How Not to Be a Terrible School Board Member

Build a successful board by knowing where the land mines are

Veteran school board member, Richard E. Mayer, takes a humorous but substantive approach to the serious relationship between school administrators and board members. While the overwhelming majority of school board members have good motives, even people who mean well can make bad moves. This book shows how to prevent good intentions from creating bad outcomes. Each chapter presents a negative school board scenario, offers alternatives, and provides win-win solutions. Key features include

• 28 brief case studies
• Lessons learned for board members
• Lessons learned for administrators

In addition to highlighting typical traps, the case studies light the path to positive collaboration and shared decision making between superintendents and school boards. Whether you are a school board member or an administrator who is trying to figure out what goes on in school board members' heads, How Not to Be a Terrible School Board Member provides clear direction in a realistic and memorable way.

· The book consists of 28 short chapters, each analyzing a scenario reflecting terrible board member behavior, offering alternatives along with explanations, and closing with a clear statement of how to operate effectively as a school board member.

· Each chapter ends with a special "lessons learned" section for Superintendents, intended to help them understand the predicaments that school board members get themselves into. These show how Superintendents can help prevent board members from engaging in terrible boardsmanship, because helping the board look good and function properly is an unwritten part of each Superintendent's job description.

· In order to maximize applicability to practice, the book is written in a concrete and friendly—at times even humorous-- style that is familiar to school board members and school administrators.