Leadership Development Services

Be prepared for the challenge. Public cynicism about the quality of education has never been so rampant in the history of American education. How your board reacts to this challenge and the decisions it makes can impact your school system. A board that is prepared, works together with its superintendent as an effective team and exhibits a good working knowledge of boardsmanship skills is more likely to make effective decisions for the children in its district.

Just as you plan for the challenges your district will face, it is important to plan for your development needs.

A good board development plan will include:

• Attending conferences and workshops;

• Reading articles about boardsmanship;

• Discussing issues with colleagues on other boards; and/or

• Spending time together as a board- superintendent leadership team in planning or retreat setting.

And...don't forget to visit the WSSDA Web Site frequently for legislative updates, important announcements, breaking education-related news and a whole lot more.

WSSDA School Board Member Training Program

The new WSSDA Life Cycle of a School board Member is designed to get new board members up to speed fast, then focus on the board and superintendent relationship.  The third level concentrates on the real work that board–superintendent teams do to improve student learning. It is designed to follow the service cycle of a school board member from being newly elected or appointed to serving as the veteran member of the board.

The WSSDA training program includes:

The Introduction
An orientation to school board service is offered as an Early Bird workshop at the WSSDA Annual Conference in November and includes a quick-hitting roundtable of topics such as board roles and responsibilities, legal issues for board members, advocacy, school finance and the board-superintendent relationship. Other orientation opportunities include candidate workshops prior to school board elections in odd-numbered years and individual in-district or regional workshops after elections or other board turnover.

The Board–Superintendent Relationship
This training course is offered during the WSSDA Annual Conference as well as on line through WSSDA’s on-line learning partnership with Seattle Pacific University. This course provides an in-depth analysis and hands on learning about this vital relationship, including such topics as board self assessment, superintendent evaluation, conflict resolution and teambuilding.

The Key Work of School Boards and Administrators
This course takes a Systems Approach to Improving Student Learning. Also offered during sessions at the WSSDA Annual Conference and as an on-line learning course, the Key Work is an intensive training opportunity based on the National School Boards Association program of a similar name.

The Tools To Do the Work
This part of the training program is designed to give governance teams the tools they need to accomplish the Key Work. Hands-on, minds-on strategies and techniques for using data to drive decisions and engaging the community in meaningful ways are current offerings in this segment of the training program.

Critical Issues
WSSDA also brings timely information on critical issues to the membership as quickly as possible during the Spring and Fall Regional Meetings held throughout the state, through legislative updates on the Web and in Impact, the legislative newsletter, on the WSSDA Web page, through listserv news announcements and through other WSSDA subscription publications.

Earning Credit

Life Cycle credits are automatically tracked as you register and sign in for online sessions or workshops.  Transcripts are maintained at the WSSDA office and are available on request.

How Training is Provided

Courses are offered through the following:

• The WSSDA Annual Conference in November;

• Individual and multi-district regional workshops;