BOARD EVALUATION

Service on a Board of Education is a public trust of the highest order. The responsibilities of the office are large; the opportunities for service to children, youth and adults are unlimited.

Members of the Meriden Board of Education accept the difficult but crucially important task of critically evaluating themselves and the Board on which they serve. The primary purpose of this assessment is the improvement of school Board leadership.

An effective program of evaluation contains many essential features. The following conditions are crucial to an evaluation that has as its primary purpose the improvement of school Board leadership:

Board members should know the standards against which they will evaluate themselves and should be involved in the development of the standards.

Evaluation should be at a scheduled time and place with no other items on the agenda, at an executive session, with all Board members present.

The evaluation should be a composite of the individual Board members’ opinions, but the Board as a whole should meet to discuss the result.

The evaluation should include a discussion of strengths as well as weaknesses.

The evaluation should take place at least once a year.

The Board should not limit itself to those items which appear on an evaluation form. No form or set of guidelines could encompass the totality of a school Board’s responsibility.

Each judgment should be supported by as much rational and objective evidence as possible.

Date Adopted:  April 28, 1981