Craig Beytien's Weblog

My Five Reasons for Running for Dubuque School Board

cbeytien — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:29:25 +0000

My Five Reasons for Running for Dubuque School Board

Running for an elective office is certainly new to me but it is not new to me to be asked what motivates me to action. So in anticipation of the question being asked, I thought I’d share a few thoughts on what influences me to run.

Reason to Run #1 – Perhaps it seems quaint to admit that simply being of service to the community in which one lives is a fairly strong motivation. I think anyone who achieves some degree of success in life (however they choose to define that success) has a responsibility to share of their time and talents for the greater good. I see this as an opportunity to share my business and life experience in support of the institutions that benefit our community.

Reasons to Run #2 – I believe school board membership needs to embody the diversity of perspectives reflective of the community it serves. Having representation from many stakeholder groups in the community is important to ensure many voices are heard and all options are considered in making administrative decisions. My experience as a parent of students gives me a perspective on the needs and concerns of parents, teachers, and others and those who seek to serve them.

Reasons to Run #3 – I have an earnest desire to encourage a more transparent decision making process. Context is everything. The most effective manner to make decisions is to provide a clear context through absolute disclosure of the factors influencing the decision. This is particularly true in a public forum of a school district. We must have complete transparency in process and decision making. I have experience bringing parties together to get underneath the baseline assumptions and biases. Focus groups, ad-hoc committees, special panels, expert presentations should all play a role in informing and involving the community in the process.

Reasons to Run #4 – I would like to see a stronger tie between the Board and our local schools of higher education. We have two well respected teaching institutions in Dubuque who represent not only a renewable source of teachers, but have resources to generate “best practices research” from across the country.

Reasons to Run #5 – More than anything else, I want to be conduit for the concerns and interests of teachers and parents to the administration. I see this as the main purpose of the Board, to represent the interests of these parties in how we fund and support learning and preparing our kids for their future.

The Board & Community Partnership: Transparency in Decision Making

cbeytien — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:04:47 +0000

In my career in publishing I’ve had numerous bosses. People to whom it was my responsibility to report my activities and from whom to seek guidance in the performance of my job. A high degree of my success and personal fulfillment was directly related to how clearly the expectations were made and how honest the disclosure regarding challenges and opportunities I experienced in performing my assigned tasks. I can recall a favored supervisor asking me questions about how and why I made the decision I did, rather than simply trying to influence my decision one way or another. This questioning had the effect of ensuring I knew why I made the decisions I did. It caused me to carefully think through each facet of the problem. It allowed for multiple points-of-view and alternative possibilities to be considered and weighed. The greater the transparency between the stakeholders on the issues influencing the decision the better the result.

In the context of the role of the school board this transparency is critical. The board is an extension of the community and must ensure that the factors relating to any decision are disclosed and understood by the greater stakeholder population. This can lengthen the decision process, no doubt, but given the recent angst surrounding the unilateral closure decisions of Central and Jones demonstrates what can happen when transparency and disclosure are usurped in favor of expediency.

The Board must seek to facilitate clearly the issues surrounding their decisions before they are made. Local press coverage, public meetings, white papers, all should be enlisted to provide a forum for such disclosure as a service to the community. Legal requirements, budget challenges, physical plant requirements, and other administrative dilemmas can benefit from the illumination of public access and understanding.

A View of the Role of the School Board

cbeytien — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:11:30 +0000

Although I have not served on any school board previously, I have been a chair or participant on many teams charged with challenging business goals and objectives. One of the most important lessons I have learned during these experiences is how vital it is that the members of the team understand their individual and group responsibilities. Staying within the scope of their influence is vitally important. My impression is that a school board’s authority is embodied in their power to work together to achieve the goals of the community they serve. No one individual member of the team is empowered to work unilaterally. The power and authority of the group resides within the group.

The role of any school board should be to develop a compatible educational philosophy in which board members, administrators, and teachers can arrive at a statement of mutual agreement on educational goals, performance standards, and evaluation systems which are related to learning expectations.

This process requires clarity of purpose, negotiation skills, and ultimately a spirit of collaboration. There are always diffferences of opinion. It seems to me that one of the most important responsibilities of the school board is to ensure that all stakeholders have their voices heard and to weigh carefully the needs of students and the people who support them.