Editor’s note: This commentary is by Martha Heath, of Westford, who is chair of the Essex Westford Educational Community Unified Union School District School Board. A Democrat, she served 22 years in the Vermont House of Representatives, including 10 as chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
[I] recently attended the annual conference of the Vermont School Boards Association. As usual, the meeting was timely, informative and an opportunity to engage with other board members and superintendents from across the state on matters of concern to public education in the state.
As a longtime school board member, I have always valued VSBA as an organization that has continually helped me learn and grow as a board member. Further, I have appreciated the opportunity at VSBA’s annual meeting to have a say in the policies and ideas that the organization will promote at the state level and during legislative sessions.
This year’s business meeting was especially important. Last winter, members of the VSBA and the Vermont Superintendents Association worked together to come up with some ideas to make our education system more cost effective. This fall, in regional meetings around the state, school board members had the opportunity to discuss these ideas at length. Following the regional meeting in our area, our board took time during a regular board meeting to discuss these ideas, in the form of resolutions, and to choose one of our members to cast votes on the resolutions on behalf of our board at the annual meeting.
During the annual VSBA meeting the resolutions were on the agenda. Any board member in attendance was free to speak to the resolutions. Voting, however, was done by one member of each supervisory union or single member school district in attendance. The voting member of our board cast a single vote, yet his vote represented all 10 members of our board. In other cases a single vote was representing many more board members. The actual vote totals were thus a reflection of the opinions of many more school board members than the number of votes cast.
VSBA’s administrative team members are the “eyes and ears” for school board members during the legislative session. The resolutions process gives the team direction. There are other times when issues come up unexpectedly that the team must use its best judgement in terms of what is best for public education in the state of Vermont. I have always found the team to be responsive to ideas and concerns and feel they represent us well.
As with any membership organization, it is impossible to represent the ideas and opinions of every single individual member. The VSBA’s resolutions process is one that garners the opinion of the majority of boards that choose to take part in the process.
Finally, VSBA is valuable to school boards in so many other ways. When our newly merged district board was organizing and coming together as a group, they provided invaluable training on the proper and important work of school boards. As we crafted our mandatory policies, we used the VSBA Model Policy Manual extensively. Our board members have taken advantage of trainings and workshops they hold throughout the year on topics as varied as budgeting and communicating with your community. The recently revised and republished document, The Essential Work of School Boards, is invaluable in helping boards chart the right course for their work. The list of resources VSBA provides is extensive.
I find the work of VSBA to be important and valuable both to school boards and indeed to public education in our state. To learn more about this organization, please visit their website at vtvsba.org.
