As part of its continued focus to provide resources to school board presidents, the New Jersey School Boards Association will be answering questions through its monthly Board President’s Corner column. Our next question is below.
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Question: What should be included in the Board President’s Report?
While there is a practice in some districts for the board president to give a report at each board meeting, there is no requirement to do so.
Typically, the superintendent would be giving a report on district news at the public board meeting. The board president would provide an update or give a report if there was something specific to report from the board’s perspective – news about a superintendent search, perhaps, or the process for filling a board vacancy. Such comments can be delivered on an as-needed basis.
If the board president does want to highlight news in the district, NJSBA would suggest sharing news along the lines of “Our board members had the privilege of attending three spring concerts in our schools in the last few weeks,” or “Our football team is having a winning season, and we would urge community members to come out and support our students.”
A board president must make sure they stick to being the spokesperson for the board and not the district, which is the chief school administrator’s job. As board president, there really is a limited number of items that you can speak about directly to the public. It is the chief school administrator’s job to provide the details about district operations.