting time focused on monitoring Goals about student outcomes.

• Question: What's the best way to handle public comments during board meetings?   -- Board Member in California
• TESBM: There is no one best way. But there are key issues to consider and each school board will need to make choices based on those issues and what it believes is best for its community. The three main factors are: 1) state law, 2) overall or per speaker time limits, and 3) privilege for any groups.
• Regarding state law, our coaching is simple: follow it. But in most places, that doesn't require public comment, so the board has flexibility regarding its structure. But in places with strict public comment laws, they must be followed.
• Regarding time, most school boards either have a set amount of time overall for public comment (commonly 30-60mins) OR a set amount of time per speaker (commonly 1-3mins) OR both. What school boards choose to do here is a judgment call.
• Regarding privileged speakers, it is not uncommon for school boards to give the first public speaking spots to students (so they can get home earlier on school nights), or extend special speaking privileges to labor leaders or local elected leaders. Again, what school boards choose to do here is a judgment call.
• We recommend that if school boards are considering changes to public comments, that they form an ad hoc committee to investigate these issues, solicit extensive public input, and that whatever a board chooses to do, communicate the reasons and details of the change early, often, and effectively.
• One other critical point: public comment at board meetings is typically one-way communication, so it doesn’t meet our threshold for authentic community outreach/engagement. If school boards want to do that, they need to schedule separate meetings specifically for community outreach/engagement; school board business meetings are generally ill-suited to that purpose.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

• In the last newsletter, we shared about a district where students are calling for the resignation of the school board chair due to what they see as disrespectful comments toward teachers. One of the most important points you all repeatedly made was that the school board needed more information about what was said and in what context. We agree that hearing all sides is important before the board decides on any action. Most school boards lack the authority to remove a fellow board member but, worst case, school boards have been known to strip a colleague of their leadership roles. But whatever choice is made, it should not be made in the heat of the moment; the board needs to do its due diligence before acting.

• As a special note in this case, while the board chair’s comments could have been more artfully delivered, we are strongly in support of school boards having high expectations for what they want their students to know or be able to do. That can and must be done without demeaning students or staff. But the board would want to be cautious about behaving in a manner that sends the message that lower expectations for students are acceptable.

• In this district, the teacher's union alleges that the school board is mismanaging school system funds. 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

• Rick Maloney shares some of the research and his insights regarding both boardsmanship -- the individual work of serving on a board  -- and governance --  the work of the board as a whole.

• This article suggests what we often coach: if something's not working, start with "I".

BOARD MEETING ANALYSIS

• A subscriber asked us to watch a board meeting in California. Here are the highlights from the regular board meetings:
  • Total Public Minutes: 136
  • Public Minutes Focused on Student Outcomes: 118 (86%)
  • Minutes Not Focused on Student Outcomes:  Updates-6, Public Comment-12
  • Key Topics: early literacy, board update, admin update
  • What Coach Celebrates: This is one of their two regularly scheduled board meetings each month. This one is explicitly focused on monitoring progress toward student outcome Goals while the other is focused on business items. They’ve done a great job celebrating students making the most progress toward the Goal being monitored. Because of this alignment, their student recognition time is included in the student outcomes minutes calculation.
  • What Coach Recommends: As the board self-identified, one of the few weaknesses in this meeting occurred before the meeting: even though they have a norm of submitting monitoring-related questions in advance, one board member forgot to do so this month. We agree with the board chair's instinct to brainstorm ways for board members to encourage and support each other with effective Goal monitoring.

UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES

• Effective Board Norms / Guardrails for the Board?

  • We are hosting a 30-minute webinar on how the board puts in place policies to help the board steer toward effectiveness and address ineffectiveness.

  • 11am central on Friday, July 11th, 2025

  • RSVP Here

• Did you miss last month's 30-minute webinar? Email Greg for a make-up session on any of our growing list of topics, including effective budgeting, superintendent evaluation, professional services management, strategic planning, or consent agendas.

BONUS MATERIAL

For paid subscribers, here are links to additional resources:

• Additional details about the analyzed meeting -- including a video link, time use evaluation, and more.

  • Board Meeting Video

  • Meeting Materials

  • Board Goals

  • Completed Time Use Evaluation

• A guidance document on tracking board time use.
• Video from the board meeting focused on Goal monitoring.
• A spreadsheet with extensive details on how more than 30 school systems handle public comments (hint: no two are alike).

Thank you for reading The Effective School Board Member. You ask tough questions and twice per month we get nationally certified school board coaches to provide answers. We help school board members tell their stories and provide additional resources to help them be more effective.

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