The California School Board Association created a white paper on the duties and responsibilities of a school board member. I tried to summarize it below.
- Ensure the school district is responsive to the values, beliefs, and priorities of their communities
- Helping establish a long-term vision as to what students need to achieve their highest potential
- Employing the superintendent and setting policy for hiring other personnel (e.g. teachers)
- Overseeing the development, revision, and adoption of bylaws and policies for the school district
- Setting a direction for and approving the adoption of the curriculum
- Establishing budget priorities, adopting the budget and LCAP, and overseeing facilities issues
- Providing direction for and adopting collective bargaining agreements and monitoring progress
- Acting with a professional demeanor that models the district/county BOE beliefs and vision
- Making decisions and providing resources that support mutually agreed upon priorities and goals
- Ensuring a positive personnel climate exists
- Being knowledgeable enough about district/county educational efforts to explain them to the public
- Evaluating the superintendent and setting policy for the evaluation of other personnel
- Serving as a judicial and appeals body
- Monitoring student achievement and program effectiveness and requiring program changes if indicated
- Monitoring and adjusting district finances
I went one step further to create a nomination form based on these duties and responsibilities which can be found here.