The power of training and self-evaluation for better school boards

Ben shares his expertise on several key areas that school board members need to stay informed about, as well as the importance of effective communication with stakeholders. He talks about the importance of continuous improvement and staying updated on best practices in school board governance. Ben gave some really practical strategies for making training programs more flexible and accessible, and we also discussed how technology can support and help board members to stay informed and engaged. Enjoy the conversation as we explore all of this and more. And find out at the end what advice Ben gives for how to use technology for board member training, he has some great tips.

Resources on board development and training for public facing boards

Making board development intuitive, ongoing and effective: A guide for public education and local government

Public sector board development: Practical tips from leaders who know

Why board development matters: An infographic and guide for government and school boards

Here is an edited transcript of the conversation:

Jill Holtz: So today I'm joined by Ben Niehaus. Welcome Ben. Could you tell me a little bit about yourself, your organization and your role?

Ben Niehaus: Thanks, Jill. My name is Ben Niehaus. I serve as the director of member services for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. I've been with the association about four years now. Prior to that time, I was a school superintendent in a couple of small rural districts here in Northern Wisconsin.

But as the association's member services director, I obviously am the individual that many of our boards come to when they're looking for resources, support. But one of my key roles too is we have a team of governance consultants that help boards in their growth and professional development. So I have the pleasure of working with that team and leading the work that we take forward from our state association to help boards stay abreast of the best practices in school board governance.

Jill Holtz: That's great. So you're a really perfect person for the topic I want to talk to you about today, Ben, because really what I'm interested in is board training and development for school boards. Why do you think that's important?

Ben Niehaus: Well, I think one of the things is just like anything, you need to stay on top of your game. You need to keep things fresh. I think our school boards, they are unique relative to other boards, whether it's public or private sector. You know, they're elected boards. They have a plethora of different matters and issues that come before them. And there's a very high expectation upon them for accountability and transparency to a variety of stakeholders. First and foremost, the students they serve. But there's also those other supporting internal stakeholders from the school leadership team to the teachers to the auxiliary staff that supports learning. But you also have the external stakeholders, whether that's you look at different groups, it's the parents, it's the post-secondary and business industry that is looking for individuals that are prepared to come and learn further, to be contributing members of society and some future career and role. And then, you know, have the taxpayer perspective of our schools here in Wisconsin and throughout the nation are funded through a combination of state and federal dollars with local property taxes pay into that.

So many times I think the conversations are pretty standard and routine if you will, but I think the reason that governance is critical is there are times where matters of debate are going to come up, whether that's from differences of opinion in that external stakeholder group or it's differences of opinion right there at the board level. So to know how do you treat each of those situations and navigate, we know effective governance leads to higher academic achievement and better student outcomes.

So it really goes back to there's a lot to this and to stay on top of it. I guess I would say it's like an analogy, like a professional sports team, just because they're professionals doesn't mean they don't practice a few days a week to stay fresh and remember how to play the game when things become challenging beyond what for the most part, you know, there's standard topics and issues that you move through, it's almost, it can be very unpredictable what comes before the board.

So how to navigate those discussions, come to a conclusion and not lose your focal point of what are we doing and why, and at end of the day it's serving kids.

Jill Holtz: Good points there Ben. I mean you mentioned that you for example work with your team of governance consultants and that we talk about training in general for board members but let's drill into governance training and you mentioned maybe being able to navigate conflict or difference of opinion. Board members who are elected to the role, they've come on board because they're probably passionate about their child or something to do with the district or some issue. Why do they need governance training? What do you think?

Ben Niehaus: Well, I think the biggest thing is, you know, there's an expectation for continuous improvement in any organization and entity. And if you look at what is the board's expectation of its staff to leading down to its students, it's to continually improve and become more effective and efficient and attain achievable outcomes to accelerate learning for the students. in the same thing, I think for boards to look back, it's paramount for them to have that same expectation upon themselves. So I think that's something we try to have boards reflect upon as, if things are good, going along fine, what is the purpose of it? And kind of going back to what I said a few minutes ago is there are going to come times of challenges, something unique that the board has not seen before. And the more time they can commit and put into effective board governance and keeping how to model and navigate through those very important conversations is only going to help in the end game of, again, making decisions that ultimately impact the classroom and impact kids.

Jill Holtz: So aside from kind of maybe understanding the general concepts of what is the board and what their role and responsibilities are and what the governance of the school district means, are there any other topics that you think are important for board members to be trained on nowadays? I mean, one that springs to my mind is cyber risk, for example, it's not going anywhere, are there other topics like that?

