What are the roles of school boards?

Throughout these past four weeks there has been a great deal of emphasis on the role of

transparency in the British Columbian education system. This has been illustrated by two

presentations on separate Monday afternoons. The first presentation was a Q&A with

several representatives from various levels, while the second was conducted by a

representative from the TRB (Teacher Regulation Bureau). Whilst it was interesting to hear

some elements of the administrative makeup, and in particular knowing that there is an

institution that both supports and guides us, I was interested in the role of the the public in

helping to decide the direction of school funding and by extension of this, policy. My interest

stems from two experiences in my working and personal life. Firstly, both my grandfather

and mother worked in the British education sector for their careers; my grandfather was one

of the head administrators for the Suffolk Board of Education, and my mother was a senior

lecturer. During conversations I would often hear school boards being referred to, but my

understanding was cursory at best. The second reason for my interest is that I have been

working overseas in the private education sector. In this context and depending on the size

of the company financial decisions are made by managing director/chief executive. It was my

experience that more often than not, the only notion of accountability was based on a

financial prerogative with little or no concern for the local context save for that linked to

nepotistic or clientelistic concerns. For many reasons I intend to remain in the private

education sector for my career, however I still think it is important to understand the role of

school boards in the public education sector.

School boards were introduced in British Columbia in 1905. According to Dr. James

London, 20 school trustees from various areas of British Columbia agreed to meet in order to

discuss ways in which to improve public education. The result of this agreement was to form

BCSTA (British Columbian Schools Trustees Association) which was effectively a prototype
of the the school boards we have today. The organisation was given effective legal

ratification in 1956. As with any historical development of any given institution, educational or

otherwise, the key role was refined and focused over time. In 1998, its key role was ratified

as improving student achievement through community engagement. In specific terms, and

referring directly to British Columbian school boards, the province of BC is a large one that

encompasses many different communities. The needs and priorities in regards to education

differs in both subtle and more obvious ways. For example, the needs of a local community

in North Vancouver compared to an isolated First Nations community are fundamentally

different in many aspects. It is these, sometimes vast, differences that dictate a simplistic

approach to problems is disingenuous and would undermine the effectiveness of school

boards.

Representing a horizontal rather than a vertical hierarchy, in order to better represent the

needs of the local community, representatives of school boards are elected by local

members of the community. While unfortunately in some cases this process can be subject

to corrupt and unethical concerns, the transparency of the process in conjunction with

oversight that includes a strong ethical backbone constricts the space in which this can

occur. Electing members from the local community is an effective method of establishing the

credibility of school boards. In other words, because boards are comprised of people from

the local community, there is in effect an unambiguous accountability. This concrete notion

of accountability results in a reciprocal relationship where trustees and the local community

work together in order to achieve the best results for the community as a whole in by

engaging and responding to challenges which are subject to either temporal or longer term

circumstances. In particular, these circumstances in regards to the school district include

financial, systemic issues dictated by the idiosyncrasies of a particular community (values,

challenges, demands) policy, and long term planning. Furthermore because members are

elected a large level of accountability manifests itself in one of the central concepts of any
effective democratic system: members who are not performing their duties can be removed

from the board.

A case example of how school boards work is how a district budget (i.e. funding from

central government) is allocated. A school is given a budget for the year. The role of the

school board is how to spend the money effectively. Rather than arbitrarily spending the

money there is a transparent process that involves liaising with the local community in

regards to how the budget is going to be spent. In this way, due to the transparency and

openness of the process when there is an issue people can be held accountable for

decisions which can be addressed/rectified in future decisions regarding budgets.

In regards to my future career as an overseas teacher, I will be fascinated to see if school

boards are existent in BC Offshore schools. If they are not, what is the schools relationship

with the local community and how does it hold itself accountable in regards to their needs?

As far as I am aware, due to the fact the school is privately owned then these relationships

have not been established. However, China is very different culture to Canada, so the

structure and nature of the relationship with the local community may well be established

under much less formal protocols, and of course be subject to radically different paradigms.

Either way, it will be interesting to uncover these relationships through what I predict will be

observation rather than integration alone.