Handout #33
What is a School Board?
A school board is a legislative body of citizens called school directors, who are elected locally by their fellow citizens and who serve as agents of the state legislature. By state law, school directors cannot be paid for their work. It is a voluntary position. School directors, although locally elected, are really state officials, co-partners with the legislature. They are designated by school law to administer the school system in each district.
Elections and term of office
Each board consists of nine members who serve four-year terms of office. Elections are held every two years for half of the board members. Thus, at one election four of the nine seats will be up for election. Two years later, five of the nine will be up for election. And then two years later, the original four seats will be up for election once again. (This is to prevent sudden drastic changes in school leadership and a loss of experienced school directors.) Elections are held during odd numbered years (2001, 2003, 2005, etc.)
Constitutional mandate
Public education is fundamentally a state responsibility. A system of free public education is mandated under the state constitution which states in Article II B, Section 14: “The [Pennsylvania] General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education.”
Constitutional recognition of the public schools as a legislative function is further found in Article IX, Section 10 in which school district is described as 2 “unit of local government.”
Public education thus enjoys this unique status under the state constitution and is the only public service so mandated by the constitution.
To carry out this mandate, the General Assembly created school districts and boards. It conferred broad legal powers local boards, making them autonomous in many of their operations. Therefore, the school board is a political subdivision of the state for the purpose of convenient administration of the schools.
Legislative Authority
School districts and school boards were created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to carry out the constitutional mandates of a “thorough and efficient” system of public education. In addition, the legislature has created the State Board of Education, the Department of Education, and other state agencies. These agencies administer the state laws that control the state’s public education system. There are, therefore, several governing influences upon a board of school directors.
The School Laws of Pennsylvania is the primary compilation of the statutes enacted by the legislature having direct and pertinent reference to public education, its programs, its operation and its management. In addition, rules and regulations of the State Board of Education, guidelines of the Education Department, and opinions and interpretations of the Department of Justice and court decisions all influence local board operation.
Some Pennsylvania school laws are mandatory while others are left up to the local school boards to decide. Initially, a school board is an agent of the General Assembly designated by law to administer the public schools, and it has all the powers necessary to carry out this function, with the exception of those reserved by the legislature.
In Pennsylvania:
- Public schools are a creature of the state constitution and are not generally controlled by the U.S. Constitution.
- Public schools are a responsibility of the General Assembly -- the legislative branch of Pennsylvania state government.
- School boards, created by the General Assembly, serve as local legislative bodies for the public schools within the framework of state laws.
Board organization
Officers of a school board include a president, a vice president, a treasurer and a secretary. The board may employ a lawyer, and establish responsibilities and the salary for that lawyer. This practice is universal, because competent advice on school law is imperative if the board is to operate effectively.
By law, all school boards organize during the first week of December. At this meeting a president and a vice president are elected by their fellow board members to serve one-year terms of office. A treasurer, however, is elected in May to serve a one-year term that begins the first day of July. Every fourth May the board elects a school board secretary whose term of office is four years.
The school fiscal calendar for the majority of public school districts begins July 1 and continues until June 30 of the following year. A few operate their budgets on a calendar year.
Responsibilities
Effective school boards concentrate their time and energy on determining what it is the schools should accomplish and developing policies to carry out these goals. In essence, school boards have three functions: planning, setting policy, and evaluating results.
Planning — Boards are required to engage in long-range planning by regulations of the State Board of Education. Appropriate reports of the results of such planning must be filed with the Department of Education. Among long-range planning activities are such responsibilities as: enrollment projections, staffing needs, building usage, budget requirements.
Setting policy — The central responsibility of a board, both in theory and in law is to be the policy-forming body. The idea of local control of education means the policies governing the operation of schools are to be formed in response to local needs and desires. Policy means actions of the board that set written goals and objectives for the school. A process of systematic policy review contributes significantly to the smooth operation of a school district.
Evaluating results — The board’s third and final responsibility is to evaluate the results of planning. Evaluation “completes the loop” and, in fact, leads inevitably to more planning. Evaluation occurs all the time, both formally and informally. Many districts set aside a weekend every year to review the results of the previous year and to plan additional short-term goals and long-term objectives. In a less formal way, board members receive information orally, at meetings, and in writing, between meetings, to constantly keep them up-to-date on a broad range of activities that are in progress regarding board policy proclamations.
As a group, the board is not an administrative body; neither should it be a “rubber stamp” for the professional educators working in the district. The selection of competent administrators who understand that their role is to carry out public policies established by the board, is one of the board’s most important functions.
School directors represent the interest of the general public, which includes the children in the schools. No one else is legally charged to do that. Serving on a school board is often a thankless and difficult task. The job is unpaid, and entails both a great deal of frustration and many hours of a board member’s personal time to fulfill this public service.
Basic characteristics of an effective school director
The ability to function as one member of a nine-member governing board of school directors is not determined by sex, occupation, race, income or social standing. Effective school board members, however, are characterized by the following:
A deep desire to serve children, and a strong belief in the values of public schools and local control of public education.
The ability to work as a team, to engage in open give-and-take and to support the decisions of group consensus.
The willingness to spend the time required to become informed and to take part in effective school board meetings.
Recognition that the school district is probably one of the largest businesses and employers in the community. As a board member, to accept the responsibility for overseeing that the enterprise is well-managed.
Legal requirements to be eligible to serve on a school board:
There are five limitations to determine whether you can serve on a school board in Pennsylvania. To serve, you must:
be at least 18 years of age,
be a citizen of Pennsylvania,
have resided for at least one year in the school district you’re seeking to serve,
have good moral character, and
you cannot be a teacher within that same school district that you’re seeking to serve (but you can be a teacher in any other school district).
Review Questions:
- What is unique about Pennsylvania’s constitutional mandate (requirement) to provide a public system of education?
- What is a fiscal calendar? When does the school district’s begin and end?
- Based on a sentence in the reading, complete this sentence: “Effective school
boards concentrate their time and energy on determining what it is the school should
______and ______policies to carry out these goals.”
- List the three basic functions of school boards and offer some descriptions or examples for each one.
- What are the four basic characteristics of an effective school director (school board member).
- Why were school districts and school boards created?
- What are the three souces of legal guidelines influence how a school district can be run? (Example: State statutes can require school districts to take certain actions. List the source of state statutes and also the other two sources.)
- How are school directors (school board members) both state and local officials?
- What is the salary for a school board director?
- What is the one limitation on teachers being eligible to serve on school boards?