A New School Board Member Learns the State-Required Ropes

This past weekend, South County hosted about 60 new board members from around the St. Louis Area, northeastern and southern Missouri. New school board members are required to take 16 hours of training during the first year of board service and that training is provided by the Missouri School Board Association (MSBA). As we sat in the South County Holiday Inn, many of us had somewhat of an idea of what we were going to learn. 

Many of us went into the training expecting to discuss student achievement, district goal-setting and board of education communications. Some of the more complicated parts of the job include understanding state education funding, school district finance, advocacy on all levels of government and just learning how to work together as a board.

For me, I was pretty comfortable with the advocacy lesson, which focused on how to approach and inform legislators in Jefferson City about educational issues. I mentioned that as a former state representative, I found February a good month to visit your legislator. February is usually before committee work is in full swing, and before the craziness of the end of the session in May.

I was also somewhat familiar with the school foundation formula, which calculates how much funding each district receives from the state. We also tackled the intricacies of bond issues, tax levies, M&M taxes and the like (No, we do not tax those delicious chocolate candies to educate children. M&M stands for merchants and manufacturers tax, but think of how well-funded our schools we be if we did have a special chocolate tax).

It was very interesting to have so many rural school districts represented in the room. With a district like Mehlville with around 11,000 students, our challenges are much different than a district of less than 100 students.

MSBA hosts meetings and additional trainings throughout the year, so I am looking forward to keeping in touch with my new colleagues to hear about their districts and to share best practices. We need to build on the successes of each of our districts, instead of re-inventing the wheel every time. 

I was glad to attend this training and start to learn the intricacies of my new role as a Lindbergh school board member. Those who attended the training came from a variety of backgrounds and I realized that regardless of your day job, everyone has something to contribute.

A good school board is a balanced board. I believe it should be made up of parents and non-parents, senior citizens and non-seniors, educators and non-educators. Only with a diverse board can our students get the support they need to succeed.

In fact, that was the theme of our training. At the end of any decision or initiative, we should ask ourselves one question: “Does this action or decision help every child learn every day?”

The school board is no place for personal opinion or political agendas. We must use data-driven procedures to obtain quality results. And that’s not just rhetoric. It really is about the children, as it should be.