Put yourself 'out there' |
On Board Online • February 9, 2015
By Sandra Ruffo
Area 4 Director
When I heard a knock on my door in May 1985, I never could have imagined that I was about to embark on a 30-year journey in school board service. My caller was a friend and member of my local school board. He told me it was the last day to file for the upcoming election, and no candidate was on the horizon. He handed me an unsigned petition with my name at the top, and urged me to turn it in by the end of the day.
I was the mother of five children, then ages 4 to 9. My husband questioned whether I thought I could manage the time commitment involved. I had never even been to a school board meeting, so I didn't know what to expect. I did know that there were "just two meetings a month," which I reported to my husband confidently, optimistically and somewhat naively.
After taking my oath of office, I attended a NYSSBA New Board Member orientation session. I found myself absorbing information like a sponge. To this day, it was the most informative workshop I've ever attended.
By 1995, I was elected to the Broome Delaware Tioga BOCES, where I am currently board president. I served concurrently on both my local board and the BOCES, now called Broome-Tioga BOCES, for eight years until not seeking reelection to the Susquehanna Valley board in 2003, after 18 years.
One thing I've learned is that the school board is not a place for the Mighty Mouse within us to seek to "save the day." Nor is school board service a path to popularity; performing the role attracts significant amounts of criticism for actions taken or not taken. And it is relatively devoid of articulated praise for a job well done.
I like to refer to boards' key roles and responsibilities - which include establishing policy and proposing a budget, as well as hiring and evaluating the superintendent - as the "hard skills" required. But "soft skills" matter, too. In other words, how we do what we do can be as important as the substance of our decisions. Positive approaches include being collaborative, approachable and "user friendly." We need to value relationships and display respect, courtesy and honesty. A good board member is always ready to listen to someone's story.
These soft skills are conduits that enable us to stay connected with our communities, both internal and external.
For some, these soft relationship-building skills come naturally; for others they can be acquired. It starts with how we interact with each other in the boardroom. As a board, we can individually have the most impressive pedigrees on paper but collectively fall miserably short as a team.
Training can help. I have personally embraced board development training and have encouraged my colleagues to do the same. But, like anything else, what you get out of board development depends on how you approach it. I would not encourage anyone to go to a training event with the primary goal of changing the behavior of others. It's better to focus on how we can improve our own effectiveness and build collaboration.
As a board president, I have encouraged my colleagues to move outside their comfort zones to tackle various challenges, and I've done so myself. During a recent opening day program at our BOCES, I was asked to be the keynote speaker with a theme of "Cheering on Students, Staff and Families." In keeping with the theme, I decided to dress as a cheerleader with BOCES emblazoned across my uniform. (I think I resembled the Pillsbury Dough Girl more than a pom-pom girl.) Recently an employee approached me and reminded me about that talk. She said, "You put yourself out there." She also said that the talk had set the tone for her entire school year.
I encourage your board to create opportunities to connect with the community. For example, in Susquehanna Valley, students always invited the school board to participate in a homecoming parade. We always declined, until one year we didn't. It became an annual ritual - a way to be visible and connected in our school community.
In 1998, musical films from the past was the theme of the parade, and board members and the superintendent dressed up as Dorothy, Toto, the Friendly Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man and the Wicked Witch. After the parade, we visited a terminally ill child in a neighboring district whom I knew loved the Wizard of Oz. Sheer joy lit up the child's face as well as that of everyone else. We concealed our tears and put on the happiest Yellow Brick Road faces we could muster. This, too, is a form of school board service. We were moving outside the board room in a relevant and meaningful way. It was probably one of my proudest moments as a board member.
Finding ways to connect with our communities can be as important as any other school board duty. A side benefit of "putting yourself out there" is that it is a way that board members can grow in the "soft skills" - to understand each other better, to respect a diversity of opinions, to relate better to our stakeholders and, inevitably, become a more collaborative, cohesive team.
So, I've shared with you dressing up for a speech, marching in a parade and visiting a sick child. I am quite confident that none of these activities can be found in anyone's list of the roles and responsibilities of a board of education. Nevertheless, I think they were valuable - maybe even invaluable.
My five children? They are all married now. The oldest is approaching 40, and my husband and I have 14 grandchildren, ages 2 to 8. We need strong schools for every generation, and that's one reason some of us enjoy serving on school boards for decades.
After 30 years, one thing that I have learned about school board service is that it's a lot more than "just two meetings a month!"