What is the Role of a School Board Member?
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Next Tuesday, Atlanta voters will cast ballots for nine school board seats. But what is the role of a school board member, exactly?
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Local school boards perform major functions, such as hiring a superintendent, approving policies, and consolidating schools. But they can only make such decisions when acting as a unified body, according to Sis Henry, the executive director of the Georgia School Boards Association.
“We believe that school board members have no authority on an individual basis, that their authority comes when they are actually at that board table making a collective decision,” Henry says.
Henry says if a candidate runs on a single issue or promises special benefits for his or her district, that candidate probably doesn’t understand the role of a board member.
“They represent the children in that entire system, not just in one area,” she says. “But they also represent all different kinds of perspectives on other issues, not just a single issue.”
Henry adds the superintendent, not the board, usually handles day-to-day operations. She says Georgia now requires all school board members to complete training.
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