ELI5 what does a school board member do.

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What can a board member accomplish, and what’s outside of the realm of their position?

Comments

  1. UnpopularCrayon Avatar

    They approve the budgets and set the policies for the schools in the system. They can decide what programs get funding and what policies the schools have to follow.

    They may also be responsible for hiring and firing of a superintendent for the school system.

  2. Twin_Spoons Avatar

    School boards are usually the highest authority in a local school district. They can hire/fire the superintendent of the school district, set curriculum policy, commission new spending (e.g. renovating a school or building a new one), and make budgetary decisions. In principle, school boards can take very drastic action, like shutting down the school district entirely or completely changing the curriculum, though they usually don’t because they have to face regular re-election, and voters probably would not appreciate that.

    School boards also usually don’t handle individual personnel/disciplinary matters, at least not as a matter of politics. It would be unusual for a candidate for school board to run on e.g. firing a single teacher or expelling a single student. If a school board member resolved to do something like that, there likely isn’t a direct channel for doing so, but they could potentially lean on other people in the school system (the superintendent, principals, etc.) to make it happen anyway.

  3. Future_Movie2717 Avatar

    School boards try to carry out the agenda of which ever political affiliation is popular at the time. Their goal is to make sure the curriculum is indoctrinating students of what ever the wind is blowing.