I am speaking from my experience, so with that preface: The reality is that in the past three decades I have found that most get on school boards because they have a personal agenda and they think the board position provides authority it really doesn't. The top agendas I have found are as follows: (1) Their kids: either a behavior/discipline issue they refuse to acknowledge is largely of their own doing - so they're gonna protect junior. (2) Also their kid: Sports - Junior is 5' 2" and 94lbs soaking wet but he's a future stick/ball phenom that's going to the pros but the coach(es) don't like them so they don't play them. Also a protect junior situation. (3) Personal conflict with staff/faculty - They've got a hard on for someone for some perceived melodrama from last week to as far back as early childhood and they're gonna play gotcha with them. These are just a few of the motivations I have personally seen, by no means covers them all and definitely is anecdotal information. Important to remember that people with this type of motivation don't really get that the position doesn't really have the power to officially control much. As mentioned in another post- can't hire/fire etc. - State school law largely controls that. With that said - Can a board member make the admin who do have official authority to do things miserable? you betcha. Will they expert that control? oh yes. This is just one of the many examples of how the system is broken most likely beyond repair. The job itself isn't "hard". It's not physically demanding etc and doesn't have the same pressures as the private sector, but teachers are generally orphans in all of it - admin won't defend, the unions support/protection is a joke and the community largely sees it public provided child care and a sports cooperative. It's also why the assertion that this is an "easy job" in some of the responses in this thread as so ignorant. EDIT - I have no high moral sense about what it is or isn't , it's not "Mr. Holland's Opus" or " Mr. Chips" - both excellent FICTIONAL stories. And I'll reiterate - I'm not defending it, I stopped doing that along time ago.
Oh fuck yeah - teachers are the most underhanded backstabbing mf'rs on the planet - usually the ones who do have the "high moral sense of self" as a teacher. They're also the biggest pussies I've ever met too. They hate honest and direct (2 of my biggest faults). Wanna have some fun? - go to a board meeting sometime and during open session/public comments, start calling all of them out on all the stuff "everyone knows" and no one will say... They make Brutus look a like a saint. Only thing worse are public ed admin and lawyers.
A group of elected folks in the district who negotiate teacher and administrator's salaries with the local teacher's union. Occasionally settling a few disputes from time to time.
It really varies from state to state due to legislative restrictions. Essentially a school board sets policy and determines budget. In some states they hire the superintendent and in others the superintendent is an elected official. The school board does not have authority over any individual district employees as their only conduit to staff should be through the superintendent. However, in my experience that does not stop them from stepping well outside their authority and try to exert pressure on staff to suit themselves in all of the ways Mark outlined. They are also known to conspire with members of the public, businesses, coaches, teachers, unions and local government to get what they want. Many of them have the good old boy network working overtime.
A PTA or similar "organization" is not a school board. They are a self appointed group ( as opposed to elected like a school board) usually made of up of "experts" like soccer moms/karens/dads still living in the past of high sports glory/ etc. Around here they're called "boosters"... Make no mistake - they are part of the machine as well and likely have family members ON the school board.
If I remember right most of the schools up in my area had a school board, a PTA and also boosters. I was friends with a few of the parents on the boosters and they were awesome people who raised money for programs that the school wouldn't or couldn't fund. The boosters paid off the turf loan something like 4 years early and with the county funding part, fully paid for the replacement turf and field upgrades. The school paid notta for the turf. Everyone was happy.
And honestly Dave, I think that’s great. Not saying it never happens like that. Just going off my experiences and ones like that often are in the minority or they come with a hook.
I'm saying the Boosters were good. No idea on the PTA or the board. The principle was a complete tool and got "moved" to another school.
and some of the parents on the boosters board just happened to have kids that played the sport my kid played and I happened to coach. . . Really, they were good and had the cash and if you needed something you could get it.
On my board (this was 20 years ago, so there's that) we had the NO TAXES guy, we had the "my son...wink wink..runs the school bus company, NOT ME" guy. An ex school teacher and the local insurance salesman. Plus a few others. The insurance salesman was my mentor, of sorts, until he quit because the locals would hold it against him in his business. I worked for the Utility company so I was mostly immune. Our high school was so old it was a wood frame structure where the floors would bounce when classes were out in the hallway! I spearheaded the effort upgrade and fireproof the HS. The no taxes guy was my biggest problem. He had no problem if we lost 20 or 30 kids in a deadly fire....this building was good enough for me! The ex teacher was bold enough to say that we would need to upgrade salaries to match the money we put into the building. Lord almighty, but we got through it.
COPS is actually real, I meant the scripted bullshit houswives of survivor crap that's pretending to be real.
