Board ethics: in states and communities, the ongoing struggle to codify appropriate behavior of school board members

School Administrator, Sept, 2004 by Paul Riede

In Tennessee, a school board member walks into her son's school and starts asking detailed questions about school operations. Is she a concerned parent or an overly intrusive board member?

In Missouri, a board member openly criticizes a policy his board colleagues have passed but that he voted against. Is he dutifully representing a constituency that opposed the policy or creating undue strife within the board and the district?

In New Jersey, a board member's wife proposes a charter school that would compete in attracting students within the district. Should her husband acknowledge a conflict of interest?

These questions are among the thornier ethical issues that can pop up at any time in a school district. For school boards that are unprepared, such issues can be disruptive and divisive, taking energy away from more pressing issues of school governance and operations.

"You don't want something to break, especially in ethics, and then find out your ethics policy isn't good enough," says Tom Hiltz, a member of the school board in Carroll County, Md., west of Baltimore, who pushed for a revised ethics policy last year. "If you have a problem with ethics because of your ethics policy, it's too late to fix it."

Wary Superintendents

Concerns over the rules of conduct for school board members have been on the rise in many communities that have either revised old ethics policies or created new ones. And some districts have found that the discussion of ethics codes can itself become divisive for boards if not handled properly.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association heard worries about ethical decision making last year when it surveyed its members while developing a new strategic plan. Although the survey did not ask specifically about ethics, the issue emerged as a strong concern among board members--right alongside public funding, special education expenses and the No Child Left Behind Act.

"I would say the staff was surprised that it was that strong an issue among our leadership," says Sharon Fissel, director of policy services for the Pennsylvania association.

Like many other states, Pennsylvania has clear laws governing conflicts of interest and financial disclosure for elected officials, Fissel says. But in the survey and subsequent focus groups, school board members said they wanted more guidance on hazier issues involving proper conduct, civility and communication within the board and between board members and the public.

"I think they were looking at more positive leadership," Fissel says. "I think they're thinking about taking board leadership to a higher plane."

The PSBA is responding by reviewing its recommended code of ethics, which was adopted in the mid-1970s. It hopes to have a revised code out by January 2005 that local school boards can use.

Most school board codes of conduct include strong reminders of the limitations of a board member's power--that members have authority only when acting along with the rest of the board and that the board is responsible for district policy, not day-to-day operations.

School administrators have a major stake in such discussions because proper board behavior is critical to a district's success or failure, not to mention a superintendent's quality of life. Texas superintendents surveyed for a 2002 doctoral dissertation in educational administration by Judy Ann Thompson-Bandy at Baylor University responded that the most frequent ethical lapses on their school boards dealt with delegating proper authority to the superintendent--in other words, not allowing the superintendent to perform his or her job without undue meddling.

For obvious reasons, superintendents often are wary about getting involved in board discussions about ethics, where they could be perceived as meddling in board business or even steering a policy discussion in ways that could be beneficial to them.

Lee Kindberg, policy committee chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., school board, which is researching ethics policies, says superintendents can be helpful in the discussion because they often have served in other districts that may have had experience with codes of ethics. The superintendent also serves as a role model.

But school executives still must tread lightly. If they are perceived as either interfering in board policies or being critical of the behavior of certain board members, they could worsen a rift on the board or even become a target themselves.

"At times they can suggest ideas that can be valuable, but if they do get involved in it there's a risk," Kindberg says.

Mandatory Training

Some states and state associations have aggressively marketed their codes to local boards. The Tennessee School Boards Association adopted an ethics policy in 1997. A few years later it created an ethics advisory council to address questions from local boards.

While the code is recommended and not mandatory, the association is not shy about its desire to see all 136 school boards in the state adopt it. The group gives out Board of Distinction awards each year to exemplary school boards. Only those that have adopted the code--meaning every board member has signed it--are eligible.