Whether it is a 5-year-old beginning kindergarten or a teenager finishing high school, students across our nation depend on a comprehensive education to prepare them for the future. 

As we continue this school year and focus on the roles and responsibilities of students, their families and the educators with whom they work, we should reflect on the impact school district leaders can have on student success – especially as it relates to the relationship between the board of education and the superintendent of schools and all aspects of their communication. 

  • Are we listening to seek understanding? OR 
  • Are we “listening” to respond, to defend, or to explain?
  • Are communications among BOE members genuine? Respectful?
  • Are discussions at the BOE table – both public meetings and executive sessions – respectful?
  • Is there conflict among BOE members? Between members and the superintendent? 
  • Have communication problems impeded the board’s ability to address district challenges and promote student achievement? Have they had a negative impact on climate and culture? 
  • Does the climate at public meetings facilitate the civility  required for citizens to contribute and for board members to fulfill their responsibilities?
  • What does the research tell us?

Superintendent-BOE Member Communications

Trust between BOE members and the superintendent is a foundation for district success. Based on a five-year American Association of School Administrators communications study, 62% of superintendents “spend three hours or less a week communicating with BOE members.” Instead, they communicate at the next BOE meeting. Without timely communication and an opportunity to process information prior to a board meeting, there is an increased likelihood that meetings will be less productive, discussions at the board table will be less effective and goals and priorities are less likely to be achieved. 

Conflicts at the Board Table

The basis for conflicts at a family holiday dinner table mirrors the genesis of conflicts at the board table. Research identifies the five categories of conflict common to bodies like school boards (and family holiday celebrations) as:

  1. Philosophical: there is a difference among personal values. 
  2. Resource‐based: competition for resources. 
  3. Interpersonal: personality clashes. 
  4. Territorial: when there is competition for “power” or “who has responsibility” for the issue. 
  5. Perceptual: when the interpretation of information, conclusions or assumptions of individual members are not validated. 

While we may not have the opportunity to address holiday dinner discussions, as the Iowa Lighthouse Study reports, boards that learn together have a positive impact on student learning. BOE team professional learning that addresses collegial collaboration can contribute to deliberately nurturing and developing a productive climate where all voices are heard.  It can also result in decisions that have been comprehensively evaluated and gain wider support because of the collaborative effort. 

Using professional learning processes like facilitated discussions provide the members with the opportunity to reflect on the impact of the five types of conflict on their board of education as well as to identify the specific productive active listening and speaking actions that support respectful, comprehensive discussions. This process can assist the BOE team to improve board and superintendent communications, positively affect meeting climate and result in decisions that all members can support. Facilitated discussions and strategies encourage the expression of divergent ideas in a safe, productive manner while contributing to increasing time on tasks to become  more productive and efficient. Most importantly, this process empowers all members to model the exemplary public meeting behaviors that are the BOE’s expectations for attendees and participants. A benefit is that all have the opportunity to express their beliefs in a safe, respectful manner.

All BOE members want to provide students with an education in a safe, healthy climate – one that will prepare them for the future. However, they may not agree on how to achieve that universal goal. The goal of the differentiated professional learning we are suggesting is to transform discussions at the board table to ensure all voices are heard. Based on extensive research, the goals also include establishing a climate where the thoughts of all are included in deliberations and actions are developed, proposed and implemented in a manner that respects the beliefs of all at the table and those observing the work from the audience.

Research: Iowa Lighthouse Study, Hanover Research 27 Studies Meta-Analysis and School  Administration Leadership 

There is a growing body of research that identifies the challenges and the strategies to develop effective decision-making bodies like boards of education.

Whether it is the 2001 Iowa School Boards Association Lighthouse Inquiry, the 2014 Hanover Research meta-analysis of 27 BOE governance studies (“Effective Board and Superintendent Collaboration”), or the 2014 School Administration Leadership article “Superintendent and School Board Relations: Impacting Achievement through Collaborative Understanding of Roles and Responsibilities,” the body of published research that reports the direct relationship of the actions and relationships between boards of education and superintendents has a direct impact on student learning and achievement in a school district is increasing.

The Hanover meta-analysis of 27 research studies reports a theme that emerges from available research on school board governance: “a school board’s actions and level of success in governing the district impact student achievement.”

Twenty-first century societal trends have included a decline in collaborative efforts and communications among and between boards of education, school district leadership and the community. Some assert that the increased reliance on technology has resulted in a deterioration of interpersonal communications for  many. A factor to consider is an erosion of trust in public bodies, including boards of education. 

Knowing all this, what deliberate steps can stakeholders take to communicate better and make better decisions, so everyone has a better chance to succeed?

The National School Boards Association’s Center for Public Education identified the eight characteristics of an effective school board that contribute to the success of every student. They are listed below. 

