2025 School Board Candidate Workshop

001Hello. Welcome everyone. Go ahead and feel free to put your camera on. Say hello. Uh I'll I'll get us started. I'm um I'm Dr. Heather Curl. I'm the director of leadership development here at the Washington State School Board Association or WASDA. Um and we're really happy that you're here. This is the second of four candidate workshops. Um, and uh, yeah, what I do is I I sort of offer training and support for board members. So, should you get elected and that be your next step, you'll hopefully connect with me. And in the meantime, um, it's great to um, mute yourself when dogs are barking and and at other times too, but you are welcome at different points to ask questions and still be a part. Um, I am now going to go off screen. um

002and take let the facilitators actually introduce themselves and take it away. Go for it. Thank you, Heather. Um so, good afternoon everyone. We're really excited to um be joining you for something that's near and dear to uh both my and Lisha's hearts um uh having been elected board members ourselves. So, my name is Mary Facus and I was a 22-year board member in the Tuckila School District and now I serve on the state board of education. Good afternoon everybody. My name is Lisha Phillips. I am on my I think I'm on my seventh year serving on the Federal Way School Board. Um yeah, and then been a consultant with Buster for a little bit here. Nice to virtually meet everybody. Great. Um and you've uh been introduced to Dr. Heather Curl and uh uh Rossmi

003also is part of the team that works with schoolboard directors um as we all are learning how to develop our leadership skills in this governance role. So for this workshop um this is the agenda of what we're going to be covering tonight. Uh what school boards do and what they don't do. Uh what the responsibilities are of individual school directors. what leadership looks like when you're serving as part of a team because you're not an individual in a governance model. You're part of a team and that team includes the superintendent. And then I'm wanting to give you some uh ideas and resources for preparing yourself to serve. Uh, and I'm going to read this bottom part out loud. Uh, which is any type of video, audio or photo recording of this presentation, the participants and/or

004the facilitators is prohibited. The PowerPoint and the handout are public, but participants have not given permission for anyone other than WASDA to record these sessions. By attending this presentation, you indicate your agreement with these terms. So I just wanted to make that uh very clear at the the front end before we dive in. Next slide please. So uh in the email that you received for this uh uh opportunity, we included a link to this handout, the schoolboard candidate workshop and this QR code if you weren't able to download it ahead of time. And uh Heather has also included the link to it if you want to pull it up um to look at as we're going through the material. You will recognize uh some of these these are actual slides from the presentation and pulling

005out some of the uh highlevel things that we'll be covering as again as a tool for you. Next slide please. So, um, knowing that people are in in different situations, um, it's still great if you can have your camera on when possible. Uh, we certainly understand that that isn't possible for everyone. Uh, and I just wanted to if you're uh not as familiar working with Zoom, if you happen to have a message come up that says uh in internet instable or unstable, uh we found that if you turn your camera off and give it a few minutes, that generally takes care of the issue. Should you get kicked out of the presentation, just enter back in and we'll read you. We would ask you to please um stay on mute. Uh we are going to

006be stopping at several points at different in different sections to give you an opportunity to ask questions. Um things that you can put in the the chat that we'll be monitoring and we'll be getting to your qu as many of your questions as we possibly can. And uh if you do have a question to ask as we're in one of those sessions, do feel free to take your um your audio off mute to participate. We also just wanted to make it clear that the focus of this candidate workshop is on learning about what it means to be a schoolboard member and the responsibilities and how the structures work as well as giving you resources. It is not uh geared towards looking at specific district issues or campaign issues. No. And if everyone if you're um

007not familiar with using the chat box at the bottom of your screen, uh there is an icon that says chat. If you click on that, it will open up the chat box and you uh have the option to enter a message to everyone or um to specific individuals. And we wanted to give you an opportunity to just uh practice your 30 secondond elevator speech. um if you would like to enter into the chat box why did you decide to run for the school board and we're just going to give you a couple minutes um to to uh if you choose to enter something and uh so I'll just pause here for that. Okay, filing day felt like a call to action, a time to step up and serve my community. Thank you. I love my

008school community and want to give back. running to bring stability to and restore confidence in the Seattle school district level's leadership and bring my parent and professional experience to the job. Great. Thank you so much. Okay, Lisha, it's on to you. All right. Well, um it is wonderful to meet you again. So, I'm going to give you a little bit of orientation. We're going to start with you might not be familiar with the organization of WASDA. I want to give you a quick introduction to WASDA which stands for the Washington State School Directors Association. And WASDA has been around for 100 years, which is a pretty long time. Um, and just to clarify, WADA isn't part of the Governor's Office. It's its own standalone agency, kind of like the public lands commission. In fact, WASDA

009is led by school board directors from across the state who were elected onto the WASDA board by their peers. So, just thinking of it of it as an organization that brings all the school board directors to kind of coales us into one work where we get support and uh get information as we do this job. So um as you see the state agency is authorized by the legislature to be self-governing all WASDA state public school directors are members um leadership development training policy and legal resources and legislative advocacy port is offered and there is no regulatory authority for the organization of WA as a whole. Go to the next slide. All right. So to ground our conversation, I'd like you to give an overview of how school governance is structured in the state of Washington.

010So uh schoolboard directors are elected by their local community to be a part of a statewide system. So understanding that entire system helps schoolboard directors become effective in their efforts locally. So there are 295 public school districts, seven state tribal education compact schools. There's 1,477 school board directors. So WA was just kind of that organization that gets to bring all that energy in. More than 160,000 employees, 1.1 million students, and the state budget is roughly around $12 billion. So, I really do think of us, we kind of work at a local level, but um what I quickly found is uh we also have to work as a larger team because we know our students don't stay in the same area. It's kind of like getting a service. You want to make sure that students are

011entering and exiting our systems and being able to kind of function well. Um which is something that took me a couple years to learn, but really important. So, local governance, statewide system. So who does what in education? So the first um one you have there is the legislator. They make the laws and provide the majority of the funding. A small amount of that funding comes from the federal source for special programs and additional funding which is normally a small amount comes from our local levies. So really starts with the federal and state law. They make the laws, they provide the funding. Next up is OSBI and the State Board of Ed. So, lots of acronyms. I was thinking about this when I read it. OSBI stands for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and

012then the state board of ed. They create the rules to implement the laws and then OSBI distributes all the funding to the districts. So, legislature, OSBI, school, state board of ed, OSBI continues the funding to the districts. Next up, you have um WAS. Oh, wait. Am I There you go. School board. Uh WASDA kind of supports the districts by creating the model policies based off of the laws from our for our local boards to adopt. So, we'll talk more about policy adoption in a moment, but it is one of the primary roles of a schoolboard director and a school board. If a district were to update their policies each year on their own um to keep up with compliance with the new laws and regulations on their own, it would cost quite a bit of

013money and legal fees. So that's why WA was a policy and legal branch. So they essentially have lawyers on hand who are experts in this work to kind of come up with those model policies because we had a law it moved to we had a law moved to OSBI and then it moves over to WASD so we can get that model policy and adopt it at a local level and then it goes to our school boards which is govern locally through district policies and budgets and on the school board we also hire superintendent to operate the districts. So sometimes I kind of think of that wheel as a moving process um that continues to go forth and how we govern on a local level. All right. So now we're going to talk a little bit

