BOE Moves on Training Mandate in Special Session

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The new training requirement “sounds like bureaucracy at its best.”The Board of Education called a special meeting last Friday August 26 to discuss board member training and personnel. Although the board approved Superintendent Mark Henson’s recommendations for personnel, including two paraprofessionals, two custodians, and three substitute teachers, the larger focus of the meeting was school board training.

As of Georgia’s last regular legislative session, each county is mandated by the state to complete a local board training plan. The mandate requires nine hours of training for members who have more than one year with the board. Three of these hours must be done collectively as a board, called Whole Board Governance Team Training. The other six, however, are to be done either individually or in groups of two or three. These training hours come under the heading of SBOE (School Board of Education) Standards Core Curriculum Training. Director of School Improvement and Instructional Services Karen Walton said that the county has some leeway with how board members can satisfy these other six hours of training. These sessions can be satisfied in a variety of ways, such as webinars or conference calls. Walton also said that the results of the needs assessment survey is the starting point for formulating a local board training plan. The needs assessment is an eight question survey addressing an array of topics, from governance to ethics. The results of the survey determine which areas need the most attention and what credits board members need to acquire.

New board members with less than a year of service, however, are required to satisfy a minimum of 15 hours of training, which includes five hours of school finance and budgeting, three hours of local district orientation, four hours of SBOE standards core curriculum and three hours of whole board governance team. All training requirements, for new and existing board members, are annual requirements.

Some board members, however, questioned the excessiveness of the required hours. Board member Sandra Mercier went so far as to question the principle behind the mandate, saying,

“I just don’t see the reasoning…we (already) have 20 different sessions that you can attend, everything from finance to capitol projects,”

and said that the new training requirement

“sounds like bureaucracy at its best.”

Although Henson seemed to agree, he tried to rein in criticisms and concentrate on the task at hand and promised to continue to research to answer the questions presented by the board.

A local board training plan is due to the Georgia Board of Education by October 1st. Henson said though that even after the submission, changes and updates are allowed. Henson said that he and Mrs. Walton will keep researching the requirements to answer all of the board members’ concerns and, consoling them, said,

“This is so new; we’re working through it together”

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