Blog Post #3 ~ School Board Meeting Analysis

In the month of June, our school board meeting occurred on Monday, June 16^th.  The night of meetings began with a Buildings and Grounds meeting where we are working on a partnership with a local soccer club.  The soccer club is looking at giving a sizable donation to transform a large empty tract of land on school property into a soccer field.  There was quite a bit of interesting dialogue that went along with this.

This then moved into our normal school board meeting proceedings.   There are a number of items that are voted on to begin the meetings.  These range from voucher summaries, donations, resignations, appointments, retirements, and curriculum to name a few.  From these basic, monthly proceedings, there is not too much focus on continuous improvement unless it is curriculum.  Each area of curriculum is on a five-year rotation, and a curriculum committee reviews any curriculum that is written.  Our school board takes a very hands-on approach when it comes to reading and review of curriculum. 

After this portion of the meeting, it then goes to administrative reports and an update of our new Montessori charter school.  When giving our administrative reports, our reports are to focus on the four board goals that our school board has put on administration.  When writing up our board reports on a monthly basis, and then speaking during the meetings, our focus is to be what we have done or are doing during that month to address the board goals. 

We also have one board meeting a year, usually during the summer months, where administrators will pull data together for the board, have a data retreat, and present our building assessment, attendance, and discipline data with the board.  The board identifies areas of strengths and improvements, address any curricular questions, questions or provides suggestions for improvement, and also look at new programs that are being run and assess their effectiveness.  These are productive meetings and allows for the good things that are going on in the buildings to be more public.  It is also productive for the school board to see numbers and data to provide information to them on the items that they have supported.  With the effort to write new school board goals on a yearly basis, reporting on these goals monthly within our Administrative reports, and holding data retreats, it would be very difficult to say that our board’s focus is a negative, however there is still improvements that could be made. 

In looking to assess and delineate the three steps I would take as a superintendent to improve the board’s focus on continuous improvement, my first area of focus would be to make sure that our board and staff have gone through training needed in the development of a continuous improvement model.  Being in my third year as a principal, I know that there are staff and board members that may have never heard of a continuous improvement models or know how this works.  If we are going to be a district that continuously improves, then everyone needs to be aware of what is going on and constantly seek to improve upon what we are currently doing.  

The second area that I would focus on is making sure that we are focusing on our customers/clients in designing and delivering our services.  Having the help and support from the community and people that are active within the school and community is very important in building positive relationships.  The school district should be an image of the community in which it resides, and this is very difficult to accomplish if the community is not  a part of the school system.  Soliciting support, feedback, and advice from the community and having board members that are approachable will help mold the school in the image of the community.  Involving the community will make it much easier when the community is needed for their support.  

The final area of focus should be to practice problem solving, prevention, and intervention rather than reaction to promote student success.   The mission of our school district is “because children are our future.”  In my time with the district, I have seen and felt improvement in this area, however I am aware that there is more work to be done.  If we are going to have a mission statement as stated above, then as administration and staff it is imperative that we are proactive with our assistance with students rather than being reactive.