Nearly every facet of our lives is controlled by board policies and decisions. Appointed and elected board members act as our representatives.
The local school board is an easy focus for nearly everyone and due to proximity, an easy target to criticize. However, you have to walk in board members’ shoes to fully appreciate the frustrations, humor, boredom, irritation, dumbness, genius, egoism, petulance, back-stabbing, image building, political posturing … as well as some sort of concern about children.
In reflecting on my years on a school board, the following are some of the most poignant moments. It’s important to understand a board’s dynamics and motives to appropriately criticize or help beatify those who serve on these bodies who often seek higher political office.
- Having a break from attending “lobby school” for board members in Sacramento, I was approached by three fellow board members and we started to talk. “Oh my God, we can’t be meeting like this,” one said. Being the most “Bambi-like” of the group, I immediately left so that no one could see that a quorum was in the process of discussion. I wandered aimlessly around the Capitol Building for an hour.
The Brown Act was enacted to prevent a quorum of a board from meeting privately to make decisions. All items must be discussed in an open meeting that is well noticed. This applies to e-mails as well. In short, there must not be any closing of the communication loop between more than three members of a board outside of an official meeting.
- During a break at a regular meeting, a member of the opposite sex approached me. She expressed her appreciation for my nobleness in serving children, adding that I took notes and asked good questions.
The number one thing I was told in “board boot camp” was to always look alert when sitting in my big, comfortable easy chair. This was actually excellent advice. There might be that one individual making his one-and-only visit to a board meeting who discovers his representative is flirting with dreamland. Although the nodding might be quite appropriate, it is a “no-no.” Unfortunately, with a bad pair of glasses in post-cataract surgery, I looked as though I was crying.
- Things got very hypertensive at one point when the job of a chief administrator was at stake. The administrator was extremely competent in the area of charisma, good taste, intelligence and charm, but needed work on empathy and compassion.
What is a board member to do? Hundreds of e-mails and phone messages flew hither and yon. I even had an ugly note tacked on my door, which made me identify with the original Martin Luther. Should a CEO, fall into disfavor, the board falls into a quandary. What to do? The contract term may have to be paid out in full, which could be $1 million. There could be a law suit ! Isn’t the CEO doing exactly what we asked him/her to do?
- One meeting spanned from 5pm to 1:30am, which involved a call for police presence. Several people were banging Taiko-like drums outside and literally hundreds of people were using the public forum of the agenda to express the unhappiness they were feeling. I wanted to go to that “great board-in-the-sky,” but I didn’t know how to do that. To complicate things more, there could have already been a quorum in “board-heaven,” which would have meant that I would have to leave.
How does anything really get done and what is the process? The board has only one employee … the superintendent. The board president schedules items under the “action” category and by vote or consensus the CEO carries out that direction. An item can get on the agenda via: another board member making a suggestion, recommendation of a study group, an irate citizen expressing his concern at the meeting’s public-forum section, a well written letter, or picket signs, or Taiko drums.
Looking back, the school board member experience was something that maybe everyone should have. I don’t mean that in a condescending manner. The guiding philosophy is that everyone does the best they can at any moment, given the conditions that they are personally dealing with.
The bottom line is that any excellence in education is only partially a result of a board action or an administrator’s supervision. The credit goes to the dedicated classroom teacher who might respond with, “Who? Me?”
Morgan Hill resident Donald R. Kruse is a retired teacher and school administrator with more than 30 years of experience. He served as a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Education for one four-year term from 2002 to 2005. He also served for six years as a U.S. Navy officer. He’s a member of the Morgan Hill Times Editorial Board. Reach him at do******@*******al.net.
