School Boards It's Time to Step Up Author:James Akenhead, ED.D. It's in the public eye, everyday; you can read about it in every newspaper around the world. It's the public schools, and they are suspect. Once a paragon of education that the entire world took notice of, a pillar of our freedom and the strength of our nation, many of these schools can now be called derelict, dangerous, or, worse, pointless. W... more »hat has caused this? It's baffling, and the blame lies with a million nameless things. The solution, however, is both simple and a fundament to our government; it involves the people elected by the general public to step up, take charge of the powers given to them, and make positive changes in the school system. School boards. In many communities, are little but rubber stamps, agreeing to a superintendent's policies as a mater of course. Some members are there in opposition to a single 'problem,' which may not be a real problem at all; many have no real interest or understanding of how to make school boards function. In comes this book. Written by a man with a lifetime's experience in education and backed up by public examples. This book is a toolbox of ideas designed to help school boards understand their full powers and to make use of them in pursuit of a new, better school system that balances the wants of teachers, parents, and administrators and that, most importantly, drives a newly effective institution imparting knowledge and competence to the studentry. This is a book for everyone involved in the process. Through it, school board members better understand how to use their position to construct a positive future, parents can better understand the public institution and its governing body, and administrators can learn how to better interface with board members and make use of the variety of skills represented there.« less