The OSBA

Fairly early in my tenure as a board member, I began hearing complaints from district staff about the superintendent. I listened to those complaints and, in a attempt to assess their validity, asked questions of other staff. This alarmed and upset the superintendent who suggested inviting the Oregon School Boards Association (OSBA) to host a series of work sessions for the Board to help us clarify our roles. I initially welcomed this as I saw it as an opportunity for us to talk through some issues. It quickly became clear, however, that we were there to listen and to get our "marching orders" from the OSBA.

The OSBA is a professional organization to which local school districts pay dues. As members of the OSBA, the districts receive advice on policy changes, legal issues, running successful bond campaigns, hiring and evaluating superintendents, and so on. The OSBA has become an immensely powerful organization, an organization that interprets the law for member districts and essentially writes all policies to be adopted by local school boards. We were, in fact, told by our own attorney that we would be foolish to make any changes whatsoever to the policies sent to us by OSBA for adoption - even down to level of punctuation! So we have a situation in which a private, voluntary organization has become the de facto governing body for school districts throughout Oregon.

By law, the Central School Board is responsible for all operations within the district. Its only direct employee is the superintendent who is charged with running the day-to-day operations of the district. With the exception of a narrow range of issues that can be handled in executive session, the Board must, as an elected public body, make its decisions in meetings that are open to the public.

According to the OSBA, the Board's main responsibility is to set policy (although those are written by the OSBA) and to establish the general goals for the district (although in practice those are set by the superintendent). The Board should then step back and allow the superintendent to meet those goals as he is the one with the education, knowledge, skills, and general expertise to do so. The Board should refrain from any attempts to micro-manage district operations which would create chaos and dysfunction.

Since the superintendent is the Board's only direct employee, we were told by our OSBA consultant that all communication with district staff should be through him. We were told that is improper for Board members to talk with staff about issues within our district including the performance of the superintendent (unless the Board as a whole asked for that information). We were told that any discussion with other Board members outside of actual Board meetings was a violation of the "sunshine" (public meeting) laws. We were, incredibly, told that we should never solicit the opinions of our neighbors about the operation of our schools as that constituted "gathering information outside of a public meeting." The only complaints the Board should ever hear were those that had made their way up the "chain of command" and were, as a final step, being appealed to the Board. The ONLY person Board members were to talk to outside of Board meetings was the superintendent. And, while we could listen to comments from members of the public at Board meetings, we should refrain from engaging in dialog with them.

The OSBA performs many valuable services for its members but its interpretations of law and educational policy are not always correct or helpful. Some of their advice flies in the face of basic common sense. I am particularly outraged by the suggestion that district staff do not have the right to express their opinions to their own elected representatives. No one gives up their basic rights of citizenship simply because they are public employees. In my opinion, the OSBA bears some responsibility for the mess in which our district finds itself.

The Board is the entity that is legally responsible for everything that happens in our district. Board members are elected by the public and are supposed to represent the public. How can they do so when the only information that Board members receive comes through the superintendent? Board members are often the "last to know" about any problems or unintended consequences of the decisions they make (and they only find out when someone violates the official policies). If you want them to know what you think about issues within our district you must CONTACT THEM as they have been convinced that it is improper for them to ask you. They all have email addresses through the district that can be found on the district website. Take the time to let them know what you think - they do, after all, work for us!