Running for your local school Board can be a challenging and exciting experience. It presents many opportunities to contribute and improve your community.
Effective school board members contribute their unique talents while collaborating as a team with other Board members. With children as the ultimate focus, school board members work together to accomplish the Board's goals.
Effective Board member are effective communicators and good listeners. They can organize priorities and schedules to handle a large amount of verbal and written information. Above all, they can work with others - parents teachers, district staff and Board colleagues - to achieve the Board's goals.
If you are interested in running to become a member of the Board, further information is available in this document from the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB).
The IASB notes the following skill set as representative of the best Board members:
1. The ability to work as a member of a team, including an open mind and an ability to engage in give-and-take and to arrive at a group consensus;
2. The willingness to spend the time required to become informed and to do the homework needed to take part in effective school board meetings;
3. The desire to serve children and the community and a strong belief in the values of the public schools;
4. The respect for needs and feelings of other people and a well-developed sense of fair play;
5. The recognition that the school district is probably the largest business in town and that the Board is responsible for seeing that the business is run by highly skilled professionals.
If you have interest in becoming a member of the Board, please see the step-by-step instructions on page 7 of the IASB document.