Douglas County board approves governance training contracts, adopts 2024-25 calendar

The Douglas County School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously to contract outside governance consultants and approved the 2024-25 academic calendar, the board said at a meeting where trustees also cleared routine consent business.

Trustees voted to approve a contract with Dr. Phil Gore for board governance training in an amount not to exceed $20,500, and to contract Tom Alsbury of Balanced Governance Solutions in an amount not to exceed $10,000 for the current school year with up to $27,500 proposed for FY 2025-26. The board also adopted the district calendar after staff explained survey results and scheduling constraints.

Board leaders said the training is intended to help the board set clear priorities, adopt an aligned superintendent-evaluation process, and create a governance handbook the district can keep and reuse.

Superintendent Frankie Alvarado told trustees Dr. Gore"articulates the importance of setting priorities and goals for the district, but also aligning those priorities and goals to the superintendent's evaluation," and that Gorewould work with trustees in a series of sessions to set priorities, draft measurable goals and create an evaluation instrument. Alvarado said the district will own the materials and may codify an adopted evaluation instrument in policy if the board so directs.

Tom Alsbury described his planned work as complementary: he will focus on board self-evaluation, benchmarking the board's practices against national standards, and drafting a governance handbook and related policies. Alsbury said his approach includes optional private individual consultations and board-level meeting observations followed by recommendations.

Board members said they viewed the contracts as an investment in governance that can lead to clearer superintendent accountability, better-aligned goals…