Family reunions, picnics and barbeques in the park, and reading at the beach are all well-worn summer rituals. Something that’s probably not on board members’ summer to-do list — but should be — is stepping back to evaluate the effectiveness of their district or county office of education’s process for reviewing board policy.
The time spent now reviewing procedures for keeping the district or county office board policy manual current sets a solid foundation for the board’s policy review and maintenance once preparation for the new school year begins. CSBA has a wide range of supports to help boards get their policy manual looking just as good as their summer photo albums.
Summer break is an ideal time to take a step back and reflect on how well current processes are working. Some boards have a subcommittee that reviews policy to become intimately knowledgeable about specific policy before the board as a whole reviews and adopts it. Others authorize the superintendent and staff to give recommendations for the board to consider when reviewing and adopting policy. Some superintendents delegate proposed policy updates to applicable departments.
The important question is: Does your current process meet your board’s needs? Some easy indicators to determine whether you might want to switch things up include:
- How many of the policies in the local educational agency’s board policy manual have not been updated in the last 20 years?
- How many of CSBA’s quarterly update packets did the board review and approve in the past year? If it was less than two, what could have been done differently?
- How much time passes between when CSBA issues a quarterly packet and when the board approves it? If it’s more than two months, what are the main bottlenecks?
- How many people review each policy before it goes to the board for approval? Is this number too many, too few or just right?
CSBA updates between 75 and 100 sample policies per year in response to changes in state and federal law and regulations, legal decisions, member suggestions, current topics and best practices. If boards do not have a consistent process for reviewing CSBA samples and updating their policy manual, it will become out of date very quickly. CSBA has several supports to assist with keeping boards’ policy manuals current.
Second, CSBA recently issued a major update to its GAMUT Policy Plus service that makes it much quicker to transfer CSBA’s sample policies to subscribers’ board policy manuals. Users can now select all policies in an update packet to transfer over with one click, and are able to export each policy to Microsoft Word for ease in reviewing and editing.
Third, CSBA has two convenient training options to demonstrate how these changes make preparing board update packets quick and convenient. CSBA staff lead live virtual trainings every Tuesday at 2 p.m. at www.gotomeet.me/gamut_meetings. CSBA’s GAMUT experts are available for live office hours every Friday at 2 p.m. at the same web address. Registration is not necessary, just visit the website at the relevant time.
Finally, CSBA will hold webinars to discuss select policies from each update, with ample time for questions and answers. The first of these webinars took place following the June 2022 update. Look for the next webinar in mid-September.
Remember that adopting policies that communicate the board’s philosophy, provide clear direction and stability for district operations, and ensure fair, uniform treatment of students, staff and community members is one of the major responsibilities of governing boards. When consistently implemented and monitored for effectiveness, policies can be a crucial tool to help the LEA achieve its vision and goals. Take time before the school year is in full swing to make sure your district has a process in place to review, consider and adopt policy updates in the coming school year.
Contact CSBA’s GAMUT team at gamut@csba.org with any questions or training needs.