When the gavel falls each week in hundreds of school board meeting rooms across America, dedicated women and men sit down together to deliberate the vast array of educational issues facing their communities.These elected or appointed public servants serve on more than 14,500 school boards. They direct the expenditure of more than $455 billion, oversee more than 6,000,000 employees, and have oversight for more than $40 billion in school construction projects. These operations are carried on for one purpose: to educate the nation’s 48,500,000 public school students.

If you are thinking about becoming a candidate for a school board position in your community, you may think that you are qualified because you have spent a good part of your adult life in and around public schools.  You may have worked in or served as an officer of a parent-teacher organization.  You may have worked on a school finance campaign. You may have served on a district improvement planning team or strategic planning task force. Nothing, however, will really prepare you for the reality of serving on a school board.

Your visions of your role as a school board member need to be tied to reality. As you consider your candidacy and/or campaign for a school board position, you should be prepared for some discoveries that may surprise you:

• The great amount of time that it takes to be an effective board member, much more than the time spent at school board meetings themselves.

• The tremendous variety of concerns with which the board deals.

• The abrupt change from “citizen” status to board member status.

• The burden of board-related paperwork.

• The mismatch between initial assumptions and the actual policy-making roles, responsibilities, and the relationships of the board and administration in operating the school district.

At the Association’s 2007 Conference, Cowboy Songwriter and Poet Richard Elloyan sang about needing “courage by the pound and not the ounce.”  While I’m sure he wasn’t thinking of school board members when he wrote those lyrics, they certainly apply. 

Boardsmanship takes courage, in part because school board members are called on to perform many different functions—and to do so in public.  For instance, we need the skills of accountants because we’re responsible for big budgets, volumes of vouchers, and critical capital improvement funds.  We need the skills of statisticians and actuaries to figure out what the data mean and what the numbers are likely to do, given certain possible actions.  We need the skills of speed readers when we are given three inch board packets and have to be prepared in a few days to make important decisions and we feel, as John Naisbitt has described in his work, that we are “drowning in information, but starved for knowledge.”  We need the skills of tax collectors because sometimes we have to take money away from people who are putting it to good use, but we are obligated to redirect it to a better cause.  Sometimes we simply need the skill of long haul truck drivers:  we need to stay alert and awake and exercise good judgment as evening passes into late night and the board meeting continues. 

In order to give the best service to your local community and to carry out the key work of school boards—improving student achievement through community engagement—you will need to develop skills and knowledge in all of these areas. To assist you with this learning process, you will find below several dropdown menus that are designed to provide information that will assist you in developing critical skills or acquiring important knowledge.  Please take advantage of these informational pieces and consider each one as an opportunity to learn more about the key work of school board members across the State.

If you are elected, the Nevada Association of School Boards can help you directly in developing skills to serve as an effective school board member.  Please plan to attend NASB’s Annual Conference, scheduled this year at the Airport Plaza Hotel & Conference Center in Reno November 13-16, 2008.  Your board secretary or administrative assistant can help you in making plans to attend this Conference. 

In addition, the Association will provide training in spring 2009 designed specifically for new school board members. We hope that you will take time to attend this 1 ½ day professional development opportunity. 

As President of NASB, I look forward to responding to questions about your responsibility as a school board member as they may arise as you consider filing for office, during your campaign, or later after your election.  All of the members of the Association’s Executive Committee also stand willing to assist you in this important, new role.  Please call upon us to help you become a better, more effective board member.  Our contact information can be found in the ABOUT US section of this website.

Lastly, I strongly recommend that you explore the Association’s website because it contains valuable information that you will find useful in this process. On our website, you can explore topics, issues, and data that you will encounter on your journey as a school board member.

Please never hesitate to call on me as we work together to promote success and achievement for all students in Nevada.

April 2, 2008