CPSD Board Responsibilities
The five elected CPSD Board members are your elected representatives in the District: they work for you. They are responsible for determining “what” the District must achieve. Board Policy 1005 specifies Board responsibilities (excerpted):
Responsible Governance: envision the future of the school district's educational program and formulate goals, define outcomes and set the course for the school district.
Creating Conditions for Student and Staff Success: establish a structure, which reflects local circumstances and creates an environment designed to ensure all students the opportunity to attain their maximum potential. This includes employing a superintendent.
High Expectations for Student Learning: believe that all students can learn and that each student's learning can improve regardless of existing circumstances or resources.
Accountability for Student Learning: accountable for student learning. The public will be kept informed about programs and progress.
Community Engagement: key advocate on behalf of students and their schools.
The CPSD Superintendent is the only District employee hired and evaluated by the Board: he works for the Board. He is responsible for determining “how” the District will achieve the Board’s goals. Policy 1620 describes the relationship between Board and Superintendent:
As the legally designated governing body, the board retains final authority within the district. The board exercises powers expressly required and implied by law. The superintendent is the board’s professional advisor, to whom the board delegates executive responsibility, including such powers required to manage the district in a manner consistent with board policy and state and federal law.
So while the Superintendent is the education “expert” it is the Board that is ultimately responsible for the District’s performance academically.
Unfortunately, it is far too common for our elected representatives to defer to the wishes of the long standing “expert bureaucrats” rather than the public that elected them.
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When such “experts” confuse administrative efficiency with what should be effective goal accomplishment you wind up with a school district that is failing academically.
Who ultimately is responsible for this failure? The BOARD!