Emporia’s new school board members took a crash course Saturday morning on how to run a school district.
Bill Majors, field representative for the Kansas Association of School Boards in Topeka, presented an overview of board responsibilities during a retreat attended by six of the district’s seven board members, board clerk Norma Stinnett, and Superintendent John Heim. Homer Garza was unable to attend.
Majors spent three hours talking with board members, answering questions and listening to them talk about ways the district handles its business. All that was secondary to the central theme.
“Don’t ever forget why you’re a board member. It’s for the kids,” Majors said. “... I hope when you make a decision, that you make it for kids. You have to take the heat sometimes. What’s going to be best for all of the kids, not just my kid.”
Majors said the greatest challenge facing school boards is direction.
“We’ve got to get all the arrows going the same direction,” he said. “Your job is to find focus, as a unit, as a team, as a management team. You’re managing a lot of resources. ... The eight of you have to make sure you’re heading in the same direction. For the kids.”
Listening is a key component of good school board representation, he said, warning members that they may no longer be able to attend community functions without being approached by people wanting to talk about school-related issues.
“You’ve got to be able to listen. You’ve got to be able to maintain that friendship you had. You’re a board member now. You’re no longer a parent, you’re no longer a grandpa,” Majors said.
He recommended setting aside time for board members and Heim to provide information to each other about topics they’ve heard through talking to members of the community. That may mean holding a conversational meeting when a fifth Wednesday occurs in a month. The board meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, with the exception of November, December and March, when only one meeting is held.
“It might be nice to have a time to have kind of a structured conversation: ‘Here’s where I want to go,’ ‘Here’s what I’m hearing,’” he said.
The board needs to meet again to re-evaluate district goals, set new ones or tweak existing goals.
Majors told board members that if they always agreed with the superintendent, they were not doing their jobs. They need to ask questions, let Heim know when they need background information and to always communicate information that they have that is pertinent to the school district.
“Communications is the whole thing,” Majors said. “That’s what it boils down to.”
Care must be taken not to violate open meetings law, however, and board members cannot discuss issues together outside properly called meetings nor can they make “serial” phone calls or send “serial” e-mails about board business from one board member to the next and to the next.
Board members carry heavy responsibilities, Majors said, but receive no compensation.
“You are the only elected officials in the State of Kansas who don’t get paid,” Majors said.
Majors also made these recommendations to the board members and superintendent:
F Stay united, whether the vote is 7-0 or 4-3. Once a decision has been made, board members need to support it.
F Be careful of executive sessions. Salary discussions about non-certified personnel, for example, cannot be discussed if the session has been called for contract negotiations. The Lawrence school board went into executive session to discuss employer-employee negotiations, came out and voted to approve salaries for secretaries, cooks and bus drivers. A lawsuit was filed the next day for violating the open meetings act, which can mean a fine of $500 per board member per incident, he said. “And I think probably that mistake has been made by every board in the state.”
F Don’t delete e-mails; they may be needed as evidence.
F Make sure that patrons speaking during board meetings do not personally criticize an employee or a child.
F Leave sensitive materials from executive sessions with the superintendent; do not take it home.
F Attend as many educational conventions and seminars as possible to keep abreast of changes and learn new ideas and solutions.
F Remember to listen to patrons’ concerns brought during board meetings, but gather information on the topic and put it on an agenda for another meeting; do not make an immediate decision.