Billy envisions a new leadership role for CSBA
Executive director addresses Delegate Assembly
Published: June 1, 2011
New CSBA Executive Director Vernon M. Billy greeted the association’s Delegate Assembly at its meeting in Sacramento May 14-15 with “a vision of CSBA that can be explained in four words: forward thinking, strategic positioning.”
That vision requires enhanced political activity and communications that will help CSBA drive education policy while reaching out to potential partners and diversifying “to ensure our association can weather any financial storm and provide our members with new services,” Billy told the delegates. He tied his vision to actions to strengthen both the association’s internal operations and the influence it wields in the larger world.
“The linchpin and driving force for all these efforts will be our policy work that is aligned with the strategic directions adopted by the Board of Directors,” Billy continued. Those directions include:
- closing the academic achievement gap
- demonstrating governing boards’ crucial role in improving student achievement
- improving public education finances
- influencing policy at the federal level
“Delegates, we must be forward thinking,” Billy urged. “We must be strategically positioned in order to strengthen our organization and seize future opportunities. Let’s move forward together. Let’s lead together.”
Delegates offer guidance
Billy’s message resonated with the approximately 270 delegates, selected from school boards in 21 regions around the state, who set CSBA’s general policy direction and fulfill critical governance roles within the association. Picking up where they left off in San Francisco last December, the delegates spent much of the weekend in small-group breakout sessions discussing how to more clearly focus and align CSBA’s priorities, strategies and policies with its governance, actions, services and events. CSBA staff facilitated the discussions, taking extensive notes that will be scoured for guidance.
The delegates’ work parallels similar efforts under way throughout the association. As Holly Jacobson, CSBA’s assistant executive director for leadership development and policy analysis, told the delegates, CSBA’s Board of Directors has adopted three strategic priorities that lead to a critical need to examine the content of CSBA’s training programs:
- CSBA will strengthen school board governance to maximize student achievement.
- CSBA will position school boards as leaders and agents of change.
- CSBA will lead efforts to close the academic achievement gaps.
Jacobson prepared the delegates for their discussions with briefings on the staff’s work, which is informed in part by surveys of school board members, superintendents, and county office of education governance teams.
The surveys cover specific skills and information about finances, human resources and student achievement that board members and superintendents regard as essential to their governance roles. They also entail how that information is delivered, including in-person and online training options; practical considerations, such as how far members are willing to travel for training and their access to the Internet for online training, and other topics including incentives that could boost participation, such as training certificates and the facilitation of ongoing peer networks.
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