Orienting new board members quickly - Board Relations - Brief Article

School Administrator, March, 2002 by Bonny Cain

On a sunny spring morning a year ago, a newly elected school board member in Pearland, Texas, walked to a bus stop near his home and waited on the street corner with students riding bus No. 23.

The school district's supervisor for transportation was already aboard the bus to ensure that the trip went smoothly. After the bus completed its pickups and school stops, the supervisor and new board member toured the transportation facility while buses were being checked in, refueled and parked. Then the board member, accompanied by a bus driver trainer, sat behind the wheel of a school bus parked in an isolated spot at the depot to experience first-hand what it takes to maneuver a big yellow school bus.

This is the unusual manner that we begin board member orientation in the Pearland school system, which is located south of Houston. We believe board newcomers more quickly become team members when concrete experiences are used to introduce the many abstract, complex processes involved in operating a school district.

Lunch Duty

After a few eye-opening minutes behind the wheel of a bus, new board members are accompanied to the central administration building where they and the superintendent view a board training video and discuss the district's board orientation manual. Then an assistant superintendent hosts the new members for departmental overviews by the human resources director and the curriculum director. These sessions tend to represent the interaction new board members have with professional staff and the information they offer becomes especially useful when a controversial issue arises at a board meeting.

From there, the board members are escorted to the business office where they receive a mini-lesson about general school district business operations and taxing structures from the chief financial officer. In late morning, the superintendent accompanies the new members to a briefing by the district's food services director and a kitchen tour at a nearby junior high school. The superintendent and board members serve about 10 minutes of actual lunch duty, monitoring adolescents engaged in their highly social dining experiences.

The board president joins for lunch.

This usually takes place at a restaurant in a neighboring community to allow for privacy and to minimize those interruptions that board presidents and superintendents often experience in their own district. This step in the orientation process gives new board members the board president's undivided attention, allows time for inexperienced board members to visit with experienced members and allows the president to point out relevant issues.

In early afternoon, new board members meet with another assistant superintendent, the athletic director, the director of career and technology education and the special education director to hear about their respective programs. The assistant superintendent for operations escorts the newcomers to the district's support center to learn about maintenance, custodial care, food services, the warehouse and textbooks.

During the final part of the afternoon, the district's project manager accompanies new board members on a tour of district-owned properties and construction sites. At about 5 p.m. the project manager takes a group of very tired board members home.

A Validating Exercise

We accomplish much through our orientation model. Top-level district staff meet new board members when no weighty issues are on the table, and staff members come away feeling validated as professionals for being included in such an important process. The new board members gain a comprehensive overview of a school district's operations, receive useful background on issues before being asked to vote on them and can ask questions privately without the glare of the news media at a board meeting.

Most importantly, Pearland's orientation fosters mutual respect between new board members and administrators in several ways:

* by explaining how each has a job to do;

* by bringing concrete understanding to abstract school district processes as the system" becomes people with names and faces;

* by creating boundaries for efficient decision-making; and

* by helping a school district make a solid first impression.

Bonny Cain is superintendent of the Pearland Independent School District, P.O. Box 7, Pearland, TX 77588. E-mail: esc-Cainb@pearland.isd.esc4.net