014about serving on your local school board. We're going to get focused on what's involved in serving on that local board level. So the first topic is what is a school board director? So what do we mean by a school board director in Washington state? School board members are also called school directors. They are elected by local residents of the school district and serve as a governing body. Most um terms are four years. I think we have one person from Seattle. I think it's Seattle and Spokane that has six years. I think there's only two districts that have six year terms. Seattle's still four. Uh um Everett has six. Oh, yeah. Tacoma has six. That's who it is. So most terms are four years. We have a few boards that are six-year terms. Um, and school

015board members are elected during the odd years. Board members may be appointed to fill a vacancy on their board, but they need to run for office the next election cycle in order to retain the office. So, our next slide. Yep. So, legal responsibilities. So, where do the roles and responsibilities come from for schoolboard directors? that's actually written in Washington state law is the foundation of the responsibility for schoolboard members. Some of the laws relate directly to the requirements for schoolboard members and many more are related to the operation of the district over which the schoolboard members provide oversight. So, as you can see, the section of the revised code of Washington that regulates school is quite detailed. I wasn't surprised when I saw that number 67, but quite detailed. Um, another key law that impacts

016all of schoolboard work is OPMA, open public meeting act. That law provides a lot of requirements on how boards govern and communicate. So, it is important to know the OPMA or Open Public Meetings Act as a candidate because the courts have ruled that this applies to elected officials even in the period between election day and when they are sworn in. So, I don't think anybody told me that when I first ran for office, but I do think that's important to know. Um so those O OPMA mandates that whenever a quorum of board communicates about school business, it must be done with prior notice to the community and within a public meeting. This greatly constrains the board's ability to communicate over email and text message and even if they casually bump into each other in public.

017And that document was just dropped into the chat if you want to take a look at that or retain that for yourself. All right. So, some of the legal responsibilities. Another important reminder is the oath of office for school directors is set by the state. Not only do schoolboard directors cons consider school law and the open public meetings act, but they swear to uphold every law in the state and country. This is another way to consider what is done at a local district. Also has considerations on the statewide landscape. So as you see here on the screen, they put up the RCW so that you can kind of take that in. Every person is elected or appointed to office before entering upon discharging of these duties. Therefore shall take an oath or affirmation to support

018the Constitution of the United States, state of Washington, and discharge their duties of office according to the best of their abilities. So it's kind of written up. All right, Mary, you're up. Okay. So thanks, Lisha. So, um, as part of what WASDA does with its board training, we have a a graphic and a visual that shows the breakdown of what our functions are and three different areas. So, if you are elected to um this office when you're getting your training, you'll we want you to see that this is how it's broken out where you've got visionary leadership, effective governance, and strategic advocacy as the three umbrella areas that your governance functions fall under. And within that, we've broken it down into three different areas where you um will have training modules uh that meet these

019other pieces. So next slide please. We'll walk through very quickly what these are. So the first piece comes under the heading of commitments. And the three commitments of uh our board uh training and governance is related to equity, student success and community engagement. And to be very clear when we're talking about equity, it is based on the data that you're looking at. you will be as a board member reviewing a lot of data and you'll be seeing gaps um and disparities between different groups of students by different types of demographics. And so one of our responsibilities in looking at this is trying to figure out how we're closing these gaps which then leads to this student success which is one of our other commitments. Second piece is next slide principles. The principles that we base

020the our work on is that we serve with integrity. We model collaboration. We'll go into this a little bit more because uh you you don't have any individual authority as a board member. Your authority comes from working in collaboration with your board colleagues and the superintendent. And then and remaining in the board domain, the things that are actually within our realm of authority and responsibility. And the third piece is our mindset. So uh you like I said we will be and you will be uh working with a lot of data. So uh uh our board boot camp training for new board members goes into a lot around how to look at data uh and the kinds of the power of the question that you have looking at systems thinking. Um you are as a governance

021body you are thinking at the 30,000 foot level uh or the balcony level at your entire system when you're um making you're having your deliberations and making questions and then innovation you know what are the things that research is showing us uh are effective for going back to uh principles of uh student success. So that in total is uh what our uh training modules look like the framework that we use uh when we're doing presentations like uh a lot of boards will take the series on your budget and different ways to understand what is in the budget uh what the different functions are etc. Um so we have multiple modules like that that boards have the opportunity to take uh as their uh professional development training. So there are specific ways that the board governs

022the district and again you'll see all of these things. These are highlevel um areas where the board realm uh rests. So setting the mission, the vision and the goals. Um you will see that incorporated into your school district's strategic plan. And the strategic plan uh is your road map for guiding the district that everything should be aligned to. And when it is, you start seeing some uh really effective um uh board superintendent teamwork. Um you see a lot of work that's able to happen uh within your buildings, etc. Another big responsibility is the budget. Uh adopting the budget and your financial oversight responsibility as a a monitoring piece. And you'll see a number of times we use the word monitoring here because that is something that you do a lot. Uh and the budget adoption

023process takes months. Um it usually for most districts starts in January, February, needs to be adopted by the end of June and starts July 1st. So unfortunately for anybody who runs for a schoolboard office when you come into that position um when you are sworn in the uh for your first meeting in December you're already halfway through the budget for that year and you didn't have an opportunity unless you are serving on your district's budget review committee to have input on what that looks like. So, we recognize that that just because of the timing of the cycle, that can be a frustrating thing for new board members and it's also an opportunity for you to be asking a lot of questions so that when that cycle starts up again um to be adopting the next

024budget the following year, uh you'll have you'll feel more comfortable um in being able to do that. Community engagement is really important. You are you were elected to be a steward of public dollars and to represent your community and that means your entire school community. Uh you may have a number after your name for your position. Uh but that is uh for geographic distribution. Our responsibility is to be serving every child that was is within our school district boundaries. Adopting policies and monitoring implementation. That's another key function that you have. Your policies are the things that provide the legal framework within which the board does its business and its work. So, making sure that your policies are up to date, that you're reviewing them on regular cycles. Uh many school boards will take one section

025of the policy manual, maybe the 10,00 series, which is the one specific to the board, and they review one section per year, which keeps you on a about a six-year cycle of reviewing policies so that you are um staying up to date. Hiring and evaluating the superintendent uh is another huge responsibility that you have. And want to reiterate here that the board has only one employee uh except Seattle has two but for everyone else uh the the superintendent is the board's only employee and any other hiring or evaluation for any other employee in the district is done by their immediate supervisor. Uh and in evaluating uh you're going to be every board has you're required to do this on a yearly basis. Um, every board has an evaluation process and that is a locally controlled

026um, process. Um, you just the law requires you to do it on a yearly basis. And then once again there's that word monitoring, you're monitoring district performance. So in all the presentations that come to you, the questions that you're asking in those presentations to, you know, see how things are progressing, what is the data look like? How is this aligned to the strategic plan and the action plans for that year? All of those things come under monitoring district performance. Next slide, please. So, this is the wonderful little chart about what boards do um and what they don't do. So, um as we've already mentioned, the boards evaluate and oversee the superintendent. Superintendent acts as the CEO of your your system. Uh but the board is the the governance body that provides direction to the superintendent.

