NSBA: Your Voice at the
National Level
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Mary Broderick (CT) |
Anne Byrne (NY) |
Scott Mueller (RI) |
As your representatives to the National School Boards
Association (NSBA) Board of Directors, we want to introduce ourselves, give you
a sense of our roles, and describe why we believe NSBA is important to your
work on local and state levels. We hope
that this will be the first of regular updates to keep local school board
members and state association boards more aware of issues and activities of
your national association.
Board make-up: The three of us
represent the Northeast Region, which includes Maine to Maryland and the Virgin
Islands. There are five regions
nationally, each with three representatives, nearly all of whom are past state
association presidents. Regional directors are selected by nominating committees
and elected by the NSBA Delegate Assembly. Two of the three regional
representatives are nominated by the region; the third is nominated by the
national nominating committee.
The full board is comprised of the fifteen regional
directors, the president, the president-elect, the secretary-treasurer, and the
immediate past president. In addition, there is an ex officio voting member
from the Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE), the National Hispanic
Caucus of School Board Members, and the National Black Caucus of School Board
Members. Non-voting ex officio members
include the Executive Director (Anne Bryant), and representatives of the
Council of School Attorneys, and the chair of the Federation Member Executive
Directors’ NSBA Liaison Committee. This
full group meets in person five times per year, either around national
conferences or at NSBA headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. We represent the 14,350 school districts and
95,000 school board members, who work on behalf of America’s public school
children.
Why NSBA should matter to you?
First of all, you should know that NSBA was created by state school
boards associations so that, rather than operating in isolation, they would be
able to share ideas and resources. All
our national work is guided by the “federation” of state associations. Each association pays dues constituting about
10% of NSBA’s revenues. NSBA is a clearinghouse for great ideas from school
boards across the country.
There are a number of ways that NSBA serves as a vehicle to
share great ideas. NSBA’s Center for
Public Education is a research arm that collects and disseminates best
practices about a number of critical educational issues. It is a one-stop source for practical
information and analysis about public education, from setting high standards to
evaluating progress to explaining governance.
The Resources of the Center are available on-line at
www.centerforpubliceducation.org. The Annual
Conference draws 7,500 to 8,000 board members from around the country to be
inspired, motivated, and educated. The Technology
plus Learning (T+L) Conference is a superb way for board/staff teams to
learn about cutting edge uses of technology in education. NSBA also shares ideas on a regular basis
through the American School Boards Journal and the School Board News,
and through occasional publications about specific topics.
NSBA’s advocacy efforts are more important than ever to the
work of local school boards. The
Federal Relations Network follows federal education issues and informs and
guides board members to be effective lobbyists about issues that have immediate
relevance to their local work. The
annual Delegate Assembly provides the venue to bring myriad positions
from the fifty states together to define NSBA’s positions. In addition, a superb legal team tracks
activity in the federal courts and files amicus briefs to support school
board-friendly positions when appropriate.
NSBA’s Vision, Mission, and Goals:
At our December 2007 Board meeting, we revised NSBA’s vision
to read:
Every school board demonstrates
excellent leadership and advocacy to support outstanding student achievement.