Summary
Contents
Build a successful board by knowing where the land mines are
Veteran school board member, Richard E. Mayer, takes a humorous but substantive approach to the serious relationship between school administrators and board members. While the overwhelming majority of school board members have good motives, even people who mean well can make bad moves. This book shows how to prevent good intentions from creating bad outcomes. Each chapter presents a negative school board scenario, offers alternatives, and provides win-win solutions. Key features include: 28 brief case studies; Lessons learned for board members; Lessons learned for administrators
In addition to highlighting typical traps, the case studies light the path to positive collaboration and shared decision making between superintendents and school boards. Whether you are a school board member or an administrator who is trying to figure out what goes on in school board members' heads, How Not to Be a Terrible School Board Member provides clear direction in a realistic and memorable way.
Terrible Habit #5: Never Question the Administration
Terrible Habit #5: Never Question the Administration
8:15 p.m., Maintenance and Operations Report
The next agenda item for tonight's board meeting is the maintenance and operations report, to be presented by Frank Farello, the district's director of maintenance and operations (lovingly known as M/O). The superintendent gives a brief introduction, describing all the work that went into the report and stating that both she and the district's Administrative Committee approve it.
Frank launches into his PowerPoint presentation, which essentially repeats the material in the eight-page report you have already read in the agenda materials. The plan calls for spending nearly a million dollars on repaving school playgrounds and parking lots and lays out a systematic schedule for getting the job done ...