The democratic theory is seductive: contested elections force candidates to sharpen their positions, put their records before voters, and earn a mandate that gives them standing to govern. But when it comes to school…
Continue reading →Every June, school boards across the country vote to adopt budgets worth hundreds of millions of dollars — documents that determine what children are taught, who teaches them, and whether the district can keep the…
Continue reading →This week, a superintendent resigned from a mid-sized district citing, in language that was notably direct, the board's increasing involvement in day-to-day operations. Local coverage treated it as a leadership…
When a state board of education mandates that local districts track and report specific student outcome metrics, it creates a compliance obligation that most districts meet procedurally and few meet in spirit.
The governance-management boundary — the line between what a board decides and what a superintendent executes — is the central question of school board governance. Every board faces it. Few navigate it consistently.…