FSE launches another free training for school board members

First State Educate’s new free school board training has once-a-month sessions scheduled through December.

The president of the tumultuous Christina School District Board of Education said a new – and free – training program from a state education group is much needed and very beneficial.

“I’ve had this conversation with other legislators about bringing in organizations like School Board Partners to train our board members, and I think if you look at what’s going on with us right now, it’s really clear that we need to have a better way of making sure people are trained in dealing with the school board stuff in a more professional, knowledgeable way than we are right now,” said Don President, Christina ’s board president.

Don Patton

Long story short, Christina’s board has been divided for months now, with the drama including votes of no confidence, bashing of Patton and Superintendent Dan Shelton, accusations that Board Member Naveed Baqir is unlawfully on the board since he’s been out of the country since January and more.

It has all boiled over to the most recent development of the board voting to not renew Shelton’s contract for next year, meaning the district will search for a superintendent for the 2024-2025 academic year.

RELATED: Christina school board puts Superintendent Shelton on leave

RELATED: Superintendent’s leave overshadows other Christina news

While there’s been no partnership formed with School Board Partners, a national group, the new, no-cost training is provided by First State Educate , a state education group that advocates for improved schools and more community engagement.

“We’ve got to work on professionalism and knowledge, so I love the concept,” Patton said, who has long pushed for more training for prospective, new, and seasoned board members.

RELATED: School board members: Newly elected can have swift impact

So far, First State Educate has training sessions planned once a month from now through December.

Julia Keleher

“The overall goal is to make sure that all Delawareans understand the role, the function, the importance of school boards and the decisions that they make,” said Julia Keleher, the organization’s chief strategy and operating officer.

The community is served by the state’s public schools, and the community elects the board members who make significant decisions on these schools, Keleher pointed out.

“We have the board members themselves, and then we have this other interesting category of people who are community members that could ultimately become board members,” she said, “and I think that’s really where the sort of the power in this design is.”

If there hasn’t been a professional development or a capacity-building program, then people choose to run for school board without the proper knowledge. Capacity-building is a process that helps individuals or organizations improve their skills, knowledge and abilities to effectively operate.

“Their knowledge of what the school board does is basically just through observation, there’s no training for it,” Keleher said. “So really our ultimate goal is to build a bench of highly-qualified, informed, ready school board members so that when they sign up, they are starting with some information under their belt.”

Matt Bucher, vice president of the Milford School District Board of Education, noted that the Delaware School Boards Association ( DSBA ) conducts an annual School Board Member Boot Camp every July, for both new board members and veteran board members who want a refresher.

Matt Bucher

Bucher, who is also the chairman of the DSBA Legislative Committee, said the training is high quality and conducted by former school board members and educators, as well as retired public school administrators.

“It features instruction on Delaware Code Title 14 [education], meeting rules,  legal issues and due process,” he said. “As it happens, the next boot camp is this Saturday, July 20. Any school district that’s a member of DSBA, which is every one in Delaware except two,  may send members completely free of charge for training.”

Patton believes the more the merrier.

I’m not locked into just one organization, maybe it takes multiple organizations,” Patton said. “I know that DSBA has training, and it’s not bad training, it’s just that that training is not comprehensive enough, as far as I understand it.”

He said maybe there’s a possible collaboration between DSBA, First State Educate and School Board Partners to get the breadth of training for what is needed for school boards to function properly.

First State Educate had a community webinar earlier this month on board agendas, how they’re made, what they consist of, how to get topics added and more.

RELATED: Education group details school board agendas, legal rules

Keleher said the training sessions are also based on questions she and other education experts hear from parents and community members.

The group’s first segment for board members is July 25, and will also be focused on agendas.

“For example, there’s an activity where we give them a scenario, and they have to prioritize the topics that they have to put on the agenda,” she said.

Board meetings, which are once a month, are notoriously long and often last three hours or more. Christina’s most recent board meeting, in which they ousted Superintendent Shelton, lasted until nearly 3 a.m. and was more than seven hours long.

Obviously, for those with little children, work in the morning, or really anyone, staying informed about district happenings is difficult with the length and time commitment of these meetings.

“The design of the agenda helps determine the effectiveness of the meeting,” Keleher said. “We’re going to go through this exercise where they’ll have to decide how much time to spend on a topic and in what order these topics should be addressed, so that it’s like a practice for them, which is really helpful if you’re brand new.”

Another example of a training session is in September, First State Educate will host one on understanding student data. That’s intentional since state and national testing data usually comes in during the month of August.

Another session is focused on public comment.

“We need to get participation, like 100 people in the room, and then we want to break it out into groups,” she said, “but right now, it’s just about getting traction and interest and curiosity, and then I think it will build upon itself, but people are not familiar with this so we need to build that appetite.”

The community and schools put a lot of responsibility in the hands of board members, Patton said, which are a lot of people.

The state has 19 school districts, and each one has a board of either five or seven people.

“Some of those people have more understanding and training than others,” he said, “but at the end of the day, we need to make sure we’re holding superintendents accountable and that we make sure we’re training school board members to effectively do that.”

If there’s pressure on the boards, Keleher said, because the public – whether citizens or school board members themselves – decides that topics like student outcomes, improvement updates or budget decisions need to be on board agendas each month, there will be more focus and attention on how schools  are building Delaware’s students for success.

This holds the district accountable and will help address identified needs, she said.

The board meetings themselves will run much smoother too, she said.

She believes this will also lead to more civic engagement, informed board members and an education system that is responsive to the needs of the community.

Register for the training session on First State Education’s website here under the “Community Empowerment” tab.