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Ohio School Boards Association leads governance training for Groveport-Madison board
Summary
An Ohio School Boards Association trainer reviewed board roles, governance responsibilities and team norms with Groveport-Madison Local Board members, stressing trust, public deliberation and policy-focused oversight.
Christine Robbins, a trainer from the Ohio School Boards Association, led a boardmanship training session at the Groveport-Madison Local Board of Education meeting focused on governance roles, responsibilities and teamwork.
Robbins told the board that its proper role is policy-level governance, not day-to-day operations: "But essentially, the role of the board is to stay at that governance level," she said, listing duties in the Ohio Revised Code and urging members to use policy and data when answering community questions.
Robbins outlined five broad duties she said the Ohio Revised Code assigns to school boards: employ and evaluate a superintendent, employ and evaluate a treasurer, approve the annual budget and appropriations, provide needed safe facilities, and provide necessary finances for district operations. She urged the board to rely on the superintendent and treasurer for management tasks and to reserve board energy for policy, strategic priorities and oversight.
She recommended practical governance questions for board deliberations—whether a decision aligns with the district's strategic plan, serves the most students, makes financial sense, and has community support—and advised members to "ask a lot of questions" before making assumptions.
Robbins spent much of the presentation on team dynamics. She urged members to cultivate trust by admitting uncertainty and mistakes, to engage in "healthy conflict" in public meetings, and to hold one another accountable to board norms. "The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust him," she quoted, encouraging steps to repair damaged relationships.
Board members responded with examples and concerns. Several members said past practice had included more pre-meeting planning and committee work and asked the administration and board leadership to resume routine orientation, policy committee meetings and structured retreats. Members also proposed a board self-assessment and agreed to consider setting measurable board goals and norms to improve collaboration.
Robbins offered to help with tools for a board self-assessment and goal-setting and closed by stressing the practical stakes: "You're facing some, you know, inordinate changes that are coming along when it comes to funding ... it's best to try to do what you can to settle the other tensions that could be resolved so that you can move forward in a united way."
