At every meeting you are called upon to make decisions. You must stay updated on current laws, always obey the open meeting act, serve as judge and jury for employees and students, make decisions on a greater variety of areas than most cities deal with including feeding, transporting, housing, providing curriculum for the most precious commodity in the community, run for election and keep constituents happy while staying abreast of the latest reform and school improvement so your students will achieve at the highest level. Some areas seem easy; others complicated and difficult.

No one can be expected to know all these things when they begin as a school board member.  And even veteran board members must realize that the world of public education governance is continuously changing. That is why the OSSBA, YOUR association, is developing comprehensive board development programs.  By offering workshops, conventions, district meetings, regional workshops and whole board development, we hope to touch every facet of your job, so you can be the best board possible.


Board Development will build your capacity and skills to:

•    Focus on students as the foremost concern for all decision making.
•    Learn, analyze and evaluate how your decisions and actions support and strengthen the classroom.
•    Establish an organizational framework and environment to support and align all resources to your district’s mission and goals.
•    Collaborate with all members of your community to establish standards for student performance using data.
•    Honestly examine and evaluate current district strengths and weaknesses to make meaningful changes.
•    Acquire techniques to process information you receive productively.
•    Build a climate for success
•    Use principles of ethical management for your district.
•    Celebrate all successes and make student success a top community priority.

Our programs use facilitators to serve as mentors to the board and superintendent.  Facilitators use inquiry and probing questions to guide the leadership team to strategies for confronting and solving problems within an organized framework.  In this manner, future issues can be resolved in a thoughtfully reasoned, data-based way using the techniques acquired through board development.