ESSENTIAL INSIGHTS AND COMMENTARY FOR SCHOOL SYSTEM LEADERS FEBRUARY 2014

The Empowerment
of Social Media
in Education
Model practices,
acceptable use policies
and personal applications
for superintendents
PLUS
Your Next Boards Qualities, p10
Ethics: A Nepotism Charge, p8
Best of the Blogs, p7
Infographic: Search Consultants, p6
ESSE
FrontLine
Games School Boards Play
I RECENTLY SAT in the audience at a
school board meeting where a large,
unruly crowd had gathered to persuade
board members to name the high
school football stadium after a former,
long-standing coach. When confronted
by the raucous community group, the
board buckled under pressure and
turned to the superintendent for help.
The superintendent said no policy
was in place about naming athletic
facilities for a coach, and he advised
this could open Pandoras box. He
recommended the board develop a
policy before taking action. One board
member angrily pointed his nger at
the superintendent, saying, Were the
board, and we can do anything we
want to. All we need is a majority vote,
and I say, Lets have a vote on this.
Thats what the board did, naming
that stadium after the former coach.
The crowd cheered and told the
board members who voted in favor
how wonderful they were.
The loud-mouth board member
was right the board can do what-
ever it wants, as long as it is legal.
And therein lies the problem facing
school systems right now. Dysfunc-
tional boards make great leadership
impossible.
Negative Behaviors
If you want to understand whats
happening in classrooms today, you
have to nd out whats going on at
the top. Thats what we did in our
research on school board behaviors
in school systems across the United
States. Our study concluded that
negative board behaviors directly
afect student achievement.
We assembled a team of research-
ers that personally viewed board
meetings in action. Over a six-month
period, we observed 150 board meet-
ings to determine the diferences in
board member behaviors in high-
and low-performing school systems.
We started with meetings of
school boards that were available as
district webcasts, but we quickly dis-
covered only the productive boards
MYVI EW |
DAVI D E . L EE
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put their meetings online for the
world to see. So we set out to person-
ally visit board meetings in systems
that were considered low-functioning
by their state education agencies.
You wont nd these meetings
online, and I understand why. What
we saw gave us a clear picture of why
many of our struggling districts never
get any better.
The Council of the Great City
Schools recently reported the average
tenure of an urban superintendent
runs a little beyond three years.
Those three years must seem like an
eternity in places where we saw no
evidence of collaboration, teamwork
or trust.
Clear Evidence
School boards have been virtually
overlooked by sweeping accountabil-
ity movements. Much is expected of
of teachers and administrators, but
those who can most afect the quality
of an entire school system the most
seem to have been forgotten. Unfor-
tunately, some boards become the
barriers to meaningful school change.
The visual evidence we collected
indicates school boards in low-per-
forming districts have less order and
spend little or no time on student
achievement matters. Board mem-
bers do not listen attentively unless
the topic is of personal interest, with
members talking over each other
and audience members chatting
constantly.
If teachers allowed their students
to behave this way in a classroom,
the students would be disciplined.
We witnessed board members tem-
per tantrums, rude and contemptu-
ous behavior, political gaming and
cutting remarks toward their super-
intendent. They allowed personalities
and petty diferences to get in the
way of real results.
Meetings seem to go on forever.
Constant bickering in board meetings
almost guarantees no direction for
the district. These boards perpetuate
the status quo and, while everything
changes, nothing really changes.
In the high-performing school
districts we watched in action, just
the opposite seems true. One wishes
their behaviors could be duplicated.
A Personal Breakdown
Having been both a superintendent
and a school board member in dif-
ferent districts, I can see where all of
this breaks down. I thought I could
make a big impact because I had all
of this professional experience. So
I ran for the school board and got
elected for a six-year term.
My rst mistake was trying to
second-guess the superintendent. I
nally quit that detrimental behavior,
then tried to rally my fellow board
members to work as a team and set
some benchmarks for our district.
Three didnt know what a bench-
mark was and saw no need to waste
time doing that. After all, we had
running tracks to resurface and gyms
to build. And the special-interest
groups were politicking for every-
thing under the sun.
Communities must carefully select
quality candidates to serve on school
boards. Unfortunately, many of our
great leaders arent willing to serve
due to constant political pressure.
The position of school board
member may be the most important
elected or appointed position in a
community. Just as we must get the
right teachers on the bus, the same
may be true for boards of education.
Only the communities can demand it.
As a superintendent, I once had
a renegade board member who was
about 25 years old. I counseled him
over and over about his negative
behavior, and he told me one night
after a heated board meeting, Dr.
Lee, I like you. I dont have a prob-
lem with you, but if I dont act this
way, I wont get re-elected. My com-
munity likes for me to act this way.
What could I say?
I once asked ve veteran board
members from an urban district,
while conducting their annual
retreat, if they knew what constituted
a good board member. An elderly
gentleman raised his hand and said,
Yep, somebody who can get two
other members to think like I do. Is
this your board?
DAVID LEE is an associate professor
of educational leadership at University of
Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Miss.
E-mail: david.e.lee@usm.edu
Communities MUST
CAREFULLY SELECT QUALITY
CANDIDATES to serve on
school boards. Unfortunately,
many of our great leaders
arent willing to serve due to
constant political pressure.


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