SPECIAL REQUEST
If you enjoy this newsletter, please help us reach and share this free resource with as many school boards as we can! We would be incredibly grateful if you share this link -- https://www.effectiveschoolboards.com/newsletter/ -- with 10 school board members, superintendents, staff members, parents, or anyone else who is interested in helping school boards maintain a focus on student outcomes!
QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES
Question: Do you recommend the school board receive a 360 evaluation each year? The superintendent? Should the board mandate it? -- Board Member in Texas
TESBM: A 360 evaluation is designed to give the recipient -- either the superintendent or the school board -- anonymous feedback to support their leadership. The process involves reaching out to staff, parent leaders, key partners, and community leaders for feedback.
We recommend school boards consider having a 3rd party conduct a 360 evaluation at least once every two or three years. The results should inform the board's annual self-evaluation. Annual 360 evaluations aren't necessary unless there's high turnover.
If the board chooses a 360 evaluation, only the board should see the results. If the superintendent chooses a 360 evaluation, only the superintendent should see the results. This is for personal growth and development, not for weaponization.
Question: How often do you recommend that school boards evaluate their use of time and why? -- Board Member in Pennsylvania
TESBM: We try to showcase a board meeting time use evaluation in most newsletters because of how important this practice is. If school board members are unaware of their focus or non-focus on student outcomes, it's hard to take action to do anything about it.
School boards that are intensely focused on improving student outcomes will invest at least 50% of their minutes each month into monitoring their Student Outcome Goals. Initially, we recommend school boards evaluate their use of time every month. Once a school board has passed that threshold and remained there six months, then only completing a time use evaluation quarterly or even just annually makes sense (unless they drop back below 50%).
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
In this district, a board member was accused of making inappropriate remarks to staff. What would you do in this situation? Go here to share what you would do in these situations. In the next newsletter, we'll share your responses and our coaches' thoughts.
INTERESTING READS
Nationwide, superintendent turnover appears to be at an all-time high.
The latest NAEP scores did not provide much good news.
SCHOOL BOARD EVALUATION
A subscriber asked us to watch a board meeting in Arizona. Here are the highlights from the regular board meetings:
Total Public Minutes: 104
Minutes Not Focused on Student Outcomes: Guardrail Monitoring-4, Voting-13, Supt Eval-9, Other-17
Key Topics: superintendent evaluation, personnel, staff reports
What Coach Celebrates: It's great to see a school board placing goal monitoring early on the agenda and sustaining the monitoring conversation for over an hour. This focused the meeting on student outcomes. In addition, approval of the progress monitoring calendar formalizes the board's ongoing focus on student outcomes. Guardrail monitoring was kept crisp and brief to preserve time for a student outcomes focus.
What Coach Recommends: Increase expectations for pre-read material so dais time stays focused on student outcomes.
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES
Effective Goal Setting
We are continuing the Policy Leadership series with a 30-minute webinar on how to adopt high quality Goal policies and what to look for in Interim Goals.
11am central on Friday, October 3rd, 2025
Effective Guardrail Setting
We are continuing the Policy Leadership series with a 30-minute webinar on how to adopt high quality Guardrail policies and what to look for in Interim Guardrails.
11am central on Friday, November 14th, 2025
Did you miss last month's 30-minute webinar? Email Greg for a make-up session on any of our growing list of topics, including governance policy, delegation policy, effective budgeting, superintendent evaluation, professional services management, strategic planning, or consent agendas.
BONUS MATERIALS
For paid subscribers, here are links to additional resources (to gain access to the links below, please consider subscribing):
Additional details about the analyzed meeting:
Board Meeting Video
Workshop Video
Time Use Analysis
Guidance documents related to this issue:
Superintendent transitions
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