FINAL REPORT
OF THE
AD HOC COMMITTEE TO STUDY THE DELEGATE ASSEMBLY
BY
DANIEL
SINCLAIR, CHAIRPERSON
Prepared for the Annual Delegate Assembly
May 17, 2008
Charge of the Committee
The charge of the Committee is to study the Bylaws and policies that govern the Delegate Assembly and make any recommendations for improving delegate attendance, preparation and quality of debate to the May 2008 Delegate Assembly.
Materials Provided
The NJSBA staff provided the
following materials to the Committee:
- Bridgewater-Raritan
resolution (Attachment A)
- DA
attendance totals for the last fifteen years (Attachment B)
- Results
of NSBA survey on other state school board associations’ delegate
assemblies (Attachment C)
- NJSBA
budget sheet for the Delegate Assemblies (Attachment D)
- DA
training video
Background
The NJSBA received a resolution from the
The specific solutions in the Bridgewater-Raritan resolution would require major legislative changes to the NJSBA authorizing statutes and as well to the Open Public Meetings Act, commonly known as the Sunshine Law. N.J.S.A. 18A:6-46 requires that each board of education select one of its own members as the delegate to the Delegate Assembly. Thus, in order for persons other than board members to vote at the delegate assembly, NJSBA would have to seek changes to state law. Seeking legislative change is never easy and can be a long, cumbersome process with uncertain outcomes.
Additionally, the idea of proxy-voting is one that comes from the corporate world where there are shareholders whose primary concern is increasing the value of their shares through increasing the profit of the company. The concerns of elected public servants are entirely different. Elected officials are concerned about the public good and how to meet the needs of their constituencies. Voters elect their officials to meet their needs, not to have those elected officials designate someone else to carry out their responsibilities. The U.S. Congress and New Jersey Legislature do not allow their members to vote by proxy—the issues are too multi-faceted and too important to be left to anyone but the elected official.
In a similar fashion, each school board in New Jersey elects one of its members to represent it at the Delegate Assembly, not only to carry out the will of the individual school board that sent them, but also because they are trusted to use their judgment as an elected policymaker to make the best decision possible for the students of their individual districts. When it comes to the interests of a district’s students, who better but the elected board member to represent them?
NJSBA staff consulted the Bridgewater-Raritan Board to determine the precise intent of the Board’s resolution. NJSBA was advised that the intent of the resolution was to address the declining attendance at Delegate Assemblies.
Declining Delegate Assembly attendance has become an increasing concern for NJSBA. For example, at the May 2007 Delegate Assembly, 125 members attended. However, fifteen years ago, at the June 1992 Delegate Assembly (where NJSBA officers were elected), 286 members attended. In short, attendance at the May 2007 Assembly was just 44% of what it was fifteen years ago; only one-quarter of the eligible boards were involved in determining the policies that make NJSBA an effective leader in the education community.
Given this information, NJSBA determined that this issue needed to be addressed now without subjecting the Delegate Assembly governing statutes to the vagaries of a long, drawn out Legislative process with uncertain outcomes. Thus, the President established an Ad-Hoc committee to look at attendance, among other issues, and make recommendations for change. Upon the establishment of that committee, the Bridgewater-Raritan Board withdrew its resolution.
Discussion
The Committee met three times, including twice via telephone conference call. The Committee identified several issues that may be contributing factors to the decline in attendance:
1. Two Delegate Assemblies v. One Delegate Assembly—School Board Members are very often some of the most involved community leaders in their towns, belonging to many different organizations that require great investments of personal time and energy. The Ad-Hoc Committee believes that one way to increase attendance at the DA would be to have one annual DA, rather than two, to decrease the time commitment needed from the delegates. As part of this inquiry, NJSBA requested that the National School Boards Association (NSBA) take a survey of other state school board associations. The NSBA received 30 responses to its survey. The survey revealed that 25 of the 30 responding state school board associations have just one delegate assembly per year. (see appendix)
2. The need for greater awareness and education of members/delegates about the importance of the NJSBA Delegate Assembly to the governance of the Association as well as the NJSBA policymaking process. The Ad-Hoc Committee members felt that one of the reasons for the low attendance numbers is the fact that there are board members that may not fully understand the importance of the Delegate Assembly and its procedures. NJSBA recently produced a video presentation for delegate training, which was shared with the Committee. This video has been posted on the NJSBA website since November 2007 along with a corresponding announcement in School Board Notes. Additionally, Member Services (formerly Field Services) staff have copies of the presentation on disc to help train members. As the May 2008 Delegate Assembly draws closer there will be additional announcements placed in School Board Notes and additional outreach by NJSBA staff.
3. The Delegate Assembly timelines. The Ad-Hoc Committee examined the timelines required for the preparation of the Delegate Assembly. The staff reported that the current process starts 75 days prior to the Delegate Assembly with the submission of resolutions. The Ad-Hoc Committee was concerned that this requirement may discourage boards from submitting resolutions on issues that are timely since resolutions must be submitted two and a half months prior to the time that the Assembly votes on an issue. However, it was shared that a certain amount of time is needed for preparation of resolution write-ups and distribution of materials to members. Also the Bylaws provide for emergency resolutions to be submitted within eight days of the Delegate Assembly meeting, so there is an existing mechanism to deal with emergent issues. Bylaws, Art. V, Sec. 7c.
Conclusions of the Committee
1. NJSBA should have only one Delegate Assembly a year.
a. The Committee believes that by having one DA, you may get greater attendance of the members since it will be the only regular meeting of the delegates (special meetings, if needed, would still remain in the Bylaws) thereby leading to a greater number of resolutions for consideration at that DA. This would create more interest among the members for their attendance. Additionally, when considering the NSBA survey results, it appears that over 80% of the respondents to the survey had only one DA a year. When holding one DA a year, it appears that most of the states that responded to the survey were able to achieve attendance rates of greater than 50%. If NJSBA was able to achieve an attendance rate of 50%, it would mean approximately 300 boards would be in attendance to take policy action.
b. The Committee believes that the NJSBA Board of Directors should set the date of this proposed annual Delegate Assembly on a date that is most likely to have the greatest attendance of the delegates. The Board of Directors sets the calendar for Association-wide activities and is uniquely qualified to set the date for the proposed annual DA.
2. Add an advocacy component on the same day as the DA.
This advocacy component would provide extra incentive to the delegates to attend the DA. This advocacy component would allow the members to hear about the latest news and initiatives of the NJSBA, including an update on its advocacy efforts. Further this would allow the attending members to be heard as well on the issues that their boards are handling that might not have been an issue at the time of the submission of resolutions to the DA. There would be no action at this advocacy component, but it would provide an opportunity for the delegates to discuss pressing issues of the moment with their NJSBA officers that are of concern but may not require Delegate Assembly action. This recommendation requires that the Board of Directors adopt a policy for inclusion in the Governance and Operations Manual.
3. NJSBA should increase its marketing and outreach efforts to get boards to attend the Delegate Assembly.
NJSBA produced a video presentation on delegate training in 2007. This video has been posted to the NJSBA website and announced in School Board Notes. Additionally, Member Services staff have copies of the presentation on disc to help train members. As the May 2008 Delegate Assembly draws near, there will be additional announcements placed in School Board Notes and additional outreach by NJSBA to remind members at programs.
Summary and Recommendations