Lakeville board asks small team to draft member handbook, leans on MSBA template

Members of the Lakeville Area Schools Board discussed a plan to produce a board handbook and directed a small group of board members to prepare a draft for the full board to review.

Board members said the handbook should focus on standard operating procedures (SOPs) — how the board will run meetings, set agendas, handle committee work, and respond to resignations or constituent concerns — while leaving informational sections (district history, links to policies) to district staff. The board discussed two broad approaches: review the Massachusetts School Boards Association (MSBA) template line-by-line as a full board, or have a smaller subgroup tailor a template and return a draft for section-by-section board review. Members agreed the subgroup approach would be more efficient.

Board members identified the MSBA template and the district 200-series policies as the key starting points. They…