ICYMI: Is Your Board Working as a Team?

Moderator: Michael Raczak, Indian Prairie 204 School Board President
Panelists: Members of the Indian Prairie CUSD 204 board of education
Reporter: James Horne, Principal, DeKalb High School, CUSD 428

Indian Prairie School District 204 is a large unit suburban district that serves the communities of Aurora, Bolingbrook, Plainfield, and Naperville. Academically, the district is traditionally high-achieving, yet it is faced with several challenges. Some of these challenges include class sizes, lean administrative staff, building construction, and uneven student distribution among the attendance centers. Considering the challenges, the success of the board of education is rooted in a belief in and dedication to established norms and procedures.

The presentation at the 2019 Joint Annual Conference began with a review of governance as the manner in which rules, norms, and actions are structured, sustained, and regulated. Board President Michael Raczak, noted the importance of this as he “ran as an individual against the people on this board, but once elected we all have to act as a team.” The community which the district serves has competitive elections and each individual who runs for elective office does so with their own vision for the work of the board. However, boards act as one and members on the board must act as a team. Valuing the established norms of governance, the board focuses its work on policy and budget review designed to support students.

So that the board is functioning as a team, Indian Prairie School District 204 grounds itself in four theoretical constructs. These include:

• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: This is the belief that all people need to feel safe and secure to share what they have to share.
• Brene Brown on vulnerability: This is the belief that vulnerability is a powerful trait in effective leadership. As a board, the members established the norm that they are tough on issues but easy on people.
• Collective efficacy: The group’s confidence in its abilities are associated with the success of the group. The group believes in itself and this helps ensure the success of the group.
• IASB’s Foundation Principles in Effective Governance: The school board takes responsibility for itself and its adherence to mission and policy. This requires self-evaluations and annual review of norms and practices.

These established norms have permitted the board to focus its work. All members are dedicated to adhering to these norms and the board credits this along with their mutual respect for each other with their success.

It is through their theoretical construct and agreed-upon norms that the board can focus its work on serving the mission of the district, to “Inspire all students to achieve their greatest potential.” To achieve this desired end, the board governs in a respectful manner of shared accountability respect for their role as a member of the board.