Ben Niehaus: Obviously cyber risk and, we have got everything with technology, artificial intelligence and that. But, you know, what comes to mind for me outside of different specific issues is we have a governance, what we call an essential elements of governance model that really focuses on four things, quality leadership, a strategic focus on the future, being accountable and communicating and engaging with your stakeholders. And I think today that they're all important. They all contribute to governing to high levels of learning for all children. But I think the accountability, the communication, the transparency piece of it and the environment that we've been in for the last few years and there's many pressing topics, whether it is things such as cyber security and artificial intelligence to matters that are having more of a curriculum impact and parental rights and responsibilities. I would say a little bit of a focus maybe now is there is a bit higher. It seems to be more that we're dealing with and what are boards doing to be transparent, to be accountable to all these stakeholders.

You know, that's the thing is, it is, there is so much breadth to what is before boards and some of those topics can get very deep and some of them are very new, you know, going back to your cybersecurity example. And you have to be accountable to everybody from the kids to the taxpayers to be sure you're protecting your schools because otherwise you could be getting into situations that are going to cost thousands, tens of thousands of dollars. I know the situations we've had with some of our Wisconsin schools with ransomware events and okay, you have insurances for those, but are you investing on the front end, which is a significant investment to put security measures in place to try to mitigate the opportunities, the chances that can happen. You know, that's part of it right? There is communicating that out, being transparent, being accountable, just going with your example of what is the board expecting of their leaders to have in place to best assure that they're mitigating the risk, whether it's that or addressing some other topic.

Jill Holtz: And I think that's a really interesting point, Ben, because while we all feel like we do a good job communicating, sometimes being able to communicate serious or policy, for example, needs kind of a specific support and training as well. You know, it's not enough to say, we put this policy in place, but actually, how does that going to affect all your stakeholders? And how did we come to the decision for that policy? Because that's the transparency piece as well, isn't it?

Ben Niehaus: Yes, absolutely.

Jill Holtz: Aside from the topics of an effective training, know, top skill of boards, you know, when people join a board, they don't know about governance, they don't know how the school district operates. So as the years of their term progress, they're obviously starting to get to grips with those. What other essential components do you think are needed? What else should leaders think about for board development programs, in your opinion?

Ben Niehaus: Well, you know, one of the things that we are seeing is there's a high volume of school board turnover and with that too, I think, you know, we were seeing people coming on boards that, and not to say our current boards or boards of the past aren't busy with whether it's professional or family or philanthropic efforts and whatever it may be. But I think when you look at, when you're getting away from topics in that is we have to go about trying things different looking at new ways of being flexible, utilizing technology, having things at the board members fingertips. I think one of the things that we're hearing from some surveys we've done and we're trying to move towards also is you know, there's the old saying “less is more” so smaller, digestible pieces of information for them to be able to take in versus a big long sit. If you try to cram 20 ounces into an eight ounce can if you will and it can be overloaded. I think there's some things there of how we try to prioritize and help boards.

So where do we start? Where do we focus that work on? So I think today it's being a bit more open and flexible and customizing to specific boards, what may work for one may not work in the same for another and not necessarily because of makeup of the school community or district or anything, it can purely be makeup of the board of, you know, what is the demographic of that board and what, you know, what do they all have before them?

The work of school boards is, it's an immense responsibility that takes a lot more time and commitment than I think what the average individual expects. Like, wow, they got a board meeting every month or two and that, but the level of communication, engagement, deliberation, reviewing materials and things is pretty intense. So I think you have to be sensitive to that of, well, here's two, three hour webinars for you to watch in the next month. And again, remember they have family, personalized, professional lives, other endeavors too. So I think small, digestible is better but maybe with consistency and frequency is something that I think will help boards and find to be manageable and effective for their learning and growth.

Jill Holtz: Yeah, I really like that approach of kind of different types of maybe different types and formats. Not everybody wants to watch videos. Maybe they want to listen to an audio. Maybe it's, you know, some people absorb better reading a summary. Some people like to dive into the detail. So one of the nice things about technology is it can kind of accommodate different learning styles and different, as you said, busy people and busy lives being able to access that maybe they have 10 minutes when they're waiting for their own child to come out of school or something like that, kind of a continuous learning and improvement.

What are some ways that you think that executive leaders and superintendents who are in those roles can foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement with the board members?

Ben Niehaus: Well, I think one of the things is that reminder of the expectation they have among others is the same they should have upon them. I like putting things into an analogy and I think the executive leader, one, they need to educate. They need to keep the board educated, especially on specific topics, what's coming down the pike and best practices for learning and utilizing data to make strategic decisions. We have got to amp up our efforts and literacy, whatever it may be. But I really think the executive leader does have to be a little bit of a cheerleader, if you will, in those moments. You know, sometimes I say coaching potentially that may come in time, but it's going to depend upon the culture of the board and maybe that administrator's experience and how long he or she has worked with boards. But I think, you know, for the executive leadership to be that cheerleader of, “Hey, why are we all here?” And reflecting upon that same expectation for them as they have of others. I really think it boils down to that. And I think if the leader can share some of those small best practice things and show them, hey, professional development doesn't have to be, we gotta have a special meeting for three hours, once a month, 12 months a year on something, some large topic on covering all the roles and responsibilities of school boards. Pick a small piece of that. Maybe there's a theme that's identified through the year that is gonna be a review and a refresh.

