Speaking to the school board
A school board consists of community members who are elected to represent the best interests of schools in a district. The members are responsible for establishing a roadmap, and defining the performance metrics for schools and their superintendents. If you want action from the school, you goto the board.
Board meetings are typically once a month and can be found on your school district calendar. You will find that the process for speaking at these events is either undocumented or buried in documentation. To make matters more simple, reach out to the administrative assistant to the superintendent. Contact information can be found in the staff directory or you may call the school administration office to obtain it.
Once you are in touch with the administrative assistant to the superintendent — tell them you would like to register to speak at the next school board meeting and specify the date. It is important to ask the following:
1.) How early must you arrive as a speaker?
2.) Is there a speaker sign in process?
The administrative assistant will then ask you what the topics are you would like to speak about — You dont have to answer this! We recommend that you actually dont because when you do, you will notice staff from the school poking around and doing oppositional research based on your social media posts.
Prior to the board meeting it is crucial that you familiarize yourself to the policies, procedures, and meeting flow. There are many documents usually found on the district website that can assist. As far as understanding meeting flow – we recommend listening to a prior meeting or reviewing the meeting minutes from one.
Don’t bother writing a speech. You may write one to rehearse and list some bullet points to aid in your message delivery however, the most moving testimony is done from the heart. Prepare as you would for a job interview. Get plenty of rest, eat a healthy breakfast, give yourself plenty of time, and dress to impress. Be respectful, be courteous, stick to facts, don’t use profanity, and be unapologetically correct.
Ask a friend to come along with you so it can be recorded, posted to social media and shared.
We are more than happy to aid in this process from end-to-end. Contact using the contact form if you are interested. God gave you a voice, use it — Otherwise the silent majority will be viewed as a fringe minority.
