Online tips to win unpaid but powerful job

Want to be on a local school board? A new site can help

It may be one of the most thankless jobs out there, or one of the most rewarding, depending on how one sees it. Constituents may call at all hours of the day or night and bring any number of complaints to board meetings. And it’s unpaid.

But serving on a local school board provides citizens with an opportunity to impact a community in a very real way: By implementing education policies and by setting budgets, which, through their taxes, make up one of the largest expenses for most homeowners beyond their mortgages.

With that in mind, the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) has developed a webbased guide to prospective school board candidates. The guide, The School Board Member Experience, is a self-directed site at bit.ly/schoolboardexp that lets users scroll through questions about why one may want to run and what to expect during a campaign and on the board.

That includes the responsibility to attend board meetings, usually twice a month. The site also advises potential candidates who are motivated by a single issue. According to the association, such individuals may be able to have more impact through some other means than running for a school board seat.

“If you’re interested in a specific issue, only one specific issue, that might not be the best motivation to serve on the board because you have to deal with a lot of other issues,’’ NYSSBA spokesman Dave Albert said. “There might be other ways you could influence board policy.”

One thing board candidates may not need in order to run a campaign is a lot of money.

According to the website, 61 percent of school board candidates spend no money on their races, while 19 percent spend up to $100. Another 14 percent spend between $101 and $500. Three percent spend between $501 and $1,000, with another 3 percent paying more than $1,000.

“We hope this will give members of the public a better appreciation for the work of school boards and the individual sacrifices members make to serve on a school board, as well as the time and effort involved in earning a seat on a school board,” NYSSBA Executive Director Tim Kremer said in a statement about the new website.

Board elections are on the same day as budget votes, the third Tuesday of May. Deadlines to file nominating petitions for races this year is April 22.

With some exceptions, there isn’t an enormous demand for these seats. In 2018, there was an average of 1.3 candidates for each open seat, Albert said.

Additionally, 32 school districts, of nearly 700, didn’t have enough candidates for all their open seats. That was up from 25 in 2017.

Most school boards have between five and nine seats.

The interest may be cooling off a bit, now that teachers aren’t going to be evaluated based on student test scores.

That prospect, which angered many teachers and upset parents who worried about over-testing, prompted a surge in candidates on Long Island a few years ago, Albert said.