School Board Responsibilities

Age and socioeconomic factors may contribute to board members’ political views. Thirty-two percent of board members see their political affiliation as conservative, 47.3 percent claim to be moderate, and 20.4 percent identified themselves as liberal. Board members’ general political views may, in turn, contribute to their votes on school issues in their districts.4

School boards typically hold two types of meetings: regular and closed. Regular meetings are open to members of the public with meeting times and agendas posted well in advance of the meeting. Closed meetings are not open to the public and deal with such issues as personnel actions, collective bargaining matters, acquisition of property, or student disciplinary cases. Open board meetings obviously enhance school-community relations and allow parents and other citizens to understand the issues encompassing the system’s schools as well as to air their concerns. Closed board meetings can only be scheduled for those issues delineated in the state’s school code in order not to violate “sunshine laws,” the requirement that meetings of government agencies be open to the public.5 The upcoming From Preservice to Practice feature describes an open executive meeting.

School board members experience considerable pressure as they listen to and weigh the competing demands of citizen advisory groups, the business community, parents with special concerns (such as students with special needs, gifted and talented programs, and the future location of a new school in the district), the teachers’ association, and local and state politicians, who often are key in funding decisions. Some decisions have winners and losers; high priorities take precedence over lower ones, and funding constraints frequently mean difficult (and occasionally unpopular) decisions.

School board members make up one of the largest groups of elected representatives in the state governance system. It is important to remember that the board’s role is to govern the local school district, not to micromanage the day-to-day operations of the system. In the following section, the specific responsibilities of the school board are delineated.6

7-1b school board responsibilities

School administration and management is big business, and school board members must understand good business practices. Overall, US school boards have fiscal responsibility for $604 billion each year and employ more than 6.2 million teachers, administrators, and support staff (such as guidance counselors, librarians, and instructional aides).7 They constitute the largest nationwide employer. Many school board members (41 percent) will spend more than twenty-five hours per month on school board business.8 Board members must be fair and mindful of the law when dealing with students, teachers, administrators, parents, and other community residents.

4Frederick M. Hess and Olivia Meeks, School Boards Circa 2010: Governance in the Accountability Era. 5 “Types of School Board Meetings,” Oswego Community Unit School District No. 308 (December 9, 2013) at www.sd308.org/oswego; and Kirk D. Strang, “Protection from Open Meetings Violations,” School Administrator (June 2014), p. 9. 6John Cassel and Tim Holt, “The Servant Leader,” American School Board Journal (October 2008), pp. 34–35. 7Patrick Keaton, “Number of Full-Time-Equivalent (FTE) Staff for Public Schools, by Staff Category and State or Jurisdiction: School Year 2010–11,” Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment and Staff Counts from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2010–11 (NCES 2012-327), (Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, 2012), at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012327.pdf; and Stephen Q. Cornman, “Table 8: Total Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education and Other Related Programs, by Type of Expenditure and State or Jurisdiction: Fiscal Year 2011,” Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2010–11 (Fiscal Year 2011) (NCES 2013-342), (Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, 2013) at www2.census .gov/govs/school/12f33pub.pdf (January 16, 2015). 8Frederick M. Hess and Olivia Meeks, School Boards Circa 2010: Governance in the Accountability Era.