SED approves NYSSBA curriculum on new board member training |
On Board Online • May 23, 2011
By Eric D. Randall
Editor-in-Chief
The State Education Department has approved NYSSBA’s curriculum for newly-elected school board members as fulfilling a newly-expanded set of state training requirements.
A state law passed in 2010 requires school board members and BOCES board members who begin their first term on or after July 1, 2011 to “complete a training course to acquaint him or her with the powers, functions and duties of boards of education” within one year of taking office.
Guidance from the commissioner of education specifies that the training should last six hours and cover “the board of education’s role in educating all students, motivating the attainment of a higher level of student achievement, and ensuring that students have the opportunity to achieve an education that prepares them to succeed in college or careers.”
NYSSBA’s training will have four parts:
- The importance and purpose of school boards. Topics include aligning and optimizing district resources to ensure district goals are met, creating a school climate and culture that is conducive to learning and working collaboratively with the superintendent.
- The legal parameters of school boards. Topics include school board ethics, the state Open Meetings Law and other laws, collective bargaining, employee discipline, district and board member liability and the role of the school district’s counsel.
- Using data to ensure accountability and improve student achievement. Topics include a variety of reports board members need to be familiar with, including state district report cards, audit reports, building condition reports and violent and disruptive incident reports.
- Policy and board operations. Topics include the policy development and review process, policies required by law, ways of focusing policies on student outcomes, and key operating procedures including evaluating the superintendent, responding to citizen complaints and conducting a board self-assessment.
“Offering this kind of training is nothing new to us,” said Timothy G. Kremer, NYSSBA’s executive director. “In fact, school board members who have attended our programs have told us for years that they think this kind of training ought to be mandatory. Now it is.”
NYSSBA’s curriculum, which was approved by the State Education Department on April 28, will become half of NYSSBA’s annual, two-day training event for newly elected board members, the New School Board Member Academy. The other half will be six hours of fiscal oversight training, which the state has required since 2005.
The academies will be offered on Fridays and Saturdays from July through November in Corning, Melville, Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany and Lake Placid. NYSSBA also will offer the curriculum as an online course beginning in 2012.
NYSSBA President Florence Johnson said she expects the training to appeal to veteran school board members, too. “While re-elected school board members and other veteran school board members are not required by the law to take the course, we anticipate many will want to,” said Johnson, a member of the Buffalo Board of Education. “The NYSSBA board strongly encourages them to do so. I have been attending these trainings for years, and I learn something new each time.”
The curriculum was designed in light of the current climate of accountability and focus on student outcomes, said Barry Entwistle, NYSSBA’s director of leadership development. “In addition to everything else we have traditionally covered in new member training, we will emphasize the importance of focusing on student learning outcomes,” said Entwistle, a former school board and BOCES board member.