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Twelve
Former Board of Ed Members Decry Politicizing Board of Ed
Campaign
As
former Stamford Board of Education members—Democrats and Republicans
alike—we are concerned about the politically charged debate
raging in the press and in parts of the community about the
educational system, the Board of Education and the superintendent.
The proper and legal role of the Board becomes muddled
in a charged atmosphere. We offer our experience and
knowledge to provide the community a roadmap of roles and
responsibilities.
The
Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE) in describing
the functions of a Board of Education includes:
- Selecting
and evaluating the superintendent of schools, who is supposed
to implement the board's policies, report to, and be accountable
to the Board. Both parties must
actively build communication channels to each other.
No single decision a board makes has more impact than the
selection of the superintendent.
2. Developing,
implementing and monitoring the educational system's short
and long-term goals, and policies to implement those goals.
These policies give direction to the superintendent
of schools and staff and become the foundation for his or
her accountability to the Board;
- Setting and monitoring,
through reports from the superintendent, implementation
of the budget, which establishes the educational priorities
for our school system.
Board
members should arrive at conclusions only after discussing
all aspects of the issue at hand with all Board members at
regularly scheduled Board meetings. Each member must
respect the opinions of others, and abide by the principle
of majority-rule.
The
board represents the entire school community, and each member
must refuse to surrender his or her independent judgment to
special interest or partisan political groups.
For
the superintendent's part, he or she functions as the
chief administrative officer of the schools, and should provide
overall leadership and direction of the schools, in accordance
with Board policies and the State Education Code. He
or she needs to be the kind of leader who can see to it that
organizational and human goals are accomplished throughout
the school system. He or she must be able to anticipate
and solve problems before they become crises, and avoid the
kind of surprises that have a negative impact on the schools
and the general community. Finally, the superintendent
must be evaluated by the Board of Education
and held accountable for results. This occurred on
September 9 th , 2003, at a Board of Education Meeting.
It
is time to move on because it all really needs to be about
our children; not politics, individual careers, or power.
Signed:
Pat
Broom
Bea
Foreman
Mary
Foster
Adele
Gordon
Bob
King
John
Mallozzi
Ed
Mathews
Anne
McDonald
Tom
Nissley
Marc
Peyser
Jerry
Pia
Sally
Silveira
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