How to run a school board meeting effectively
A well-run school board meeting is the best sign of competence your board can send to your community. Smooth, effective meetings build trust, promote transparency and set the stage for good governance. They leave a positive impression on district staff and the public while keeping the board focused on its goals.
Depending on how well your board is aligned and how clear your policies and procedures are, your board may have room for improvement. Let’s look at what makes an effective board meeting, strategies for improving your meetings and how technology can play a role in making meetings more productive, impactful and aligned with their mission.
What makes an effective school board meeting?
Imagine the ideal board meeting. It likely consists of the following elements:
- Members who are informed about and prepared to address current topics. These individuals have reviewed the meeting materials ahead of time and are ready to take action.
- Orderly, meaningful discussion with respect shown between all parties. Board members and participants understand when it's time to give input and how to listen effectively.
- Outcomes and action items that reflect the community’s values and priorities. The agenda includes current and relevant topics that matter to stakeholders as well as the right materials to support decision-making.
Getting to this ideal requires a lot of behind-the-scenes work.
As Jim Slaughter points out "just as meticulous preparation leads to a seemingly effortless party, good meeting plans lead to better meetings."
Know the laws and regulations governing school board meetings
State and local laws and regulations provide helpful guidance for boards on how to run a school board meeting. Sunshine or open meetings laws provide standards for school boards (and other public government entities) regarding access to information and transparency. Sunshine laws provide direction regarding how meetings should be conducted. School boards should know their state’s laws, as policies vary. Any questions concerning the same should be addressed with their legal counsel.
Livestreaming public meetings is becoming increasingly common and is also increasingly mandated by states and municipalities. It’s also a great tool for enhancing transparency, accountability and accessibility, and even without legal requirements, school boards should consider adopting it to boost community engagement and support. Board management software with straightforward livestreaming capabilities can make it simple.
Regardless of how each state approaches these laws, the main purpose of these regulations is to make certain that there is communication and notification with the public regarding the decisions being made on behalf of the community and the work that is being accomplished by their representatives. For example, these laws may specify the length of time by which the public must be informed of upcoming public meetings.
Review policies for meeting procedures and practices
The board should implement policies — or already have policies in place — that define and organize meeting elements, like parliamentary procedure and processes for public comment. These policies provide guidance and direction to help meetings run more efficiently, empowering school boards toward good governance practices. Like sunshine laws, public participation on certain topics may be guided by state or local regulations.
To keep track of your meeting policies and procedures, school boards may leverage board management software that can maintain these documents and materials, while making them easily accessible to stakeholders for on-demand reference.
Use meeting agendas and preparation time effectively
When considering how to run a school board meeting, the preparation done prior to the board meeting is vital to its success. Board meeting agendas provide direction, organization and guidance for the board meeting. This is one of many important documents that contributes to the efficiency and success of school board meetings.
Include board members in the process of developing the agenda. Heike Janis, executive assistant at Clayton School District in Missouri, observes, “It is important to get feedback while building the agenda, not just when it is complete.” This increases their buy-in, helps support meeting preparation, improves meeting efficiency and contributes to the overall alignment of the board.
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Technology boosts board meeting effectiveness
The right technology supports successful school board meetings through simplified access to materials and information, while providing boards with the ability to practice better governance and decision-making. With seamless and streamlined board management software like Diligent Community, school boards can apply technology to their board processes to boost board effectiveness and efficiency while also offering transparency to public stakeholders.
- Access to board materials. School boards have the opportunity to make more strategic and intentional decisions related to the district through continuous access to information. Strategic Goals can be linked to agenda items to measure progress while Goal Progress reports can be generated to ensure stakeholders are kept up to date. School board management software should streamline the board members’ ability to access and retrieve pertinent information in order to prepare fully for upcoming meetings.
- Policy lifecycle management. Simplify the way you manage and adopt policies regarding district governance sets the board up for success.
- Compliance with regulations. Maintain key information about regulations and legislation that impact the actions taken by the board centrally; this allows for more informed and educated processes for decision-making.
- Agenda creation. Diligent Community speeds and streamlines the agenda-building process. With built-in templates, you can create a polished, consistent, usable agenda for each meeting and attach supporting documents to specific items. Dawn McMillian, South Summit School District, Utah, cites “being able to share the upcoming agenda with board members as I'm working on it” as a highlight of using the software.
- Automated notifications. Diligent Community sends automated notifications that alert board members to new board materials and also allows public stakeholders to subscribe to be notified of upcoming meetings and receive a link the public agenda.
- Flexibility and accessibility. Today’s board and public need the ability to access information from anywhere, on many devices. Diligent Community offers secure, straightforward access to meeting agendas, meeting minutes, policy information strategic goals and any other governance related information. Importantly, it also meets compliance standards.
Diligent Community not only supports boards as they navigate running school board meetings successfully, but it meets the board’s needs where they currently are and works to push the board toward better governance practices and accomplishing their best work. Let us help take your board’s performance to the next level and request a demo today.