027The board approves curriculum and there is a very lengthy process in most districts about how that comes about with a curriculum committee uh uh staff and uh community members sometimes students if it's involving high school curriculum piloting all of these things in the process that then comes to the board uh for final approval. You create the policies that will be enacted through procedures. So the board approves the policy which is the framework and then the procedures are developed and created and revised by your staff. Um and they are the way the policy gets implemented in your buildings and throughout your system. You represent the entire community including your students and we talk a lot about uh student voice in WASDA. Uh fascinating. Washington state uh has the highest number of student representatives that serve uh

028on school boards in the country and they have their own wonderful network uh and are very much a part of the work we do as when we have our annual conference when we go to Olympia to advocate um etc and then you approve the district policies and budget. Now what boards don't do on the other side of this line um next slide please. You do not evaluate or terminate staff except for the superintendent. Uh that is recommendations will come to you from the superintendent about perhaps terminating staff. But that is not that is you as putting the final vote on that. That is not you evaluating and making the determination that that's going to happen. Um you do not oversee what and how teachers teach or how coaches coach. That's considered operations and uh the

029people that are teaching and coaching um are have people that they report to who are their supervisors and evaluators. you don't create procedures that define how your policies are going to be enacted. Um so that would be something like the pol let's take for example you've got a a discipline policy. Um the procedures for that would be created by your staff and those would be the types of things that you would then see in your student handbook. Uh part of the reason why the board does not is not involved in that is it's considered a management function not a governance function and it also allows for more flexibility if there are revisions that need to be made because the policy adoption process is a formalized process. Uh you do not uh get presented with a

030policy and approve it in the same meeting. We have what's called a first reading where you're looking through it and you're looking at recommended revisions or updates. You're able to ask questions. All of that information then comes back to you at another meeting for what they call second reading. Sometimes there will be more revisions and then it would come back for a third meeting and then you would adopt it. But sometimes you're able to um if everything was covered after second reading, you can um have it as an action item on that agenda for that meeting. You do not represent one constituency. Um when we say all means all, uh when we're talking about our students and what their needs are and representation, we represent each student that is within our school district boundaries. And

031you don't set school rules. um those would actually fall sometimes fall under the procedures uh heading. Uh you're you set the framework the policy that then leads to what rules are adopted. Next slide please. So uh uh let's see uh this is back to do this one. You're welcome. Go right ahead. All right. Um don't worry we'll have a section here where you can ask a question. So if anybody has questions feel free to jot them down or put them in the chat. Um so one that people tend to ask a little bit about is the role of the board and curriculum. Um so it is I think important to highlight that kind of on the screen the establishing the district's curriculum standards is consistent with the state law. I know we were just talking

032about this at our schoolboard meeting recently that there's actually a pretty clear line that the state law has outlined as to what the practice is. um shown on the screen here. The state and the school district's goals relative to instructional materials. They have to establish an instructional materials committee. The recommendations of the instructional materials shall be by the district's instructional materials committee in accordance with the district policy and approval or disapproval shall be by the local school district's board of directors. So, as an example, like in our state, obviously, our policies follow state law. it kind of goes through the process. Um, I think what's important to know is the board's responsibility is to be in close communication with your superintendent. Um, to make sure to talk about the parameters and what we're doing, be

033familiar with the process, understand the process, ask questions, but know that the state has already outlined a process. Um, following that, listening to your recommendation of your committee, and then bringing that to the board. I know as a board superintendent team, we have that conversation like, "Hey, here's what's coming up. Here's what we need to look at. Here's why we're looking at it. Here's what the state law says. Here's our process." It takes us a good year and a half to get through the process, listens to committee, committee goes out and pilots practices, student feedback, parent feedback, then it comes to the board for that final adoption. So, I think sometimes people are not aware that the state isn't picking our curriculum. that does come to the school board that there are state standards that

034need to be matched and a process that needs to go with it. Feel like that was short story but it felt pretty poignant. Okay, we'll go to the next slide. Uh the board's role in financial oversight. I would say for me, I don't know about you, Mary, this was probably the biggest learning curve for me because there is there are so many laws that are layered into this work. Um, so let's see. It says, uh, let's look at the board's role around financial oversight and policy adoption to again illustrate how state law informs how a board does its work. This is the language directly from the law regarding the boar's role in proper operation of their district. So you kind of see there it says operation oh no not that one. The operation of their

035district is on the local community and its electorate. The settings of the policy ensure quality in the content and extent of its educational program. that such program provides students with the opportunity to achieve those skills which in generally recognize as a requisite to learning. So the budget process is pretty um pretty strenuous. Your district will work on making sure that you have good communication. They're talking about here's what our state revenue is. Here's what our federal revenue is, right? Here's our other revenue. Here's what local dollars are doing. And it's it's a tough act of like really following all the laws that are for each individual area. There's laws around ASB funding. There's laws around general funding. There's laws around transportation funding. There's laws around MSOC funding, material supplies and operating costs has been a

036big conversation. Um even as we advocate as school districts, you'll you may have heard districts are like, "Hey, we really got to talk about our prototypical funding model and etc." So that is one of the major things that schoolboard directors do. That is a year- round process. You were looking at your budget probably every meeting and having big conversations pretty regularly. Does that seem fair, Mary? I think so. Yeah. Okay. Next slide. So now we've talked about this massive amount of work. I kind of want to bring it into one document because I know I am one that like if I'm going to take on a role, I want to be I want to be good at it. Um, so we WASDA has already kind of pulled together some research and best practices around the

037topics like curriculum and financial oversight. On the WASDA website, you're going to find the Washington State School Board standards. So, the standards are supported with over a decade of research documenting how and what a board does and how a board can boost or drag down student outcomes. So, that was just dropped into the chat. I know it took I didn't actually get to this document until my second year and I wish I would have saw it better. Um, when we go to our conferences, there are actual institutions and universities that literally just do research on the effectiveness of school boards and like what is that impact on student outcomes? Like I didn't know what we do in that room can actually determine what happens for kids in their educational outcomes. So, this is a good

038starting point to really figure out what does some of that work mean? Okay. So, now it is your turn. We've just gave you a lot of set and get information. Do you have some questions for us well broken in schoolboard directors? Actually, I do have one. You didn't you mentioned this earlier, but um not uh didn't go into it here. Um, and sorry I I don't have my light on because it's too hot right now to have the light in my face. But um so sorry I'm I'm in the shade but um around community engagement as a responsibility for the school board um and I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit more about that or if you are planning to because um I think that there are different views of that about where

039the responsibility sits whether that's a responsibility for the district staff and their community engagement staff um and or with the school board. And I totally understand listening to your constituents who have elected you, but I'm just curious about the community engagement piece. Well, we are going to talk about a little bit, but we can certainly go into that now because it might not be specific what we're going to be covering because it's high level might not be specific to what you're talking about. The one of the things um is that any kind of response that we give you is going to be very context dependent. Um there isn't a silver bullet because every community, every one of our 295 school districts is different. The diversity amongst them all is a thing. It is real. And

