Tennessee training advisory committee recommends select school‑board and charter training courses, declines multiple others

The Tennessee State Board of Education’s Board Training Advisory Committee met electronically on April 15 to review applications for local school board and governing body member training courses and to form a list of recommendations to send to the full state board on May 19.

Chair Dr. Maxwell opened the meeting at 2:30 p.m. Central and asked Miss Allie Reed, the committee staff member who led the application reviews, to read a statement of necessity explaining that the electronic meeting was required because members are distributed across the state and a physical quorum could not be assembled. “This meeting is called to determine the committee's recommendation for state board approval of the local school board and governing body member training applications received this cycle,” Miss Reed said as she summarized the committee’s charge.

The committee reviewed providers in two groupings: school board training applications first, then governing body training. For school board training, the committee moved to decline School Board Partners’ Essentials of Empowered School Board Governance (item a), citing missing materials and modules that did not appear to justify the stated contact hours; Chair Maxwell moved the decline and it was seconded. By contrast, School Board Partners’ Mastering Robert’s Rules of Order (item b) was recommended for approval after reviewers found the…