Where the Line Lives: Policy as the Board’s Real Job

School board members are, by and large, “DOERS.” They’re raising families, running businesses, and working full-time jobs. On top of all that, they ran for the board because they saw something that needed fixing and wanted to be part of the solution. That instinct is exactly what makes a good board member. It’s also exactly what can pull a board off course.

Consider the numbers: a board member gives the district 10 to 20 hours a month, sometimes more. A superintendent and staff give it 40 to 60 hours a week, often backed by a master’s or doctorate in education, years in classrooms, and deep training in how children learn. This gap reflects how the system is designed, not a shortfall on either side. Board members bring something staff can’t manufacture: they’re parents and neighbors who carry the community’s values and priorities into the room. Staff bring something board members can’t be expected to match: professional expertise in the craft of education itself.

AASB’s own Roles & Responsibilities Guide puts a fine point on this: the superintendent is the board’s sole employee. Every other person in the district – every teacher, every principal, every program is hired, supervised, and directed through that one relationship, not by the board directly.

The trouble starts when the “doer” instinct overrides that design. Watch this video of school board member Andy and his response to a constituent complaint. What do you see in this example? It feels like diligence, but a board member has no more authority to investigate district operations than any other member of the public; the seat only carries authority when the board acts together in a meeting. (See the companion video: “Office Visit.”)

The better move is redirection: “This could end up requiring board action, and if I’m personally involved, I may not be able to act on it later. I should go through the district’s normal complaint channels.” Then forward the complaint and let the superintendent’s office do what it’s built to do.

This is the same instinct that shows up in slower motion with policy. Policy isn’t situation-based, person-based, short-term, or reactive: it’s structural, systemic, long-term, built for a class of events, not a single one. But a problem comes up, and the pull is to solve it now; direct a staff member, weigh in on an operational call, treat policy work like it’s moving too slowly. Policy, done right, moves deliberately;  moving from a draft or an amendment that the policy committee reviews, then typically two readings before adoption, roughly three months start to finish. That pace reflects the board doing its job at the level it’s meant to operate: setting a lasting structure, not reacting to a single incident.

Sometimes boards don’t spend a lot of time in the policy manual. It doesn’t feel like “doing” the way fixing an immediate problem does. But for a governing board, the manual is the doing.

The fix is returning to the system Alaska school districts already have, spelled out in board bylaws, and using it.

Start with the district’s Series 9000 bylaws. They lay out, section by section, exactly what the board’s job is and isn’t:

• BB 9000 establishes that the board’s core function is governance, setting policy, while the superintendent carries out board decisions and is accountable for that authority.
• BB 9200 is explicit: individual board members have no authority outside a legally constituted meeting. No board member can direct staff, commit the district, or exercise administrative responsibility on their own.
• BB 9300 and BB 9311 describe policy itself as the board’s basic method of governance, adopted through two readings, then reviewed on a standing rotating schedule so it never goes stale.
• BB 9313 draws the implementation line clearly: administrative regulations, which put policy into day-to-day practice, are the superintendent’s responsibility, not the board’s.

Read together, the 9000 series describes how the board does its work, written down and already adopted.

Board members can:

• Set aside time to read the Series 9000 bylaws. Start there before the rest of the policy manual. They’re short, direct, and answer most “whose job is this?” questions on their own.
• When a “solve it now” instinct comes up, ask: is this a policy question (ours) or an implementation question (the superintendent’s)? Let the answer decide who acts.
• Keep a version of Andy’s redirect line ready for the moment a constituent brings a complaint directly to you: acknowledge it, explain that personal involvement could compromise the board’s ability to act on it later, and point them to the district’s proper complaint channel.
• Review the AASB Roles & Responsibilities Guide as a board, not just individually. It lays out, area by area (policy, budget, personnel, facilities, planning), exactly where the board’s role ends and the superintendent’s begins.

Board chairs and superintendents can:

• Put a standing “9000 series review” on the annual board calendar, alongside orientation for new members.
• Use policy committee timelines as a teaching moment; the pace itself demonstrates the governance/management distinction in practice.

Boards looking for support can turn to AASB Policy Services for help keeping the Model Policy Manual current, and to AASB’s Board Development team for facilitated conversations using the Roles & Responsibilities guide.

Resources: AASB Board Development Resources · AASB Policy Services · Companion video: “Office Visit“