P.O. Box 909 ● Trenton, NJ 08605-0909 ● Phone: 609.695.7600 ● Fax: 609.695.0413 ● Web: www.njsba.org/PI

Local School Officials Earn School Boards Association Certification

TRENTON, May 19, 2011—The New Jersey School Boards Association recently honored two dozen local board of education members for achieving advanced certification through the association’s Board Member Academy.

NJSBA created the Board Member Academy in 1992 to provide formal training for the state’s 4,800 local board of education members. Each year, the Academy offers a wide variety of courses to promote effective school board governance.

“Education is a lifelong process.  For local school board members, the NJSBA Board Member Academy provides a wide range of training that’s essential in helping them fulfill their responsibilities,” said Raymond R. Wiss, NJSBA president and member of the Northern Valley Regional Board of Education. “The Academy offers school boards and individual board members various levels of certification.” 

Individual school board members can reach Certificated Board Member status by completing courses in the core areas of school finance, school law, labor relations, board member ethics, strategic planning, group dynamics and school-community relations. By earning additional credits and passing NJSBA-administered exams, they can earn the next highest designations of Master Board Member and then Certified Board Leader.

In addition, entire school boards can work collectively to attain the Board Certification designation (or Board Recertification to keep the designation valid). After taking additional training programs that include the superintendent, the board can achieve the Carole E. Larsen Master Board Certification, named after a veteran NJSBA Field Service Representative who died in 2007.

Master Board Members  To become a Master Board Member, school board members must first have earned the designation of Certificated Board Member, which is the first tier of the NJSBA Board Member Academy certification program. The Master Board Member rank builds on the Certificated status by requiring an additional 20 credits of training in the core areas of leadership, school/community relations, effective meetings, strategic planning, group dynamics, board member ethics, school finance, labor relations and school law.  Candidates must also pass an NJSBA-administered exam.

The 16 Master Board Member Award recipients for 2011 are:

Certified Board Leader The Certified Board Leader, a designation created in 2005, is the highest certification that NJSBA offers an individual.  The criteria include attendance at the Leadership Conference; earning 15 credits beyond Master Board Member; serving as a board officer or county association officer for at least a year; and either submit a portfolio, participate in a simulation, or complete an exam. The professional development must cover the areas of leadership; board effectiveness; ethics; school law; school finance; strategic planning; community relations; and student achievement. 

The eight Certified Board Leader recipients for 2011 are—

Board Certification  Through the Board Certification process, entire school boards work together by having NJSBA staff conduct programs designed especially for them. Criteria for the Board Certification award include spending at least 18 hours in NJSBA-directed training activities, participating in at least one retreat that is a full day or longer, and conducting a board self-evaluation. Attendance at training programs must include at least seven out of nine board members, five out of seven, or four of five.

The two Board Certification recipients for 2011 are—

Carole E. Larsen Master Board Certification The Carole E. Larsen Master Board Certification (MBC) award recognizes high performing boards that focus on student achievement. To earn the Master Board Certification, a certified or recertified board and its superintendent must undergo at least 10 additional hours of training. The board must conduct a self evaluation, and the district must have met at least 80 percent of the indicators in the Governance section of its most recent New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum (NJQSAC) review, which is the state’s system for monitoring school district effectiveness.

The five boards receiving the Master Board Certification in 2011 include—

NJSBA launched the Board Member Academy in 1992. Implementation of the Academy was underwritten in part by a grant from the Prudential Foundation. As of 2011—

• 222 School Board Members have received the Master Board Member designation;
• 9 School Board Members have received the Certified Board Leader designation;
• 240 Boards of Education have received the Board of Education Certification designation;
• 41 Boards of Education have received the  Board of Education Re-Certification designation; and
• 5 Boards of Education have received the Carole E. Larsen Master Board Certification designation.

The New Jersey School Boards Association is a federation of 588 local boards of education and includes 44 charter school associate members. NJSBA advocates the interests of school districts, trains local school board members, and provides resources for the advancement of public education.