040so what community engagement looks like in one place might not look the same in another place. And something that would be very effective in one setting might not be in another. But to the point of responsibility, you are publicly elected by your community. Uh the community you the the district should have structures in place for your community to engage with you in your open public meetings which we usually have as a a public comment listening sessions. Um I would say study sessions also lisha are a really excellent tool because those are opportunities for the board to take some extra time to educate themselves about a topic of interest and they're open to the public because all your meetings are open to the public except for the the very narrow confines of what an executive session

041is. So, I have always found I always found those to be incredibly helpful opportunities because you can structure them however you want. Um, as a board, you can um have a couple of questions that you just want people to respond to. You can bring in experts either on your staff or external experts on a topic or from the community to be giving you feedback. And the nice thing about these is that there's no action being taken at when you're doing a study session or a listening session. It truly is that opportunity to listen and learn with each other. And there are definitely, you know, things that would be a community engagement team that's on staff for some specific things that are going on. And then there's also the part of, you know, the board wants

042to get input. A great example would be if you're hiring a superintendent, there would be comm the board that would be under the board's responsibility because they're hiring it that person to be saying, "We want community engagement um uh opportunities for people to tell us what they want to see in their next superintendent." Now, the the the the brass tax logistics of setting that up would be coming from your staff to do it, but that's something that would be under the board's um responsibility as part of that hiring process for the superintendent. Is that making sense? Lisha, anything you'd like to add to that? Sure. I think I would add again, it's just working with your board superintendent team. there's no like law on on community engagement and what it exactly looks like. So, I

043would just say working with your board superintendent team for our school district. We actually have it written in policy like here's what we're going to do for community engagement. Um I think we have three scheduled community connect events like we do a weekly newsletter out to community. Um we make sure that it gets in the newspaper. like we have a couple of strategies in place that we agreed upon as a team to do because you again you have to have a work balance. We're going to talk about the amount of time that you're spending as a schoolboard director as an unpaid. Yeah. And I just want to respond in the chat. People were asking, you know, we're using terminology, study session, learning session, listening session. They're basically the same thing. It um under your meeting

044structure. They would be considered the same type of thing where you're going in depth on a topic. You're not making any decisions. So um again, that's also something that's a local context. What people actually call them. You can call them whatever you want. Um, it's what the structure is, which is designed for you to be able to go more in depth on a topic and be able to bring in people um to be a part of that conversation that might not normally be a part of it. All right. Okay. So, next up, now we're going to uh spend a little bit time about talking about the team that you're going to be working with uh should you be elected. So, next slide, please. So when we talk about the governance team, we are specifically talking

045about the either five schoolboard members or in the case of Seattle 7 plus your superintendent. You are the governance team. together you are responsible for leading the school district even though that leadership takes different roles that you think back to that slide we went over of what school boards do and what they don't do. So um but together you know all those functions work together. It's just you have there's that separation of who's responsible for what. You are most effective when you're working together when you've got the same district goals um and within those unique roles that you have. The district goals are generally tied to the strategic plan. And so that is for most districts the the foundational piece of setting the direction and the goals that come from that. Uh and what that

046also then does is uh because your mission and your vision are a part of this, it helps keep you focused on these things with the that shared vision that you're working towards that and it's taking into account there's a reason why this structure is in place. You have multiple perspectives that are being represented that are representative of your community. Um, and most boards also recognize that with them either having five or seven people, they're not representing all the perspectives. And so that's where community engagement becomes important because we do know from research that the more perspectives you bring into uh decision making that the better that decision is going to end up being because you've considered a lot of different things um as a part of your deliberations. And then by law, um we're going

047to spend a little time on this. Individual school directors have no legal authority. Your authority is exercised and is in place only during that time period where you are in a publicly noticed meeting with a quorum of board members and you have an agenda with action items on it. That is the only time you have any authority uh legally. Now, we should talk about this a little bit because at that when I got on the board was something that I had to spend some time helping my community understand. And uh I actually did a schoolboard 101 session with our PTA uh the different PTAs in our district to help them understand that because it was very interesting um and totally understandable that when we think of elected officials, what people are most familiar with are

048the people who serve in your state legislature or who serve in Congress. They are elected as individuals. They can say whatever they want. They can promise you whatever they want. You know, whether they deliver on it is something else. But they have the ability to do that. In a governance structure, we don't. But because this is what um people are used to seeing, the assumption is made that that is the way you are going to be as an elected official. And so we're doing everybody a really great service by helping them understand also that do don't uh chart so that people understand where the authority lies for different things. Uh and that is tough because you do have a a if you are a schoolboard member you have a title that comes with that and

049that has some positionality and then people assume that there's a level of authority that goes with that. So, it is one thing that we've all learned that we have to be very careful about what we say because of that um positionality, because of that title, and because of the assumption that people make that you can do some things that they're not necessarily aware of that you you can't. Next slide, please. So, collaboration is a word that we use a lot. Um and again that working together where you have different functions but you're all under that same shared vision from your strategic plan and what you you're wanting to try and do for your students um is the thing that that brings you together. And then that check and balance of um the cycle of monitoring

050and evaluation that we referenced earlier where information is brought to the board. uh you're making decisions, your staff takes it out to do implementation, then they're bringing it back to you um to be reporting progress. That's part of your monitoring. You're asking questions, revisions, and clarification happens, and then it goes back out to that implementation piece. So that functions when that cyclical um structure of collaboration is in place that's where we see from research where you have highly functioning board superintendent teams and there is absolutely a direct connection to student achievement when the that leadership team is working in tandem with each other. So while conflict is just you know real quick so conflict is a part of life um and it's a life skill on how we manage it. So this is um that's

051an area where uh the things that you can do with communication and the types of operating principles you have in place, how you interact with each other, what you know about your colleagues, um getting to know them and developing relationships to understand what um is important to them. All of those things contribute to being able to work in that highly effective cyclical um team environment. you'll find that you do a lot of listening and that's really important. Um, uh, you're wanting to be thoughtful. There's a reason why we have our meetings in public. It's important for your public to know that you are being thoughtful, that you are, um, having deliberations about what's going on as you are working towards making a decision on whatever the topic is. Uh an example I like to use

052that was really helpful for me, one of my board colleagues, uh when he shared with us that he had experienced homelessness growing up in our school district. um it it gave me and the rest of us clarity as to why that particular topic was coming up a lot and he was in wanting to ensure that the impacts of children experiencing homelessness was a part of our conversation. So that was really helpful for us to have that context about why that was really important to him. Uh and it also then you know grew our own understanding that we started you know you start thinking about okay how does this impact uh students experiencing homelessness uh and that then becomes you know again part of what you do and again because we were considering lots of different

053kinds of um impacts on different groups of students we felt we were growing and making better decisions. Um, and when we talk about debating, it's uh oftentimes we'll talk about we debate the issues. We don't debate each other. Um, it's really important that we are being uh and modeling what it actually looks like to have civil uh conversations with each other because it doesn't serve anyone well um if we are turning things into um personal issues. And yes, you can be very frustrated on a board and definitely in 22 years I didn't votes didn't go my way all the time and you learn from that. That is a part of it. This is why we are a democracy and that's just the way it works. Um and it does work when we're we're willing to

