Local government

School Boards

The board that sets the rules of a student's own school — what it controls, who serves on it, and why its members aren't teachers.

Grades 3–5~35 minNonpartisan

Word document — open it in Word, Pages, or Google Docs and adapt it for your class.

01 Warm-up 5 min

Warm-up:

    • If you were the principle, what would be your first rule or change?
02 Lecture 10 min

Lectures:

  • What is a school board?
    • A school board is a group of people who help make important decisions for all the public schools in a district.
    • Their job is to make sure schools are safe, well run, and to give students a good and organized education.
    • One important thing to note is that these members do not teach students.
  • What do they do?
    • The members of the school boards have many roles including: setting policies, approving budgets, hiring and evaluating superintendents, etc.
      • School Policies:
        • The members help make rules that schools follow.
        • Some policies can include rules surroudning student expectations, safety procedures, and attendance policies.
      • Approving Budgets:
        • The money that is provided for the school can be used for multiple things such as new books, technology, and supplies.
      • Hiring and Evaluating Superintendents:
        • Hiring and evaluating superintendents is a very important role that school boards have because superitedents lead the entire school district!
  • Who is part of the school boards?
    • There are usually 5-9 members in most school boards and these individuals are community members who want to help improve schools. Members can be parents, grandparents, or other local residents (however they have to be 18 years or older!!!).
03 Games 2 activities

2 interactive games:

  • Each student will receive a flashcard and they will write one rule/policy that they would make if they were a part of the school board. After everyone is finished, they will be collected and read out. At the end the students will vote to see what rule they think was the best.
  • There will be a rapid fire question battle between two teams from the information they learned (10-15 questions)
04 Wrap-up 5 min

Wrap-up:

    • Question: What is the most interesting thing that you learned about school boards? (At least 5 kids)