the most ridiculously stupid form of running a school district

Head Idiot wrote:BOEs are the most ridiculously stupid form of running a school district humanly possible.

I'm interested in this.

What do you and those that agree with this statement think would be a better system? Are there examples of a better system in the US?

(I took this from the "2020 Head Football Coaching Openings" thread so as not to mess up that thread that is important to many here.)

To me, it's always been odd that school boards can be comprised of people who have never had a job or really any experience in education. That being said, I don't have any ideas for a better way off the top of my head.

In my life I have served on a number of different boards, including an advisory school board. I have never served on the board of an accounting firm (my profession) except the firm that I co-own.

In the school board I served on, which was not an elected position, and on every single other board our ONLY hire/fire decision dealt with the chief executive. The board had no say in other personnel decisions, those all belonged to the chief executive.

I'm of the opinion that the board ought to give direction to the chief executive and then that chief executive ought to put all of the best people in positions to try to achieve the the wishes of the board. Would a set-up like that be preferable to employees of a school? Where their continued employment was based on the chief executive and NOT the school board?

It does seem realistic that a school board ought to reflect the wishes of the community in terms of what it values as important, don't you think?

One of the biggest problems in Illinois is the amount of school districts. It is no normal anywhere else to have separate districts for high school. I know that it will never go away, but all districts should be K-12.

Teetime wrote:In my life I have served on a number of different boards, including an advisory school board. I have never served on the board of an accounting firm (my profession) except the firm that I co-own.

In the school board I served on, which was not an elected position, and on every single other board our ONLY hire/fire decision dealt with the chief executive. The board had no say in other personnel decisions, those all belonged to the chief executive.

I'm of the opinion that the board ought to give direction to the chief executive and then that chief executive ought to put all of the best people in positions to try to achieve the the wishes of the board. Would a set-up like that be preferable to employees of a school? Where their continued employment was based on the chief executive and NOT the school board?

It does seem realistic that a school board ought to reflect the wishes of the community in terms of what it values as important, don't you think?  

I do agree that the school board should reflect wishes of the community.  So, maybe have an "educational consultant" as a board member or a non-elected position, or something like that.  I guess it depends too on if any retired school employees are willing to run for school board.  At my current district, we actually have four of the seven members who have worked for the school district in the past.  This seems rare to me, but I'll also admit as a younger educator I didn't know who the board members were as I was simply trying to stay afloat in the classroom!

In terms of your chief executive scenario, I don't know if I prefer that over the method of seven board members each having a vote.  I will say that educators, at least based on my experience, are very paranoid so I think in general there would be more fear in one person having that much power.  I actually think in theory that's how it's supposed to work, but that's when politics come into play and the boards don't always go with a administrator's recommendation for hire or fire.