Billy reaches out to members
‘Rethink how we harness the power of local board members’
Published: February 27, 2012
Local school board members and senior CSBA staff discussed advocacy strategies, the challenges facing school districts, and changes at the association during a recent swing through Southern California—just one of many member visits on Executive Director Vernon M. Billy’s itinerary to hear local concerns and spread the word about CSBA’s work on behalf of public education.
Region 18 Director Jesús Holguín, who is also president of the Riverside County School Boards Association, extended the initial invitation. Region 11 Director Suzanne Kitchens and Paul Chatman, a former CSBA president who’s returned to the association’s board as chair of the National School Board Association’s National Black Caucus, expanded the invitation to the Ventura County School Boards Association.
“I wanted the delegates and all the board members to meet [Billy],” Holguín said. “I wanted them to listen to his plans for the future.”
Billy and Assistant Executive Director for Governmental Relations Dennis Meyers obliged, updating the message delivered to CSBA’s Delegate Assembly at its Nov. 30-Dec. 1 meeting in San Diego. Billy has called for the association to take a more active role in shaping public opinion on education and leading policy and legislative advocacy debates. His still-evolving blueprint for action calls for strengthening CSBA’s policy and political influence; enhancing CSBA’s communications efforts; and building a more flexible and “nimble” organization that can respond quickly to the latest political and policy developments.
“He informed the group that he is making the necessary changes to move forward,” Holguín said. “The feedback that I got after they left was very positive.”
Cathy Sciortino, a board member in the Corona-Norco Unified School District, agreed.
“He’s spot on when it comes to ratcheting up the profile of your leadership in your community,” Sciortino said of Billy’s message to local board members. “Your involvement in the community is imperative to your leadership as a board member.”
City and county officials may have a higher profile, but “your educational leadership is every bit as important, if not more,” Sciortino continued. “We have to raise the profile of public education. It’s the only way we’re going to win.”
The four-term school trustee also stressed the importance of working with service organizations and other groups to underscore the public schools’ crucial role in the community.
Harnessing board members’ power
That’s central to CSBA’s mission as well. As Billy said following his return from Southern California, the association can be more effective by “expanding its reach beyond the 5,500 board members” to tap into the political apparatus that those board members assembled for their own campaigns. Whether they’re newly elected or experienced public servants, school board members have all personally demonstrated their political acumen and mastery of local issues, as their success at the ballot box shows.
“Don’t let that political apparatus dissipate,” Billy urged. CSBA, he said, needs “to rethink how we harness the power of local board members in their community.”
It’s a message embraced by Holguín, the Region 18 director and Moreno Valley Unified School District trustee who invited Billy to Southern California.
“Vernon gave us some very good ideas about what we should do in the local regions,” Holguín said. “We need to utilize our own resources. … If we coordinate at the local levels, we’re going to be more effective.”
Easy links:
Two Fact Sheets from CSBA’s Education Legal Alliance advising school board members on permissible advocacy efforts: