Missouri School Board Association discusses board governance at Hillyard

Sep. 19—The Missouri School Boards Association hosted a meeting Tuesday with the St. Joseph Board of Education and other school boards to discuss board governance and promote member resources.

Board members gathered at Hillyard Technical Center to participate in games hosted by the Missouri School Boards Association, where they split into teams and answered questions related to the duties of being a board member.

Terrance Peterson is the senior director for Board Development at MSBA. Peterson said the meeting was designed to reinforce some training ideals and get to know one another.

"This is a very lighthearted way to bring everyone together and to just have some fellowship and just kind of learn from each other," he said. "You know, it's like a think tank, so to speak."

Peterson said it can be stressful being a board member, so getting together for a refresher and making them aware of their resources can be beneficial.

"It can be very stressful work. It's all volunteer work," he said. "We're proud of our board members, we support them, and we just want to really reinforce and help provide solutions to anything that they may be having."

The St. Joseph Board of Education recently worked to ease tensions as they approved norms on Monday, including maintaining a respectful atmosphere, listening and communicating effectively, serving as advocates for K-12 education, striving to make evidence-based decisions and putting student, educator and community interests first.

The board voted 4-3 to disband committees on Sept. 6.

"We are going to be still reaching out to (LaTonya Williams)," Peterson said. "We've talked to (Gabe Edgar). There are a number of different people in our association who have had ongoing conversations with them, and one of them I've provided some training in the beginning on just basic board governance."

Peterson said every board has different sets of situations they are dealing with and addressing.

"Sometimes it's good to really just vent or talk to someone about some of those things that you're going through and see if you have some ideas or if they're going through some of those same things," he said.