054say and acknowledge, yep, that's the way it is. Didn't get that one, but maybe next time. Next team or next next slide. Uh continuous improvement is what we strive for. Uh you're going to be coming into very complex systems. An education system is really complex. There's a lot going on. Uh and your professional development is just as important as the professional development that your district funds for your instructional staff and uh everyone else who um is an employee in your system. So uh this is one of the reasons why WASDA provides what it does um in the way of training for uh our board directors and we that's why we want to have that growth mindset. We really encourage people to be curious and lean in and ask questions um so that we're people people

055know that you're listening when you're asking questions about what um their concerns are. And again knowing that it's a process of continuous improvement to work towards the goals we've got. Next slide. We do need to um be respecting diverse input and perspectives. Um I definitely over the course of different issues as we were talking about things I found myself u moving uh in what my from where my original position was and sometimes I didn't you know that that is uh your prerogative but I do know that by um listening leaning in um being respectful of the different life experiences that uh my board colleagues had and what that brought to the table uh was really helpful. Um, and it's okay to to disagree. Um, one of the things you do hear uh from as a

056concern sometimes in the community is people will use the term the board is rubber stamping um what the superintendent brings to them and that's that's a problematic perception. So the fact that you are um disagreeing civily um and bringing up different perspectives actually really shows your community you are taking the time um with your deliberations and that over that process of time before you make a decision they can see that you know how you have come to that. Uh this is language directly from board standard number one. Uh, and so I'll just read it since it's stated so well. An effective board provides effective district governance by promoting healthy relationships by communicating supportively, inspiring, motivating, and empowering others, and exercising influence in a positive manner. And as part of our board self-evaluation in the stand,

057this is one of the things we rate ourselves on. Next slide, please. um also from the standards. Um oh did you Yes. Uh so this is another um part another way to show this same type of thing because we live in a very diverse society. Um so this issue of being respectful of others uh is pretty important for uh an effectively running board superintendent team. So the other part of this is an effective board solicits input from staff and a wide spectrum of the community so that a diverse range of interests and perspectives on issues is considered. Back to you Lisha. Okay. So next up we're going to talk about the primary responsibilities of the school board. [Music] There you go. Perfect. Wait, I think we missed a slide. We need to go back one.

058Go back one. Okay. Well, let me go. Every community um evolves over time. And just think about how jobs um that we have. Preparing kids is different for every job. Um I'll just say that oh I'll just say that the primary responsibility is really about serving each and every student. Okay, we'll go to the next one. So we can start by considering our students and look at some of the information from the office of the superintendent of public instruction. So that's OSPI and we have a diverse set of students in our state. And as we can see from this chart from the website shows that um they provide this data for every district in the state. So you can also look up the demographics for your state. So, I always kind of like looking at

059this data just to see what does our student different demographic look like. You can also look at the programs of the students that you're serving. One thing that I do and challenged myself and my fellow schoolboard directors, I remember asking this at a meeting and everybody kind of paused and I said, "The incoming class of kindergarteners, what year are they graduating?" And everybody on my board just kind of had to blink and think about it for a minute. I said, "We are making decisions on behalf of the graduating class of 2037." I take that as a really big responsibility thinking about this group moving into the workforce at 2037. So, I just love that we can kind of look at our students in various types of ways. Next slide. Um so here um you will

060see effective schoolboard directors also consider the programs and the characteristics over of their students. This is how OSBI characterizes student groups and demographics. So you can also look up your own district's information on the OSBI website. There's a dropown box for your district um to really get into what does your district look like specifically. So, like for my school district, we have 21,000 students. Um, we have 76% of our students are free and reduced lunch. We have close to 50% are multilingual learners. Um, we have over 115 languages in our district. So, it's kind of important that you not only know the larger landscape of our our state, but also what does your demographics look like in um your specific district. All right. So, now again, we have some time for questions. What are you

061wondering or what questions do you have? You can either say them out loud or put them in the chat. I just wanted to note that um Heather dropped in the chat box the link to the OSPI portion of the website where you can find the demographic information that was just shared for you and then you can fill in the your district's um information to see what that looks like. Perfect. Okay. If you disagree with something that needs to or will eventually inevitably pass, can directors abstain for voting? Are they required to vote yes or no each time? That is a good question. Um, abstensions are welcome. Um, I'll just speak on my behalf. I think it's important to just vote. I always vote my position and I explain it. We also on our board really

062work through our problems. So earlier when we were talking about work studies, normally when you're voting on something, it's something you've been working on and preparing for for a while. So we don't ever get to a vote like out of the blue. So we're normally having work studies and information and sessions. So normally by the time we get to a vote, if you have a well-working machine, it's probably not a surprise to anybody on your board where you stand, your superintendent or your community for that matter. So for me personally, I just normally vote and then I make it a point and it's part of our board policies that once a vote is done, we stick with that vote and so we don't like per se talk about it afterwards like well I didn't agree

063with my board. We just stick with the board took a public vote on this and this is where it landed, you know, and if you have feedback feel free to email us or let us know, but we normally just try to make a good practice to just stick with it. I hope that helps. And you do you So the abstens the yes the yes no abstension process is there for you know multiple reasons. Um I will say there an abstension is there's also recusing yourself from a vote and I had to do that one time because the we were being getting a presentation related to a vendor that we were going to need to vote on and I knew both of the people who were presenting that. And so in order to avoid any appearance

064of conflict of interest because of a personal relationship, I recused myself. And you announce that publicly that you're recusing yourself. Um, and why uh and so then the the vote goes on the the way it does. And you know, there are different reasons that people might abstain. um in some cases which like as Lisha said if you've had the kinds of discussions that people have you know gotten a lot of information they've had a lot of chance to to think about it should be a pretty rare occasion that this happens but sometimes there are times when someone feels they really aren't prepared yet to make that vote. Uh, and again, hopefully you've got the communication protocols in place where you're communicating that with your your colleagues and then you you move forward. And as Lisha

065said, um, uh, one of the things we talk about is everyone up until the time of a vote, everyone gets their say, but you don't always get your way. So once the vote has been taken, it is a a a standing protocol for highly functioning board superintendent teams is that you do not undermine that decision. Uh you support you you can disagree, you can say whatever you want, but once that vote has been made um as part of a governance team, uh you do need to be not trying to undermine that decision in public. I will also say after 22 years that there are times when I think one of the most courageous things a board can do is that if you do receive additional information after a decision has been made that you are

066willing to go back and revisit that vote. Um because you can only here's a here's a pretty key principle for you and why the power of the question is important. You can only make decisions based on the information that you are provided. If you are given incomplete information, you aren't necessarily going to be able to make the best decision that you could. And so that's one of the reasons why these things tend to take longer than some people might be comfortable with because you want to make sure that your questions are answered that you do have the information that you need. We have another question about pub um public record. So, can you share information about public record board members on on non district records? Are the rules the same for candidates? Um, I I

067know the answer, but Mary, did you want Yeah, go ahead. Um, same for candidates. I don't think uh that's really a tough one. I would just say rule of thumb because I don't I schoolboard directors can be sued. Let me be clear about that. OPMA is a real thing. There are fines attached. It's like most of them are $500 to $1,000, but there are fines associated. So, I would just be very mindful. Read OPMA. Very boring. I actually found an OPMA training on YouTube. Um, it was the attorney general and he walked through all the law. So, if you want to know more about OPMA, feel free to watch it and it has the contact information. You can email them and they're answer the question. When it comes to board members, I think the one