  1. Effective school boards commit to a vision of high expectations for student achievement and quality instruction and define clear goals toward that vision. 
  2. Effective school boards have strong shared beliefs and values about what is possible for students and their ability to learn, and of the system and its ability to teach all children at high levels. 
  3. Effective school boards are accountability driven, spending less time on operational issues and more time focused on policies to improve student achievement. 
  4. Effective school boards have a collaborative relationship with staff and the community and establish a strong communications structure to inform and engage both internal and external stakeholders in setting and achieving district goals. 
  5. Effective boards are data savvy; they embrace and monitor data, even when the information is negative, and use it to drive continuous improvement. 
  6. Effective school boards align and sustain resources, such as professional development, to meet district goals. 
  7. Effective school boards lead as a united team with the superintendent, each from their respective roles, with strong collaboration and mutual trust. 
  8. Effective school boards take part in team development and training, sometimes with their superintendents, to build shared knowledge, values and commitments for their improvement efforts.
  • A review of those practices plus those documented by the Iowa School Boards Association’s Lighthouse Study (2001); Hanover Research’s meta study, Effective Board and Superintendent Collaboration (2014); and others report the specific behaviors that impact the success of boards on achievement, climate and culture.  
  • A strong, effective relationship between superintendents and school board members hinges upon clear definitions of each body’s duties and responsibilities.
  • Successful board/superintendent collaboration requires frequent, diplomatic communication both in and out of official settings.  
  • Board members often enter their terms with limited knowledge of the exact nature of the superintendent’s administrative role, leading to role confusion and preconceived notions of a superintendent’s abilities.   
  • While underperforming urban school district boards encounter significant challenges to facilitate academic growth for all students, the extensive nature of reform required in these districts poses several leadership challenges.
  • Politics at the board and superintendent level plague all school districts.

Policy, Achievement and Supervision 

Another common theme among the research studies is sometimes a point of contention between the board president and the superintendent: the delineation of duties. 

Traditionally, BOEs have had two major responsibilities: 

  1. To lead by policy. 
  2. To supervise one employee: the superintendent.

Traditionally, the superintendent’s role has been to implement that policy. However, the dynamic nature of our society has placed additional demands on our educational system that requires a shift in the superintendent’s duties. Instead of simply managing the district, they must now provide transformational leadership that focuses on long-term student learning outcomes to prepare all students for the world they enter upon graduation. 

While district administration is addressing those transformative needs, nationally there is a “trend that BOEs are venturing out of their state and district defined roles of strategy, leadership and policy development, with many members delving into administrative and day-to-day specifics as well as advancing political motivations,” according to Hanover.  The confusion, inefficiency and conflict it causes can ultimately prove detrimental to the success of a school district. 

Hanover concludes that “Role confusion between school boards and superintendents occur when the two parties encroach on each other’s responsibilities.” Hanover also reports that the most common role confusion in districts involves superintendents focusing too much on policy and school boards extending too far into administrative functions. 

It is also important to note that the most common role confusion scenarios are those where the confusion is exacerbated by a single board of education  member who becomes unnecessarily involved in day-to-day operations and personnel issues by circumventing the superintendent’s authority, meeting secretly with staff and applying inappropriate pressure on staff and board members. If it continues unchecked, it can drastically reduce a board’s ability to collaborate and effectively govern.

It is for those reasons that both the board president and the superintendent should consider developing communication plans that include how each will communicate with each other, with all members, with staff and with stakeholders. Such plans should include an assessment component to evaluate their success. 

Human nature includes listening to “respond, defend, or explain,” but we need to replace that by listening to understand. If we understand, we can respond productively.

Professional Learning: BOE Best Practices to Support Student Learning and Healthy Climates

A growing body of evidence is providing the guidance for the board team – the members, board president and superintendent – to assist boards in their quest to successfully achieve the goals they set.

The Iowa SBA Lighthouse Study reports the seven traits of effective BOEs and the descriptors of BOE member professional learning:

  1. Shared leadership.
  2. Continuous improvement.
  3. Ability to create and sustain initiatives.
  4. Supportive workplace for staff.
  5. Professional learning.
    • Establish board learning time.
    • Learn together. 
    • Talk to each other – extensive board conversations.
    • Develop a willingness and readiness to lead and allow others to lead. 
    • Build commitment to the improvement focus through shared information and discussion.
    • Engage in deliberative policy development and lead through your policies.
  6. Support for schools through data and information.
  7. Community involvement.

NJSBA is proud to announce a new professional learning experience for the board/superintendent team to create a climate that contributes to a board meeting its responsibilities. Rather than a “canned” program, this is a differentiated multi-session learning opportunity with content developed specifically in response to the needs identified by the board/superintendent team. There is an opportunity to be a pilot district before this fee-based opportunity is formally introduced.

If this information resonates with your district, to learn more about professional learning associated with this work and the opportunity to participate in the limited pilot, please contact NJSBA Director of Special Projects Vince DeLucia at
vdelucia@njsba.org.

Vincent DeLucia is NJSBA’s director of special projects.