School Board members to get outside help on getting along

Terry Webster

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2000 | 10:44 a.m.

Improving board governance and policymaking will be the topic Friday for the Clark County School Board during a retreat led by Miriam Carver of the Atlanta-based firm Carver Governance Design Inc.

Carver and her husband, John, conduct seminars nationally and internationally on governance and board relationships to the public, committees and administration.

From her Atlanta office Wednesday, Carver said her session here will cover ways the School Board can define and achieve overall goals for the district.

"This is an approach that allows the board to focus more on results for kids, instead of administrative decisions," Carver said. "I'll be teaching them an approach that allows them to speak on behalf of the citizens, set up clear expectations and then be in a position to evaluate if they achieved them."

School Board President Mary Beth Scow said the workshop will help the board clarify its vision and as a result provide clear goals for the district's new superintendent.

"We may take another look at our mission," she said. "It also will help us with ways to evaluate the new superintendent and define what our expectations are."

Two superintendent candidates will be interviewed by the board in early March, with the intention of finding a replacement by April 1 for Brian Cram, who retires at the end of July.

"When I work with any board, I spend a long time talking about how they work together," Carver said. "Sometimes the board is not going to agree and get along. I think that's precisely why you have seven people on the board. You want people who have different points of view.

"It's perfectly OK to disagree and that's expected. But despite disagreements, you need to find a way to work together."

Carver said the amount of time it takes to make changes varies with each board.

"I have seen school boards do this in four to five months, but I can't say how long it would take there," she said. "That's where the amount of time the board puts into it comes in."

Another factor is how complicated the organization is and the amount of outside regulation it has, she said.

The retreat, which is open to the public, is set for 9 a.m. Friday at the Sahara West Library, 9600 W. Sahara Ave.