068thing that surprised me is all records are public records. So, just being mindful. Um un for I tried to tell one of my colleagues she was like taking all these notes and like writing I don't know notes during the meeting and then she started shuffling and putting them in her bag and then somebody's like yeah no I'd like a copy of your notes that you just wrote and she was mortified but that is considered a public record. It was done in a public meeting therefore it is open to the public. So I would just say watch the OPMA laws that we have a link to the document I think we shared already. Um and yeah, just kind of be mindful. There's also um this question came up with one of the earlier candidates sessions about

069um social media and records etc. And it is a best practice for you to have a separate social media account that is your personal things and the things that are associated with your public office. You'll see a lot of legislators, they'll have, you know, some this is my personal account. This is my one publicly where we I talk just about business related to um the position that I have. And having keeping that separation very clear is it's a protection for for you. Um, and again, like I said, because of your positionality in your title and because people don't necessarily understand that you don't have authority, um, unless you're in that particular setting that I described, uh, you could your things that are considered personal or that you would consider personal, someone could try to make

070the the case that no, in fact, this was public. Um, and kind of a good rule of thumb is just to think it about anything that you know this could potentially uh end up as a public record. Is this something that I wanted to have uh in writing or a record of? Yeah, including your cell phone, emails. I have a district phone. I have a district email and I kind of keep all that stuff over there so it's readily available. Um, which tends to help me function a little bit better. Miranda, did we did we answer your question? Okay, she said yes. Yes. Okay. Awesome. Okay. All right. With no further questions, um, what side are we on? 39. Making the commitment. So, finally, let's talk about some of the logistics of being a schoolboard

071director. Have you considered these questions? How much time is it going to take? How can I expect to spend that time? How will I ensure I'm prepared? and what do I need to learn to be effective? We're gonna answer some of those questions. Next slide. All right. So, um, school board members, I don't know if you know this, they work incredibly hard. WASDA sends out a survey periodically to track workload. Most board members spend between 16 to 20 hour 25 hours per month and more than a third spend 16 hours or more monthly. But it varies depending on your level of involvement. Um but as you can kind of see in this chart, the time you will spend working on as a schoolboard director has increased significantly over time. Um, I will say, yeah, I

072probably spend about mine is a little more. I'd say 10 to 15 hours a week being a schoolboard director. There's a lot of reading, there's a lot of research, there's a lot of conversations. Um, there's, you know, responding to community requests, community emails, touring schools. Um, there's kind of a lot that goes into it. So, I do think it's kind of up to you. By law, we have to attend our schoolboard meetings. I think that's the floor is you have to go to your schoolboard meetings. So everything else above and beyond. But as you guys just shared um if you don't do the above and beyond people are like hey this schoolboard director isn't anywhere. So it's kind of a little bit of a and you want to know like in my district we have

07338 buildings um 21,000 students. That's a pretty big breath of work. We've got almost 3,000 homeless kiddos spread across our district. So there's just certain dynamics and situations and programs that I personally would like to go see connecting with community, understanding it so that when I see it, I think I can be a little bit more informed on what's going on. If I can add one thing here, I just wanted to note that the last time that this is documented was in 2021, which was during COVID when we were shut down. And so there was more going on because of the combination of people being at home plus we were constantly having to adjust to new things happening. So I think until we get the information from 2023 or another one, I would not make

074the assumption that that is continuing to go up and up and up. See, I don't know. I feel like the level of comprehension that you need um is is is getting more complex. like our models are more complex. Our schools are more complex, the problems are more complex. As you guys know, the laws are consistently changing. So to me, it's like, wait, once you get something locked in, I feel like something changes. Or once you feel like you got it, you got new board members. Once you feel like you understand, you got new cabinet members. Once you feel like you got it, oh, three new languages from somewhere else. You're like, okay. So you you're I I feel like you're consistently learning and adjusting as you move through your practice as a as a schoolboard

075director. I I I totally agree. I'm just trying to be very careful of the correlation versus causation um piece of that um and in looking at data. And there was a question, Heather, I'm not sure if you can respond to this. Um asking about uh I'm not sure if we actually track um percentage of full-time uh people with full-time jobs and those who don't have full-time jobs that are board members. That's right. That's interesting information would be riveting. We don't track it in part because that's ever changing. So you can keep in mind that every two years who are board members shifts um quite a bit right with the election cycle and then of course our jobs are always uh shifting as well. So it's data that's kind of hard to get um your hands

076on if that makes sense because it's always changing. Um but we do know that um there's a you know such a wide variety of people who participate in schoolboard work. Some of them are parents and so their work hours are kind of when kids are in school, right? Because they're able to do that. And then others have full-time jobs, so their work hours are in the evening and that's when board meetings are and on the weekends. So, what I can say is that it's there's not a consistent time that works for every board member to do things. And I think that speaks to just the diversity of um the membership and um how it really is reflective of the community in a lot of ways because they're all doing different stuff. So, no data, but

077um it uh it would be interesting to see. Yeah. And I think I'll just add one thing that I really enjoy, and somebody told me this actually when I was running for office, I ran into somebody who was going to they were running for a seat on Harborview Hospitals board. And I was like, Harborview? How? I didn't even I don't know. I just didn't think about that. I know that was a public position. And I was like, oh my gosh, I don't know what that would be like. I'd be so intimidated to work with nothing but doctors all day. I was like, what a snorefest. And then I realized now as a schoolboard director, I work with probably 20 or 30 doctors every day. So, some of that is you're working with high-powered professionals who

078are passionate about this work. So when my superintendent starts talking, I feel like I have to like take a deep breath and prepare my brain for the onslaught of deep level thinking that is happening. So just keep in mind you're working with a high-powered team normally of doctors and experts. Um and just that curb alone for me was like okay here we go. Um, and that kind of took a little bit to get used to the acronyms, the language, the systems level thinking, the strategic planning, kind of all of this moving thing that you're just catching up with. So, it gets better over time, though. Seventh year and I'm I'm feeling like I understand the wheel a little bit more. All right, I'll take us to our next slide. What am I on? 401. 42.

079Okay, that's you, Mary. Oh, 41. making the commitment. I will explain. So yes, you have board meetings. Those are required by law. Um so you do have to attend your board meetings. You have work study. I highly recommend those. Your work study for me is preparation for the meeting. So you normally have things on your work study agenda. That is where you get to ask questions, review information, ask for feedback, kind of get the picture before it gets to the schoolboard meeting. So, a lot of times, I think somebody said it earlier, people aren't aware that schoolboard directors have been prepping for this and training for this. It literally training for this. So, when you get to the schoolboard meeting, it kind of seems a little bit more effortless, but it probably was a work

080study item for a month or two. Like, we've been working on our budget for months. We won't actually vote on it till August. So, by the time we get to August, it'll probably look like a walk in the park, but we've already met on it twice, and I think we have two more meetings to go. So work studies um bargaining bargaining is a thing that is consistently happening. Um we have I think seven or eight different unions in our district and they're all on varying schedule. A lot of times people think of like the one big one. They don't realize that there's quite a few involved in there. So that happens. Community connects are engaging with the public. Um we partner with our city and do like coffee and connect with community. We have our

081three district community connects. We have our schoolboard award nights which is normally seven nights a year and then graduation. So lots of engaging with the community professional development trainings like tonight WASDA is offering trainings um year round to kind of engage us to help us. I found WASDA to be helpful because at first I was just in my district and I had so many questions and I had such imposter syndrome. WASDA was a sweet relief because I could ask every question under the sun and they were like yes or no that is not true. which is really and just having legal advice outside of your district was helpful. Scheduled school visits, I do do those pretty regularly, probably twice a month. Advocacy at the state and federal level also something that can take some time.

