“If anyone asks if this was
worthwhile, tell them to call us.”
– Farrell Southern,
Muscle Shoals board member
(Governing for Higher Student Achievement)
AASB's training program is designed with today's school board members in mind. The association believes that local school systems can be only as good as the quality of their leadership. To that end, AASB offers Alabama's most comprehensive and extensive training programs for local boards of education. Training is made available locally, regionally, statewide and nationally (NSBA).
Statewide Conferences
Four times a year, AASB holds statewide conferences on critical education issues. Each spring (March) and fall (October), we teach one of the eight core courses in our School Board Member Academy, an ongoing school for school board members. In addition, AASB hosts an annual summer conference (July), which usually focuses on helping board members build their governance skills in a particular area. And, finally, each December, we have our annual convention, which features motivational general sessions as well as practical training on at least a dozen different timely topics. There is even a two-part orientation core course (Leadership I and Leadership II) for new leaders.
On-Site Training
Looking for a superintendent? Need help distinguishing the role of the board from the role of the superintendent? Want to evaluate your board's performance as part of your annual goal-setting process? AASB can help.
Through our field services program, we can bring much of the training you need directly to you - either to a board work session or retreat or to a gathering of a handful of boards in a particular geographic area.
Bonus Member Services
Customized training helps create a sense of unity and strengthens
board/superintendent teams!
As an AASB member service, full school boards can enjoy training on their turf at no additional cost. These customized introductory sessions are led by an AASB facilitator.
The sessions include:
- Policy Making
- Superintendent Search Planning
- Selling a Tax Referenda
- Introduction to Board Service
- Customized Training
Specialized Services
Intense 2- to 3-hour customized training for board/superintendent governance teams is also available in the form of interactive workshops worth credit hours (per participating school board member) in the AASB School Board Member Academy. The cost is $750 for a 3-hour training session. Rates are discounted for multiple sessions. These include:
- Governing for Higher Student Achievement
- Team Building for Effective Boardmanship
- Board Meetings that Matter
- Understanding School Finance
- Governance and Ethics
- Defining Board/Superintendent Expectations
- Planning and Goal Setting
Board Self-Evaluation
School board evaluation can be used to help raise student achievement. Effective evaluations help full boards set a course of action for themselves and serve as an accountability tool boards can use to stay on track.
AASB offers a self-evaluation instrument at no charge. More
can be gained from a deeper analysis and a consultant-facilitated discussion of the results, which is available for $400.
For information, contact LuAnn Bird, director of board development at 334/277-9700 or lbird@alabamaschoolboards.org.
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