A look at the role of school boards

From the letters that were published on October 11, it appears that some misunderstanding exists regarding the appropriate functions and composition of a school district board of trustees, even among those who ought to know better.

The CUSD Board of Trustees is the governing body that provides guidance and oversight to the operations of the district on behalf of the taxpayers, parents, and — most importantly — the children themselves. It deals in values, strategic direction, long-term measurable goals, and management accountability. While the board should provide positive support to the staff, it is not a cheerleading squad for management, but rather the means whereby the community’s expectations, values, and educational needs are translated in to policy and in to action by the management team, who should be education professionals.

To meet the board’s mission, school boards must contain a variety of knowledgeable generalists, astute public citizens, and civic-minded parents.

They should be folks — unlike many lifelong educational professionals — who can look beyond trendy education fads that seem to come and go with the decades, and take a broad overview of essential goals and outcomes that the community desires and requires.

The board’s deliberations and decisions are (or should be) important and consequential. Therefore, periodic controversy and sometimes spirited disagreement is not indicative of a problem. On the contrary, it means that the board is tackling the business it is designed to address. A “unified” school board, dealing with relentlessly lightweight matters, is not a governing body doing its proper job.

— Carl Ochsner, Chico