The last word: Ups and downs—and the way forward
By:
Martha Fluor
Published: June 21, 2011
A book and a song share the title “Been Down So Long, It Looks Like Up to Me.” One could be forgiven for thinking the phrase was the mantra for school board members in California. Our schools have faced so many lean years, so many years of painful cuts, that when something happens that wouldn’t add to that burden, it feels like a cause for celebration.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s May Revision to the budget he proposed in January avoids deeper cuts in school funding. But it doesn’t even approach a long-term solution to the state’s school funding crisis. The governor’s proposal continues to leave school board members in a position where we must advocate for the extension of temporary revenues just to stay afloat. And even that proposal has left local educational agencies, which had to adopt their budgets by June 15, in a state of uncertainty and limbo.
We must continue to speak out—and we must continue to keep the pressure on state lawmakers to understand the disconnect between increased expectations and reduced funding. But that’s not enough. We also have to take a hard look at how we do things and make every effort to ensure that we do not give people reason to criticize us. We must be part of the solution, and not part of the problem.
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At CSBA, we are engaged in exactly that kind of self-examination. We are in the midst of a process—a comprehensive review of all the training programs we offer our members—that goes beyond even the governance review that was undertaken last year to ensure full accountability to our members.
We have heard our membership loud and clear on this score. As the crisis enveloping public education continues and perhaps worsens, CSBA must be prepared to work creatively, intelligently, and perhaps differently to ensure our mutual success.
It is not that our training programs have not undergone review and revision over the years—they have. But the fundamental design of our programs has remained stable, while things all around us are changing. Rather than shy away from these changes, we must take stock—of them and ourselves—so that we can confront them directly.
Those changes, and the questions they pose, include:
- The California education landscape continues to change. We must ask ourselves: How have these changes impacted school boards, and how can we adapt our training to meet their needs?
- Our members are changing. We must consider the demographic makeup of our members, as well as their learning styles and preferences.
- We must also ask—what are the learning styles and needs of our newer members?
The way we learn and communicate continues to evolve. The constant use of cell phones and other technological advances, the growth of online learning, and the explosion of social media have all become a part of professional and social communication. We will examine ways to leverage these tools in order to make learning more accessible and inexpensive for our members.
The speed of change is accelerating. As change comes more quickly, how should we design our training development process to keep pace with these changes and ensure that boards are equipped with the knowledge that they need in order to be effective?
More questions lie at the heart of this bold initiative:
- What do boards need to know and be able to do to govern effectively?
- What do new board members need to know first?
- What is the best way to deliver that training?
At the conclusion of this process, our ultimate goal is to have created training programs that will better meet the needs of CSBA members.
We have endeavored, and will continue to endeavor, to involve as many people as we possibly can in this work. We have surveyed our members regarding your training needs and experience, and we have conducted focus-group discussions with the members of CSBA’s Delegate Assembly. Please do not hesitate to contact CSBA Governance Consultant Christopher Maricle if you have additional thoughts to contribute. Only by working together to improve ourselves can we meet the challenges that will face us in the months and years to come.
Martha Fluor is president of the California School Boards Association.