But yeah, I think that's a big piece of being the school leadership, the superintendent, district administrator is trying to keep them, know, amped up and showing them some real quick opportunities, especially I think a window for that is when you welcome new board members to the board and you have your reorganizational meeting that take that opportunity is almost a reset or a start point every year to say, know, yeah, we've got some new people coming on. We do need to go through the board norms and they're going to be reviewing board policy on board operations. Let's try to establish a pattern of how we simultaneously on an annual basis review the same.

Jill Holtz: Yeah.

Ben Niehaus: I'll share, I remember being at one of our board of directors meetings some time ago. And one of our newer directors who was a very experienced board member, current board president, been on the school board for 20 plus years, said that he accompanies, we offer new board member gatherings each spring after the elections here in Wisconsin. We have some other things, but he accompanies his new board member or board members to those because he says, I've been doing this a long time. I'm refreshed or learn something new every single time I go to one of those. And here's a gentleman that's been doing this for 20 plus years.

So I think that learning never ceases to stay on top of the game and model best governance practices, it is a continuous effort and needs to be committed to.

Jill Holtz: I love that. In terms of sourcing training materials, Ben, what do you recommend for school boards, school districts?

Ben Niehaus: I think a great place to start is with your state school board association. From my knowledge, every state has a school board association and I think that that's a great place because we it's part of our mission and purpose and supporting our members. There are national memberships, also, which most states are a member of one or more of those.

But there's a lot of materials out there too. I mean, we have a number of books that we rely on. There's no one perfect document. I mean, it's like when we developed our essential elements of governance, there's some different research.

Some resources, other state school board practices and standards that we all looked at. But I think especially if you're like where to start your local school board association is a great place. Even if the materials that are out there, if you're kind of like, hey, we need some recommendations. Are there some things that you've kind of vetted as a team of consultants? I think that's a great place to start and you know, the boards lead and there's a lot out there on leadership and how to lead. And I know there can be some differences between private and public and profit and nonprofit, but you know, I think just looking at leadership materials in general, there's usually some great takeaways there, but I think starting with your local school board association is a great place to start.

Jill Holtz: This might be a tricky question but how do you think a skill board can go about measuring the effectiveness of its own board development and training? Can you measure such a thing? What are your thoughts on that?

Ben Niehaus: Yeah, yeah, I think a commitment to doing a self evaluation. So we actually have a tool. It's called the annual board development tool. It's a partnership with one of our vendors here in the state that does work with surveys and supports a number of different entities, particularly schools and gathering data, whether it's surveys for referendums or getting stakeholder feedback on as part of strategic planning, whatever it is. So we have a tool it's the annual board development tool and survey that boards can take annually. And what it does is it covers a lot of topics from policy to board operations to community engagement. Really, as I'd mentioned about these essential elements of governance that we have, it kind of breaks down in there and it's a survey that takes 10, 15 minutes for a board member to complete.

But what we do with that, if boards choose to use it then is they get their outcomes, comparative to other school districts in Wisconsin that have taken that same, that same, survey. And then the best part of it for them is it provides a longitudinal analysis so they can actually see, okay, we identified three specific areas for growth in the next year. And they can actually see as they self-evaluate as a board a year later, did they make gains? Did they lose? And typically what you're always going to see is when they focus on an area more times than not, there are going to be gains, but sometimes something else gets displaced or lost a little bit. So I think that goes back to that continuous improvement.

There is so much there. So when you put a little extra effort into this bucket, you know, an unintended consequence can be, well, it takes away a little on what we spent in time and devotion here, because we were trying to amp up in this area. So that's a tool that we use that we have a report analysis from the company that comes back. And then we actually take and put together our own report based upon more of the objective data that comes back and we align it to our essential elements of governance. And we look for areas, know, hey, using the old bell curve of, hey, you're a seven member board and three of you think you're doing excellent in this, but four of you think you're one on a scale of four. There's some things you need to talk about there of why is that perspective so varying?

And that's where we can come in also as an association with our consultants and help and kind of coach up in those areas if boards desire that.

Jill Holtz: So if people wouldn't have access to your state association tool, what I'm really hearing is a very, very in-depth self evaluation is a useful exercise anyway for any school board to undertake every year.

