As an administrative employee of a public school district, I have a question. Who the hell thought that school boards were a good idea?!?
Ours is a smallish district in a mid-size town. I understand the idea of the community running the schools, but with a budget of more than $50,000,000 and hundreds of employees, the District is the largest “business” around. Is any other business with such large budget run by seven part-time employees who were placed in their positions by a very small percentage of those who have a stake? Sure they are all educated and intelligent, but not one of them have a degree, or even experience in, educational administration. The Superintendent (who does have his Ph.D. in public school administration) sits in on the meetings and gives his advice, but has no real power outside of breaking a tie vote.
I’m sure that it is obvious from my tone that our Board has been showing their ineptness as of late, but things were no different in the several districts that I have worked at. Thanks for letting me vent. I am very intrested in your opinion and/or experience.
If you stop and think about it, every entity that has a board of directors is “run by part-timers.” The CEO may sit on the board, but he is ultimately accountable to the board and (in theory) takes direction from the board.
I was a member of the board of a church. The minister was there to - well - minister. In terms of day-to-day authority, the church secretary had about the same amount of authority.
I currently work for a non-profit organization. The executive director has day to day authority, but she still answers to the board.
The suburb I live in has an elected mayor and city council. Yes, they have a full-time city manager, but it’s the council who makes the decisions.
Sorry that your experience with the school board has been unsatisfactory (Mrs. Kunilou is a teacher, so I know what you’re going through) but there’s nothing inherently wrong with the setup you describe. You just got stuck with a bad board.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by RealityChuck *
**It’s known as “democracy.” Get used to it.
George Bernard Shaw once said, “Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.” I’m just glad that my child goes to a private school. His education is a more than even exchange for our retirement savings.
Ranger_X - why is your child in a private school if you’re an administrator for a public school district? Do you feel your public school system is poor?
Ours is a wreck, and I blame both the administration and the school board - they worked together to get our district into a $56 million deficit. No board member has children in the district, and very few of the adminstrators do either. Parent advocacy groups up until recently have been completely snowed by our administration, and only now, with LOTS of publicity and LOTS of angry taxpayers, are any of our school officials admitting that they “may not have been as on top of things as they should have.”
Our local school board and administration is about to learn a LOT about community involvement.
Ranger said s/he was an ADMINSTRATIVE EMPLOYEE, not an administrator. Very different positions. And salaries.
While it may be that RX’s local school board is the pits, the “part-time director” theme is common to ALL big companies, Ranger. My employer has directors who meet maybe four times a year, and this is a $200 million firm.
Bad school boards are epidemic in CA. We have a critical shortage of superintendents (and principals) because the best ones don’t need the hassle. The average “life span” of a superintendent in CA is less than 2 years (which is less than his/her contract).
Most superintendents have been supts for a long time and know what they are doing. School boards, on the other hand, can change every couple of years and you can end up with a majority of people who know nothing about education, running a district, budgeting, dealing with unions, etc. Chuck, if common sense were a board requirement, there would be a lot fewer board members!
I work in public education and find that boards are generally the problem, not the solution.