082Wazda has a committee. I'm actually chair of the WASDAge committee. Um it can take some time to get involved in that. Um but available and then events. So school district events, WASDA events, etc. Um, so those are all the things that are kind of under the wheelhouse of being a schoolboard director. Not to scare you, but it's all there and it all kind of works together and helpful. The more you're in all those spaces, the more you kind of understand what's going on. Um, are the WASA trainings free for schoolboard members? Uh, Heather, most of them are, I think. So yeah, mo most of the trainings are if we're doing things like this or what we call lunch and learns um or when things are offered like uh during the year, we we have a

083we'll talk about in a minute, but we have a new board member boot camp um at our annual conference, but then if you're not able to attend that during the year, we take segments of that um as a lunch and learn opportunity and uh people can partic participate in them virtually, but some of you have to pay for board boot camp. Yeah. Yeah. So, the full board boot camp you do have to pay for. There's um official trainings which cost $90 or $100 depending on if they're virtual or in person. Um and those are two and a half hour trainings. We have them in both finance kind of financial learning and equity um based on the required um state law and from 2022. Um, so those are and then we have a large annual conference

084which we'll talk about in a few slides I I believe and there is a cost for those although there are scholarships available for districts that are in binding conditions or can't otherwise pay for it. Um but as Mary mentioned um this is free of course and then other kind of lunchtime um virtual meetups particularly if you're a new board member. We have something called a new director network and that's a monthly hour connection where you all come together on Zoom similar to here and we kind of talk through as Mary mentioned each of those components of the board boot camp in a kind of cohort style with folks um that hopefully you'll join us each month. So that'll get started um in January once we have a new cohort. So that is free and then

085we have a ton of resources available online um that are also free. Um so yeah uh I'm happy to connect with folks uh later to get details around all that. Cool. Thank you. Mary, you're up next. I am up next. So we're going to talk. So with all of this, I would imagine that you might be feeling a little bit overwhelmed. want you to encourage you to take a big deep breath because this is all very, you know, very dependent on a lot of different circumstances. But there are some things that we found that you can do in preparation um to help educate yourself about this role. One of the best things you can do between now and November is to attend board meetings. Uh it not gonna lie, it feels like a fire hose

086um for about the first 18 months or so. You have you have to kind of go through a full budget cycle um in your district to start feeling like, okay, I kind of have a I I feel like I know a bit about what's going on here. So, if you're attending board meetings, you're going to be pretty up to speed with the issues that are going on so that when you step into this role, it's not it's not as strong a fire hose um that you're encountering. Um talking with the superintendent, schedule a time or two to talk with the the superintendent, bring your questions. Um that is absolutely something that is a great learning opportunity for you. as well as talking to board members. Schedule a time to talk to them. Ask them, you

087know, what it was like for them, you know, coming on and being new or if they, you know, what kinds of advice they might have or, you know, asking for context around, uh, some issues. Uh, they're they're more than willing to to chat with you. Uh, the, as we've provided for you, looking up your district's student achievement data on the OSPI website. It's actually a really great resource where you can find out a lot of things about your district uh that help um is helpful. It's also a great way because even when you're looking at data points, there's always an understory about why things look the way they do. So looking that up and then being able to go talk to your superintendent or a board member about what you saw is a really great

088um way to to get context around some things. Checking out your own school district's website and doing the same thing. you know, what questions do you have? What did you see? And be able to, you know, go to these folks for um see if you can get clarification. Reviewing your strategic plan, your district goals, and the mission. I would say that's a pretty f foundational fundamental thing to be doing because if districts are using these strategic plans and have the district goals, it explains a lot about why they're prioritizing the things that they are and making some of the decisions that they're making. And then of course because you're you are it's very key to what you do is is representing the community. Make sure you're as talking to community members um as you're out

089there campaigning, parents, students, school staff, and getting their perceptions um and uh perspectives about what's going on. Next slide, please. Mary, can I add one? Yeah, absolutely. I would say asking what your governance um model is. A lot of times walking into a school board, I think you have an idea of what they're doing, but if you don't know which governance model they have, that can throw you off. I didn't even know what a governance model was when I got on a school board. So, if you haven't asked yet what is your governance model and just doing a little bit of research about like what that is and what does it mean, I think would be something. And then just understand school districts are welloiled machine at least I will I feel prideful about ours

090ours is so many of these decisions are already made like as a schoolboard director I'm already passing decisions for this year and the following year. So when you walk in you're going to be like why are we talking about 2027 I'm like I didn't agree to this and I'm like yeah that was already voted for. So just kind of understand you're walking into a machine that's already on the move. Yeah. Great points. Appreciate that. So, this is also we talked about lunch and learns. Um, here's an opportunity for you as you are campaigning. Um, you all should have filed some initial paperwork with the U. Washington State Public Disclosure Commission. Um, and be sure you're very aware of the deadlines that they have for um during your campaign of when um different types of things

091need to be filed. Um but we provided this provided this for you so you can see that they also are offering free opportunities like this um on very specific things for the um campaign process that you can um tune in and uh be a part of the webinars virtually that they're offering on these dates and this can also you can register you can see the link down here on the uh public disclosure commission website. Next slide. This is an awesome guide uh that WASDA has put together for you on our publications page on our website. Uh and it's the guide for what it takes to be a um uh an effective school board member. Uh some of the things we've talked about uh are in there and so as a resource to be able to

092go back because we've hit you with a lot of information uh in the last 90 minutes. Um, but this takes that and it's you've got now a print copy of a lot of the things that we've talked about. Uh, and it gives you all kinds of examples and tips and has dropped the link to it in the um chat box if you want to just be able to bookmark that. Um, and so yeah, this is it's it's really a great resource um that has been made available for you and feel free to share it with other people because the more our community knows about what we do and the why, how, what, um, the better off we all are. The next slide and back to you, Lisha. Okay. So, um, next we're going to talk

093a little bit about planning for professional development at WASDOV's annual conference. Um, which where is Heather still there? Heather, wait. You guys will know you guys are candidates. What day is election day? Candidates, when is the finish line? It's like the fourth or fifth of November, maybe. Oh, good. Normally, I feel like WASDA's annual conference is before election day, which I was like, I hope we move it. So, look at that. You, you know, once you're past the finish line, the fourth, it's the 4th of November. Oh, perfect. Okay. Excellent choice. Well, um, WASDA does have an annual conference where you will see a majority of our schoolboard directors come together from across the state to really engage in a very long weekend of professional development training. There are tons of workshops offered to really

