What Does a Board of Education Do?

As a life-long educator, I am concerned about the educational system in our country and feel it a good idea for all community members to become informed about the role of your school districts Board of Education. It seems that everyday you can read, in a local or national newspaper, about the dismal academic performance of American students when compared to other nations. You can also read about how a Board of Education, somewhere, is being required to address serious financial issues in order to fiscally stay afloat.

If you are interested in your school districts solvency and the quality of education students are receiving, but do not understand what role your Board of Education has in addressing these concerns, this article will provide you with a quick overview of the role of a Board of Education.

What does a Board of Education do?

There are basically 5 areas of focus for a school Board of Education: 1) setting standards of governance, 2) addressing administration and personnel issues, 3) providing oversight of fiscal management issues, 4) approving the educational program, and 5) supporting school and community relations. Each of these issues has a number of specific responsibilities and the rest of this article will briefly summarize the types of issues included in each area of focus.

1. Standards of Governance for a Board of Education

A Board of Education makes school district policies. They set goals for the school district and for the Board of Education itself. They conduct a self-assessment to determine Board performance and set goals for improvement. They adopt standards for the how school board meetings will be conducted such as, setting agendas, what committees will be a part of the Board of education and how community members will participate in school board meetings.

2. Administration and Personnel issues addressed by a Board of Education

A Board of Education is responsible for the hiring and firing, if necessary, of the superintendent. They annually, typically, conduct an evaluation of the superintendents' performance related to the attainment of school goals and performance. They are involved in the appointment of school staff and recommend and grant teacher tenure.

3. Fiscal Management and a Board of Education related

One of the most prominent roles of a Board of Education is related to the adoption of a budget. Budget issues typically are fodder for local headline news, particularly if there is an inadequate budget and programs and staff are going to be affected. They approve construction projects and make decisions about purchasing property for new construction. They also provide oversight related to all school facilities.

4. Educational Program and a Board of Education

A Board of Education is deeply involved in evaluating the educational program within its purview and making and adopting changes to the educational program. This process may mean the need to adopt new textbooks and the Board of Education makes this kind of decision. They make changes to the educational program by not only looking at the academic testing system being utilized by the district, but by also looking at all aspects of a quality educational environment for supporting student achievement.

5. Supporting School and Community Relations and a Board of Education

Public education is a constitutional right and as such a Board of Education is responsible for including the community in the decision making process. They do this by establishing a communication system for the collection and dissemination of school related information. They develop a written policy that includes: community relation goals, how they will solicit community and staff involvement, what their procedure will be for dealing with complaints, what will be the process for public use of the school facilities, how they will reach out to community agencies and others for support and inclusion, and how they will encourage parental involvement.

After reading this article, I hope you have a better sense of the roles and responsibilities of a school Board of Education. If we are going to improve the educational systems in our country, we have to get involved.

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