City school board performance given a C+
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It's report card day for the city school board, and a group of volunteers has rated the board's performance a C+.
The volunteers, trained by the Downtown advocacy group A+ Schools, began attending the board's agenda and legislative meetings in November. The volunteers graded board members using a scoring sheet provided by A+ Schools.
The volunteers gave board members a C+ for focusing on the educational misson at hand and a B- for transparency, identified as providing copies of the agenda, making seats available to the public and providing easy access to the building where meetings were held.
The volunteers gave the board a B- for decorum, a C+ for "role clarity," defined as a focus on policy issues, not day-to-day business better left to administrators; and a C+ for competency, defined as being prepared for meetings and acting on the facts available.
Those grades averaged to an overall C+
The grading program, called Board Watch, is designed to make school leaders more accountable to the public. Carey Harris, executive director of A+ Schools, said report cards will be released periodically.
First Published March 16, 2009 11:32 am