094help you kind of get engaged. They do have some pre-conferences workshop. One of them is called board boot camp which both Mary and I have done together for the last couple of years. It is a long stretch similar to today. Few more interactive activities. I want to be clear there's a little bit more movement involved but annual conference has a board boot camp that runs for about five hours that really kind of deep dives into some of the various areas that are required um for your work. So um once elected, please try and connect with your superintendent and board team, governance team and see if you can attend annual conference. Okay, next slide. Oh, good. I already went over that annual conference or take it online. And just just so that people it's very clear,

095this is because this is considered board professional development. Um I think every school district covers your costs for attending annual conference. Most districts. Yeah, we'll try. And is the boot camp itself all the So it's the same days as the annual conference, but it's like a its own it's it's the day before. It's a it's a five hour pre-conference session. So it comes up you you would do that and then the regular conference starts the following day. So it it just because if we were to, you know, put it on a calendar, it would it be November 19th then the boot camp? It's the 20th. It's the 20th. Yeah. So it's actually the morning of the day that the conference starts. So it's all morning until about 2 p.m. and then the conference starts at

0962:30. Um and then it's all day. So that's Thursday, Friday, and then Saturday ending uh midday. I'll also note that um we're adding a sort of asterisk given that it's a new um election year. We're also going to note throughout the conference those sessions which are particularly applicable to new board members so that there's a clear sense of the the breakout sessions that might be most useful to attend if you're just getting your um kind of getting started on uh on the work of of um being a schoolboard member. And you said that like so it if if we can't attend maybe for our day jobs we have a conflict um that it is available it would be available online. That's right. Board boot camp is available um asynchronously um uh for $90 for download.

097Once you're a board member you can um request to purchase that and you can have that anytime. Okay. Thank you. It's a little bit more fun um to be there in person. Luca and Mary can talk to this speak to this probably. You get to know other board members and these are colleagues that you have across the state. Um and they get to see each other sort of every year. Uh sometimes more than once a year and so it's really nice to be in person but um to just to get the info is probably the priority. So um getting that virtually is also a great option. Excellent. Okay, no questions. Next slide. All right. So, in the chat, what will you do as a result of what you learned here tonight to prepare for board

098service? Let's see. Is it appropriate for our schoolboard directors to try to pursue community partnerships nonprofit funding to support students and programs otherwise? Oh, I think that's a good question. You do have to be pretty mindful of that because if you're going to end up serving as a schoolboard director, you might have to recuse yourself from some things. I will say personally, I have made some great connections. I've always asked my superintendent, is this helpful? Does this align with our strategic plan? Is this a part of our priorities? If she says yes, I normally make those connections and let the superintendent and her team take over all of that work. Um, I've done that. a good friend of mine, not to my own home here, but former pro alete and was like, "Oh my gosh,

099I want to help out, you know, we came up with 300 backpacks and I was like, awesome. Can I connect you with my superintendent, you know, and of course the Rotary Club is phenomenal. They're like, come and be a Rotarian and we're going to do all these scholarships." I was like, "I love this for us." Made the connection with our superintendent. Um, so I would just say ask your communicate with your board president, talk with your superintendent, make those connections, and let the working team do it instead of you so that you don't have to recuse yourself or get in any trouble. Yeah, I hope I totally agree with that. And that's actually this is one of the beauties of having different people on the board who have different networks because a be to be

100able to make the connections for your, you know, your superintendent in your district to bring services into your district to support your kids is pretty awesome. Uh but again making sure that you're acting as that connector so that the people who are because this would be an operations piece that they um just have what they need to be able to take it from there. Question. Go ahead. Yeah. um in the campaigning process, is there anything that we need to be aware of? Um uh from from uh this is why I didn't type this because I thought I could just say it because I wasn't exactly sure the word wording, but um are there any rules to our engagement um either with the superintendent or with um staff or um are there any rules of engagement

101that we should be aware of in the campaigning process itself before election. I I'll respond to that because it's something that came up the other night. Um, as a candidate, all the things we've talked about, you can do. Talk to the superintendent, talk to the community, and that's that's part of campaigning. Um, it shifts once you're elected, you know, but um to be out asking questions and interacting with people um as engagement, that's not a problem. The one thing that I will say because um this ended up creating a lot of work for me um is that if you are going to be doing or getting endorsements from people, you have to have their permission to include them as an endorsement. And uh if uh it in general they need to be endorsing you as

102um a community member. If you it's a if, and this is where this line that I talked about earlier with what people see with um elected officials at the state and the federal level, you can have a state representative or a um congressional representative be an endorser for you and that's okay to list their their title. But for other people, what you have to do is get permission for them to say if they're going to list, you're going to list their title that in parentheses right next to their name, it says for purposes of identification only. Because in a governance body situation, if you're on there, let's just say it's for, you know, you would put a a school board member down, that conveys the impression that the entire school board has endorsed you because

103that's going back to the fact that you don't have individual authority. And this happened to me in my state board role where somebody listed me as an endorser in a statewide race did not ask for my permission to put my title or any qualifier on it. just put my title there, which then resulted in um me having to talk to the state attorney general's office with the uh person that's assigned to us and talk to the executive ethics executive director and write a letter to the person saying you can't do this. Please remove this from your website now. So, um that's the one thing I would be very cautious about in how you're doing that so that it doesn't um create false impressions um perceptions and potentially um you know that could have been a

104problem for me um if somebody had brought it to the attention of the ethics board before I was able to identify it and go did not give my permission. What's my process for addressing this? Perfect. Thank you. That's exactly what I was looking for. I think I I think I would add just Yeah, being mindful. One, superintendent are currently working. They're ramping up down the school year. Most of them are already prepping for next year. So, I guess I would just reach out, but don't be disappointed if they're swamped or busy um or don't necessarily get back to you right away. And then the same thing with staff. I guess I would just be mindful because if you move into the board superintendent role, there is some pretty clear boundaries. Um staff can actually sue

105school board members and that has happened. It has been in the news for making an unfriendly work environment. So you have to remember your only employee is the superintendent. So that's a pretty big shift that I didn't even see coming. And so I would say being a school board director can feel a little isolating. When I was running I was like I'm going to gain so much like community. when I got here and I was like work section. So just kind of something to keep in mind and I think I had to explain that to a lot of staff members like I don't have them on my Facebook page anymore. I don't really do any communicating with them. I don't call them if it is workrelated. They have to call me on my district phone.

106And people were like a little mortified. I was like, "Yeah, don't call me. I'm not your neighbor anymore. You got to call me over here as a schoolboard director because it's got to be on record. I don't want anybody coming after my cell phone." So it does shift and that can be hard. So I would just say be mindful that the power dynamic changes pretty quickly. I just want to um note I put in just as a reminder in people getting back to you that just universally July is the time period that most school district employees have fled the coupe. Um, so do not be surprised if it will you don't get a response during that month. It's not personal. It's just they're taking their vacation. Excellent. I'll take the last slide. I think it's

107the last one, Heather. Yes. And it's closure. Thank you. Look at that cute picture. We're here to support you. Obviously, the website is available if you want to get a hold of um Dr. Curl. Dr. Croll is available because she actually works full-time. That is her job. I will do my job. Um, but thank you so much for coming. Thank you for investing in the 1.1 million students in our state and choosing to come and serve and be a part of this dynamic, massive team um that ushers forward public education. Bye bye. I thanks everyone.