The Columbus Municipal School District Board of Trustees gave itself an overall grade of “doing well” during its annual self-evaluation.
Trustees met on Jan. 14 at CMSD offices to evaluate the board attorney, the board itself and the superintendent as recommended by the Mississippi School Board Association.
The attorney and board self-evaluations are only recommended, but the superintendent’s evaluation is required and must be submitted to the MSBA, said board president Angela Verdell.
Board attorney David Dunn and Superintendent Philip Hickman were not present at the Jan. 14 meeting.
The board attorney’s evaluation was open to the public, but the superintendent’s evaluation was held in executive session as a personnel matter and will not be released to the public. No action was taken during executive session.
“Each of these evaluations provided valuable insight for continuing to improve and advance the district,” Verdell said. “We are pleased with the outcome of each of these evaluations and look forward to implementing measures to address those opportunities we identified for improvement.”
Board self-evaluation
The board of trustees — Verdell, Currie Fisher, Jo Shumake, Jason Spears and Fredrick Sparks — graded itself based on a template provided by the MSBA.
The template included nine sections — board member team, board/superintendent relations, board/staff relations, board/community relations, board member orientation and continued development, planning, policy, budget/finance and instructional program.
“Overall the board agreed that it is functioning well, governs in accordance to policy, is focused on continuous improvement in all areas, and is encouraged that the annual budget reflects the strategic plan and supports the district’s goals and objectives for student achievement and citizenship as demonstrated by the results of evaluations of existing programs,” Verdell said.
Areas of improvement
The board overall determined it was doing well in each section of the self-evaluation, but there were some areas they determined could be improved.
Verdell said the district’s No. 1 priority is student achievement, and in an effort to continue to drive student success, the board identified the need to work regularly to conduct more in-depth data analysis of student academic performance in the district, state and nation to better understand areas of success and areas that need growth.
Community relations was another aspect the board identified for improvement, not only from the stakeholder side, but from the media side, too.
Fisher said members of the board need to better follow the district’s policy on media relations.
She said certain members of the board, naming Jason Spears in particular, speak to media out of turn, giving their own opinion on the board’s actions.
“We’ve had this understanding almost every year that the board only speaks through one person, and that is the current president of the board,” she said.
Sparks agreed, saying the board needs to show a unified front.
“As a board, we’re supposed to operate as a unit,” he said.
Verdell said the board also identified a need to allow the community to provide feedback.
“The board has challenged itself to be more intentional in its efforts to encourage community input in policy creation,” Verdell said. “This will ensure that all stakeholders have the opportunity to have a voice in the development of district policy.”
Another area of concern was board orientation.
Shumake, as a newer board member, said she thinks there needs to be a better process of orienting new members.
In addition to training provided by the MSBA that every newly appointed school board trustee must attend within the first six months of their term, “the board determined the need for a formal district level orientation to help ensure proper onboarding of new trustees,” Verdell said.
The board also generally stated it would like to improve on being more respectful and trustworthy of its members.
Board attorney evaluation
The board attorney was evaluated based on how well he performs his responsibilities, including providing legal services to the board and advising board and staff on the impact of judicial decisions, his relationship with the school board and the community and his personal qualities.
In each section, Dunn was given grades three and four, which are meets standards and exceeds standards, respectively.
“There are no problems with our legal advisor. He meets and exceeds our expectations,” Verdell said.
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