Public trust is given to school board members and that trust must be repaid through the members’ informed and active governance of our schools. Boardsmanship is an active not a passive trust.
It is spring election time, and two school board seats are on the local ballot. There are no other school district issues to be decided. If the past informs the future, less than 30% of the eligible voters will decide the two people who will be part of our seven-member school board. As a generalization, this is the usual pattern of school board elections – 30% or fewer of eligible voters decide who governs our school district. The generalization does not hold when there is a school referendum or money on the ballot. Two years ago, almost 70% of eligible voters cast ballots on big money referendum questions and for the persons running for board election that spring. Dollars and cents issues raise more voter interest than electing who governs our schools.
Continuing in a predictive mode, fewer than 50 of the voters in the school board election will attend a school board meeting in the next year. Some of the 50 may physically attend numerous meetings, but fewer than 50 names will appear in person.
That said, how does the public go about the work of trusting elected school board members?
Explicit and implicit trust.
Wisconsin statute 120.12 defines school board duties. The first two duties set the expectations. These are –
- Management of the school district, and
- General supervision.
Board members are responsible for the “… possession, care, control and management of the property and affairs of the school district…” and are authorized to “… visit and examine the schools of the district, advise the school teachers and administrative staff regarding the instruction, government and progress of the pupils and exercise general supervision over such schools…”. Subsequent sub-sections of the statute define the scope of sub-duties.
https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/120
In the care, control and management of the school district, there are three top order priorities. These are –
- Safe and secure schools.
- Defined curricular instruction leading to quality student outcomes.
- Inclusive extra-curricular programs, including athletics and fine arts.
These are non-negotiably explicit. All issues of safety and security race to the school board agenda demanding immediate attention. Everything from violence on the campus to drop off time on school bus routes to locks on bathroom stall doors is explicitly a board member’s concern. Failure to resolve any of these issues invites public furor and assurance that someone else will be elected when member terms expire, if not petitions for recall elections. The public at large explicitly trusts board members to ensure safe and secure schools.
Issues of curricular instruction and extra-curricular programming, though explicit, ignite very selective groups of the public and seldom the public at-large. Offending the football boosters will not ignite boosters of phonic-based reading or the Art Club. Yet almost every school activity, curricular and extra-curricular, has a support group that explicitly trusts the board to be positive in its actions affecting their interest. The connections between moms and dads, alums, and community members wearing school colors are vital to ongoing school culture and future ballot initiatives. No board member wants to be singled out for offending a support group to the point that the group becomes active in campaigning against school programs and initiatives. Special interest groups throughout the school community explicitly trust board members to support their interests.
What about children? Is there an explicit trust between board members and the children of the school district? Yes but no. The words “child” and “children” appear hundreds of times in state statures regarding school governance. The education of children is at the center of the school board’s work. Yet children are seldom vocal or present when the board does its’ work. At best, children are explicitly referenced yet the bonds of trust are all implicit. And children do not vote.
While no board member wants to actively and publicly deny a child or group of children their wants, board members do it all the time. And they don’t know it when they do it. A change in school lunch vendors and the foodstuffs they supply will be applauded by some children and despised by others. Pizza, for example, a staple of school cafeterias changes when vendor contracts change. Few children will speak about decisions to change brands of toilet paper, yet every child is affected.
On a larger arena, decisions about grading scales, graduation requirements, prerequisites for course selections are discussed by the board in committee and board meetings, yet few children asked how they would vote, if they could. Children implicitly trust board members to make positive policy decisions on their behalf.
Trust is as trust is perceived.
Trust is visible. Board members need to be seen in the schoolhouse and at school events. Their presence in school may seem mundane, yet their lack of presence infers no personal experience, observation, or first-hand information. I always questioned a board member who took a strong position at a board meeting about the math curriculum yet had not observed teaching and learning. Relying on data is okay but combining data about unacceptable student performance data combined with observations of real teaching and learning in the classroom makes a winning argument. A board member greatly increases her perception of trustworthiness when she says, “I saw how frustrated our teachers and students are with how the publisher presents pre-Algebra. Our current text materials are not clear and direct in scaffolding required pre-Algebra skills.” Even though an administrator may say similar things, when a board member makes these statements, they enact their trustworthiness by not being reliant only on what they are told.
Some may say board members’ presence in the school is intrusive. In fact, the Wisconsin Association of School Board handbook for board members downplays board member visits during the school day. “Trust the school administration”, the WASB advises. Board presence during the school day is not a distrust but partnership between the superintendent and the board. A secure superintendent invites board members to visit school; an insecure administrator does not.
Trust is vocalized. When a person meets a board member in an aisle at the grocery store or at the gas pump, and asks a school-based question, board members are given a prime-time opportunity to display and build trust. “I am open to listening to you. And I am open to telling you what I think.” The rules of confidentiality always apply, but outside of forbidden topics, talking with others when they want to talk with with a board member builds mutual trust.
Perception is reality.
Lastly, newly elected board members are expected to go through an acclimation phase. However, from day one of their term to their last day, the public is always watching. Board members are constantly measured by how others perceive their work. While we expect new members to learn, the perception of how new members go about their learning, and how they become fully engaged builds the reality of how much they are trusted.
Be trustworthy to be trusted.