Millions of Americans went to the polls in November to choose who will sit on the school boards that get to work in January. They may have hesitated to vote for anyone who would be brand new to the board. After all, rookies lack experience. They carry with them no institutional memory. New school board members, though, bring the perspective that school boards need to keep the board communicating openly to the public.
Imagine that a man takes his baby to a baseball game. Hard-wired to recognize patterns, the baby might point incessantly to the many circles in the field of vision: the ball, the sun and the end of the bat. The man has been trained through the years to ''keep your eye on the ball!'' To him, the series of circles is insignificant: The arc and speed of each pitch are all that matters. He barely notices the many circles in his visual field; they become nothing but ''noise.''
As we learn to direct our attention to certain events and not others, we become selectively blind to much that is around us, for good reason: Anyone with the man's brain is better able to hit the ball. But we miss out on noticing all that we have relegated to the periphery. Buddhists actually follow disciplines to help them regain the state called ''beginner's mind.''
An actual beginner is still a natural at seeing things anew. For a school board, a newcomer not only lacks the conditioning that creates mental ruts for old-timers; they also have recent experience as outsiders of the board - members of the community who hear announcements coming from the school board, attend meetings as guests, and feel a certain chill down their spine if decisions seem to come from left field, without consulting or even notifying the public in the process of considering options. That makes her perfectly poised to point out ways to increase school board transparency. A fresh mind on the board might ask the board four challenging questions:
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Why are materials available only in hard copy?
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Why do journalists and attorneys have to requisition public records?
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Why do you let disgruntled citizens disrupt public meetings?
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Why do you call Executive Session more frequently than necessary?
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Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have become more complex and multifaceted than ever before. At the same time, ESG continues to ascend on board and leadership agendas.
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