Jean Cleary of the New Jersey School Boards Association presented a summary of the board's recent self-evaluation at a Secaucus Board of Education meeting and urged trustees to convert the evaluation into specific board goals, action plans and regular reporting.

Cleary said the board’s self-evaluation showed mixed results across governance areas and recommended a small set of clear board goals and quarterly reporting on progress. “So under vision, mission, and goals, on a 4 point scale, it came in at 2.57,” she told the board. She added that the board should distinguish district goals (recommended by the superintendent and resourced by staff) from board governance goals, and that the superintendent’s evaluation should tie to approved district goals.

Cleary and board members discussed specific scores from the evaluation. Policy oversight scored 3.20 out of 4; accountability for student achievement scored 3.06; resource management and oversight scored 3.21. She flagged governance team relationship and operating norms as weaker areas (governance/team score 2.63) and noted that multiple members marked “establishes and adheres to board operating norms and code of conduct” as an area for improvement.

Cleary recommended several concrete steps for board consideration: set 3–5 board goals with written action plans and indicators of success, report on those goals quarterly (the board president reporting on board goals), formalize communication and information‑request protocols, and provide targeted training on the board’s policy-making role, ethics, transparency and confidentiality. She told the board that these measures help keep the body “focused on student achievement.”

On board training and certification, Cleary said the board was close to meeting the New Jersey School Boards Association criteria for board certification and described a practical path to full board certification: “You have 13 of the 16 required credits to get board certified,” she said, and noted that board participation rules require a majority of the board and the superintendent to take part in training that will be credited.

Board members asked procedural and follow-up questions about timing, mission‑statement review and how to implement training. Cleary recommended using a focused special meeting or retreat to walk through goal‑setting and to assign responsibility and dates for action steps.

The presentation concluded with a set of sample board goals Cleary offered for discussion — sample goals that the board may accept, modify or discard at future meetings. No formal board action on goal adoption occurred at the meeting; Cleary’s suggestions were presented for the board to consider and to convert into formal agenda items later.