Board of Education Meetings
Overview
The assignment
Attend at least three board meetings from different districts and keep copies. What did you observe about the superintendent's and assistant superintendent's roles? How does the Board make decisions during a meeting? Who attends, and how can the public participate?
Guiding Questions
From the module's Perspective section. Expand a question to see where the answer goes.
1The NSBA names four board roles: vision, structure, accountability, and advocacy. How does the board maintain them, and what is the superintendent's job in supporting them?
To addAnswer to guiding question 1 (Task 2): The NSBA names four board roles: vision, structure, accountability, and advocacy. How does the board maintain them, and what is the superintendent's job in supporting them?
People and Process
People involvedBoard of Education, Superintendent, School Business Administrator/Board Secretary.
Role titles only; no names beyond the mentor.
ProcessRecord the superintendent's involvement, procedures, and rules at each meeting.
The Three Meetings
The three meetings must be from different districts. Each has its own artifacts, observations, and reflection.
Date
To addMeeting 1 date
District
To addMeeting 1 district
Location
To addMeeting 1 location
Meeting type
To addMeeting 1 meeting type
Artifacts
To add
Agenda
Agenda for Meeting 1.
PDFDate: TBD
To add
Minutes (if available)
Approved minutes for Meeting 1.
PDFDate: TBD
Observations
Superintendent's role
To addMeeting 1: superintendent's role observed.
Assistant Superintendent's role
To addMeeting 1: assistant superintendent's role observed.
How the board made decisions
To addMeeting 1: how the board made decisions observed.
Who attended and public participation
To addMeeting 1: who attended and public participation observed.
NSBA four roles
How did the board maintain each role, and how did the superintendent support it?
Vision
To addMeeting 1, Vision: how the board maintained this role.
Structure
To addMeeting 1, Structure: how the board maintained this role.
Accountability
To addMeeting 1, Accountability: how the board maintained this role.
Advocacy
To addMeeting 1, Advocacy: how the board maintained this role.
Reflection on Meeting 1
To addReflection on Meeting 1: what the superintendent's involvement, procedures, and rules revealed about how this board works.
Rubric note: Reflection should analyze, not just describe.
Date
To addMeeting 2 date
District
To addMeeting 2 district
Location
To addMeeting 2 location
Meeting type
To addMeeting 2 meeting type
Artifacts
To add
Agenda
Agenda for Meeting 2.
PDFDate: TBD
To add
Minutes (if available)
Approved minutes for Meeting 2.
PDFDate: TBD
Observations
Superintendent's role
To addMeeting 2: superintendent's role observed.
Assistant Superintendent's role
To addMeeting 2: assistant superintendent's role observed.
How the board made decisions
To addMeeting 2: how the board made decisions observed.
Who attended and public participation
To addMeeting 2: who attended and public participation observed.
NSBA four roles
How did the board maintain each role, and how did the superintendent support it?
Vision
To addMeeting 2, Vision: how the board maintained this role.
Structure
To addMeeting 2, Structure: how the board maintained this role.
Accountability
To addMeeting 2, Accountability: how the board maintained this role.
Advocacy
To addMeeting 2, Advocacy: how the board maintained this role.
Reflection on Meeting 2
To addReflection on Meeting 2: what the superintendent's involvement, procedures, and rules revealed about how this board works.
Rubric note: Reflection should analyze, not just describe.
Date
To addMeeting 3 date
District
To addMeeting 3 district
Location
To addMeeting 3 location
Meeting type
To addMeeting 3 meeting type
Artifacts
To add
Agenda
Agenda for Meeting 3.
PDFDate: TBD
To add
Minutes (if available)
Approved minutes for Meeting 3.
PDFDate: TBD
Observations
Superintendent's role
To addMeeting 3: superintendent's role observed.
Assistant Superintendent's role
To addMeeting 3: assistant superintendent's role observed.
How the board made decisions
To addMeeting 3: how the board made decisions observed.
Who attended and public participation
To addMeeting 3: who attended and public participation observed.
NSBA four roles
How did the board maintain each role, and how did the superintendent support it?
Vision
To addMeeting 3, Vision: how the board maintained this role.
Structure
To addMeeting 3, Structure: how the board maintained this role.
Accountability
To addMeeting 3, Accountability: how the board maintained this role.
Advocacy
To addMeeting 3, Advocacy: how the board maintained this role.
Reflection on Meeting 3
To addReflection on Meeting 3: what the superintendent's involvement, procedures, and rules revealed about how this board works.
Rubric note: Reflection should analyze, not just describe.
Evidence and Artifacts
Cards with a file or link open in a viewer. Dashed cards show what still needs to be added.
PSEL Connection
How the evidence on this page meets each tagged standard.
PSEL 2Ethics and Professional Norms
To addTask 2, PSEL 2: 2 to 3 sentences on how the evidence meets "Ethics and Professional Norms".
PSEL 8Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community
To addTask 2, PSEL 8: 2 to 3 sentences on how the evidence meets "Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community".
PSEL 9Operations and Management
To addTask 2, PSEL 9: 2 to 3 sentences on how the evidence meets "Operations and Management".
Reflection
Prompt: Across the three meetings, how did each board maintain its four roles, and what did the superintendent do to support them?
To addTask 2 reflection: Across the three meetings, how did each board maintain its four roles, and what did the superintendent do to support them?
Rubric note: Reflection should analyze, not just describe.
Related course reflection
Module 2 DiscussionTo Hire or Not to Hire: Andrew Keough interview
Prompt: Watch Andrew Keough's interview for superintendent of Beverly Public Schools. What stood out, what would you improve, and what would you use in your own interview?
- What stood out most to me was Dr. Keough's answer about supporting struggling, middle, and high-achieving students. Rather than treating it as three separate problems, he tied it together around the idea of "belonging," making the point that students who don't feel connected to their school won't perform well academically, and that data alone won't fix that. I also appreciated his answer on communication, where he laid out several concrete channels (weekly bulletins, parent coffees, social media, and regular one-on-one contact with the school committee chair) rather than just saying communication was important. His comment that "when people don't know what's happening, they're suspicious" was a memorable line that captured why he prioritizes it. I think these answers helped the board see him as someone who connects big-picture values to specific, repeatable practices, which is reassuring in a candidate.
- I would have liked a tighter answer to the special education question about bringing out-of-district students home. He spent a lot of time on how he personally got into special education before circling back to Beverly's actual question, and the connection to a concrete plan for the 115 students felt underdeveloped by comparison. I also think his answer about family relocation could have been stronger. He was honest that he'd likely keep his home outside Beverly, but his explanation of how he'd stay visible in the community stayed fairly general ("you'd see a lot of me") rather than offering specifics. Given how much he emphasized presence and relationship-building elsewhere, a more concrete commitment there would have matched the rest of his interview better.
- I'd want to borrow his approach to the "unpopular decision" question about implementing advisory. Instead of glossing over the pushback, he explained why teachers resisted, what he did to bring them along (bringing in an outside expert, giving faculty some voice in the model), and was upfront that it was still a two-year pilot with results still coming in. That kind of honesty about a rocky rollout, paired with a clear strategy for managing it, feels more credible than claiming universal success. I'd also want to use his framing of budget cuts, spreading reductions across departments instead of eliminating a single program, grounded in a clear sense of which values are non-negotiable. It shows a decision-making framework you can explain under pressure, not just a values statement.