role of School Board
|
The purpose of the Woodbury Town School Board is to ensure that the young people in our community receive a high quality education and that taxpayers receive value for their investment. We are entrusted to act on behalf of the townspeople in public education matters and we are accountable for ensuring the school district complies with legal requirements and meets our community’s expectations.
Our school board has seven main areas of responsibility, outlined below. |
Create a Vision |
Boards need to create a vision for the future. Questions that we ask ourselves include, “What does our community want students to know? What kind of experiences do we want them to have? What kind of longer-term opportunities and outcomes do we want to see for our students and our school?”
|
Establish Polcies |
The first task of a school board, as defined in statute, is to establish policies. Policies are designed to establish the district’s priorities and overall parameters. Questions related to policies include ,”What community values might impact the policies we set? What limitations do we want to place on the administration?”
|
Hire a Superintendent |
The board hires a superintendent to manage the school district. We support the superintendent’s efforts to achieve the vision and superintendent is accountable for results. Boards need to provide the latitude for the school administration to do its job and to be accountable for the results within board policy.
|
Monitor Progress |
The board is accountable to the community for outcomes, particularly in the areas of student development and achievement. It needs to decide on the indicators that need to be monitored on a regular basis through a variety of mechanisms such as internal reports, external reports, and direct observation and inspection. It may also determine what external benchmarks it will use to compare local data and information to further assist in answering the questions, “How are we doing?” and “How do we know?”
|
Develop a Budget |
The board needs to provide overall guidance for budget priorities as well as outside parameters for budget development. How does the budget reflect the vision and the values of the district? Details of budget development are mostly delegated to the administration, but the board is closely involved in every stage of the budget development process. The board is also responsible for regularly monitoring the overall financial health of the district.
|
Engage the Community |
The board needs to help the community understand the importance of education as well as current successes and challenges. A goal of the board is to build community support and confidence in the public schools and to create a culture of parent and community engagement.
|
Other Responsibilities |
Boards have additional specific duties that support the overall operation of the schools. In a number of areas around personnel issues or student-specific concerns, the board often serves as a quasi-judicial board to resolve disputes if they are appealed after action by administrators. In addition, boards are the entities that are authorized to collectively bargain contracts with school district employees.
|
