The City Council is now accepting applications for the School Board.  Here's the link:  http://www.hooveral.org/Sites/Hoover/Documents/Hoover/Board%20of%20Education%20A pplication.pdf

I have some problems w/ this application.
 
o There is a question regarding relatives employed. Why is this asked? There is no law or rule saying that a Board member cannot have relatives who are employees. I agree that this is good to know when comparing applicants, but hope it is not an automatic disqualifier.
 
o For the same reason the "relative as employee" is good information to collect, I suggest that a question should have been included regarding children and/or other relatives in the system as students. Who? What school? etc
 
o A question regarding service on other Boards would be nice. Experienced Board members know the proper level at which to operate and have a better feeling for their scope of authority. They should be preferable, especially to us at this time, all else being equal.  
 
o I'm not sure why there is a question about vision for "community outreach". The Board exists solely to supervise and act on the Superintendent's recommendations. Any vision should be his, or perhaps others under his watch. The Board is a policy-setting body, not a PR spin machine. They shouldn't even be expected to mentor the Superintendent as to community outreach. That's just not what the Board is for. In fact, Board members should never be interacting as individuals w/in the community w/ regard to school-related matters. They should only function as a group, and should only be reacting to matters brought to their attention by the Superintendent.
 
o Again, the question regarding "most critical issues facing HCS" is nice to know, but completely irrelevant. A Board member should NOT arrive w/ a lot of preconceived notions and agendas. The responsibility is to react to proposals, NOT to proactively push in any direction.
 
o Same thought as above regarding increasing parent participation. This is just not a matter for a Board to be involved with.
 
o Again, nice to know thoughts on special ed etc, but its the Superintendent's job (along w/ his staff) to assess and suggest improvements where needed. The Board should support suggestions when made and as appropriate.  
 
From this application, I think it is clear that we (as a city) just don't understand the limits on the power of a Board and its members. Please review the linked checklist:
 
http://www.alabamaschoolboards.org/NewMembers_CheckList.html
 
Maybe we expect too much from a Board member, and maybe this is due to having an inexperienced (i.e. zero-experienced) Superintendent? A Board member should show up to each meeting conversant on the topics at hand, and be ready to provide guidance as a group to the Superintendent so that he can have direction to move forward after each meeting. Outside of meetings and such preparation, they have no other obligations. And they should NOT seek other matters to participate in, or even publicly discuss w/ regard to their opinions, as any such activity could later jeopardize the Superintendent's ability to act as he sees fit.
 
Great job on including the responsibilities on page 7!
 
Obviously I disagree w/ the item on page 7 of the app declaring that it is a responsibility of a Board member to "work w/ the Superintendent and community to develop a vision for the school system". When is this supposed to happen? Special Board meetings? To my knowledge there is no latitude under the Open Meetings Act to actively "work w/ the community". This is a responsibility of the Superintendent and his subordinates - not his superiors.
 
Board members are challenged to avoid all conflicts of interest, not to create opportunities for such conflicts by engaging directly w/ the community and its focus groups, active voices, etc. Listening, such as to presentations made during a called meeting, should be encouraged, but not participating on a proactive basis.
 
If the City Council uses app responses to choose a candidate, then that suggests that they could be seeking candidates w/ a bias toward something. Further, if these responses become public info (which I think they will) then the public will also learn what agendas might come attached to certain candidates. This could be good or bad, but it really should be irrelevent for the most part if the Board truly functions as a group and only on matters brought to their attention by Andy.
 
I'm most interested in leadership qualities and actual Board experience, and also in knowledge of education and business management. A new member w/ a great skillset but NO preconceived notions or agendas could be the most attractive, perhaps to the degree that he/she is not extremely familiar w/ the current issues.

Quote from monte on 02/07/08 at 10:13am:

 
 
Page 98 of the Board Policy Manual:
http://www2.hoover.k12.al.us/about/documents/policy.pdf
 
File:  GAAA
Equal Opportunity Employment
 
No person in the School District shall, on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, gender, age, handicap, national origin, or similar personal distinction, be subject to discrimination in regard to employment, retention, promotion, transfer, or dismissal.
 
Nepotism
 
The School Board seeks to hire the most qualified individual for available positions in the Hoover City Schools. Applicants shall be employed on an impartial basis. There shall be no discrimination or favoritism shown to relatives of administrators or any other school employees. Immediate family as defined herein of Board members and the Superintendent shall not be eligible for employment in the School District. No two members of an immediate family, as defined herein, shall be eligible for appointment to a position in the same school or department where one family member is a supervisor. For purposes of this policy, the phrase immediate family shall refer to a spouse, child, parent, brother/sister, or dependent living in the same household.
 
Which would mean that no immediate relative of any person currently employed by the HCS would be eligible to serve as a board member.
 

Quote from BucStopsHere on 02/07/08 at 12:59pm:

 
Board members "popping in and out" of schools and classes become the basis for school dysfunction. Employees view with suspicion the real cause of unannounced visits, and paranoia inches into cliques of teachers. The principals sometimes react the same. Principals then are occupied with putting out rumor fires. It is absolutely unprofessional behavior for a Board member  to use the schools as a personal destination for whatever reason he/she imagines. This is not helping anyone nor anything. It is an aggravating behavior. No principal or teacher will request the visits to stop for fear of reprisal by the too engaged Board member. Any visit to a school facility should be approved with ample notice by the principal, and one should sign in at the office prior to moving about. A better idea would be to visit only when invited since the Board acts as a body and not as individuals.
 
Modified by admin to fix formatting error.
 
 

Quote from aka_deplume on 02/08/08 at 2:58pm:

Well, it would certainly be possible for the board members who are such good friends with the principal of their kids' school to influence the Superintendent to recommend a big raise for the principal, even one over and above the pay scale for other principals of the same degree and experience level.  A principal would no doubt appreciate such a move, wouldn't he?

1990, you say:  "Well, it would certainly be possible for the board members who are such good friends with the principal of their kids' school to influence the Superintendent to recommend a big raise for the principal, even one over and above the pay scale for other principals of the same degree and experience level.  A principal would no doubt appreciate such a move, wouldn't he?"
 
I'm curious about this.  In August of 2006, after Richard Bishop was hired as the principal of Hoover High School, with a pay of $122,000 ($12,000 more than Dr. Spivey received as principal, and $12,000 above the pay scale that the same Board had approved less than 3 months earlier), Spain Park High's principal, Mr. Broadway, received a $16,000 raise to raise his pay to $122,000 from $106,000 (Mr. Broadway's salary before Mr. Bishop was hired).  No reason was given for the raise publicly, but I was told in confidence from a Board member why he received that raise, and most of those reasons had to do with the former Superintendent "tying his hands".  
 
Has anyone else heard of a principal receiving a 16% raise in one year?