Ben Niehaus: Yeah, yeah, and I would assume there's other associations have similar tools or ways of doing that, but that it’s, you know, it's a consistent way of measuring where are we, where have we been in getting that that data back to make yeah, to make a data informed decision and really see, hey, how do my.

Jill Holtz: Yeah. And where are the gaps, as you say?

Ben Niehaus: To know how I responded, where are my fellow board members at on this? And then as a board as a whole realizing, well, the data speaks for itself. We either agree to disagree in this area. So how can we improve and get better or while we're really doing well here, let's stay with that tried and true practice that works.

Jill Holtz: Yeah.

Ben Niehaus: Because some of it, they need to commend themselves too in going through these things. So to see the positive outcomes and know at the end of the day, research shows there's a lot of it out there shows that the there's research showing that boards and districts that have higher student achievement do operate in a different way than districts that are lower achieving. There's a whole, that's a whole nother topic for another time, but there's so much research in that. So that just takes you back to if the board is mission driven, is purposeful in what it's leading for and student high levels of student learning for all kids and great opportunities.

Then they need to keep that in the forefront. I think that all goes back to, know, like I was saying, I think the school leadership needs to be that cheerleader to remind them. Cause what I'll share is it's easy and being part of that as a former superintendent, especially when you get into something like budget, it's not intended, but it's easy to forget about why are we here. We're here for the classroom and the kids because there's so much in operations with building and auxiliary services, facilities. At the end of the day, some of those conversations lead down a rabbit hole too far for too long that detract from other more important conversations. And sometimes the conversation about the purchase of an asset that's a few thousand dollars in a multimillion dollar budget. And I'm not saying that that's not important, but if you're at a board meeting and you're, you're deliberating on that for an hour's time, yet your reading specialist is on the agenda to come in and share, you know, how is the upper elementary doing with early literacy or a literacy achievement. And you spend 10 minutes on that. Those are things we want to try to reflect upon and see well, it was the time allocated for what was the most important thing before the board on that agenda.

Jill Holtz: That's a really interesting aspect that I hadn't thought about Ben was looking at the time allocated to agenda for the mission kind of critical things as it were versus the maybe more operational things and making sure that the balance is right and again to that point looking across the year at how much time did board members spend kind of you know learning and educating as well and becoming better at governance and that they can measure and see progress as well. And I really like your comment that you made about self-evaluating also allows people to see what they have achieved. And I think people get very bogged down in the negative and it's good to see the positive, isn't it?

I'm conscious of time, so I have three quick fire questions to end the conversation if that's okay.

Ben Niehaus: Absolutely.

Jill Holtz: So Ben, what's the number one thing you think that superintendents, executive leaders should be doing when it comes to board, just go board training and development?

Ben Niehaus: Well, like I said, think kind of one, they've got to keep them on top of keep them informed and educate them on critical matters are going to come before them. But even in that, and when we look at governance, I think small digestible, digestible pieces of information with consistency. And I think that's something that is doable and will be well received by a board versus, you know, trying to set something up. Not that there's not a time and place for it, but less is more, less is more.

Jill Holtz: And how can superintendents ensure that that board training becomes ongoing and isn't just a one-time event, not just at the time the new board member comes on?

Ben Niehaus: I think making a commitment and putting it on the calendar, you know, and if you're like, where do we start the reorganizational meeting that happens every year? And from the, from the executive leader to saying, look, I am going to commit that once a month is close to the 15th of the month, whatever they come up with. I want to find something through their own association or something else that we know as identified as a best practice to get that out or maybe have an opportunity that at that workshop meeting or special meeting that happens maybe once a month, in addition to the regular meeting, is there a, there's a 10 minute time and we're going to commit that 10 minutes, 12 times a year, 120 minutes. You know, it's not going to be that much, but I think putting something hard in the calendar holds. The administrator to that expectation holds the board to knowing, you know, they're going to have that forthcoming.

Jill Holtz: And then finally, I'm going to ask you this, how do you think technology plays the role in board development and training for skill boards?

Ben Niehaus: Well, obviously today people want things at their fingertips and the ease of use and convenience. think one of the best things that a school district can do is make sure they're providing a piece of technology for their board, whether it's a laptop or some other device and providing support for them. If that's something that's new and that they're just not experienced with, helping them with that.

But, you know, you kind of, you said something earlier. I kind of thought about that. You know, people are so busy at that. That's like, some people like listening to things on audio, you know, they're driving to work from work. we do some very short webinars at times just during a lunch hour. usually record them because not everybody has same lunch hour, but try to just do some quick hits and opportunities that way where somebody.

You know, might take it in that way. So I think the ease of use, having things at the fingertips, but provide a piece of technology for those board members.

Jill Holtz: Thank you very much for your time today Ben. Thank you.

Ben Niehaus: Thanks for the opportunity, Jill. Appreciate it.