Like most Utah residents, I voted against vouchers. That doesn't mean, however, that I think public education is flawless. Nor do I think it always effectively represents public interests. As a school board representative, I have seen some ways it might be improved and would like to encourage legislators to look at those and other ways rather than, or at least in addition to, campaigning for another alternative to public education. Here are some suggestions I think might help:

First, define and strengthen the role of individual board members. As board members, we are told we can only exercise power as a part of a majority of board members. This rule applies to getting information and to putting items on the agenda, and in practice, this is how it works out: A board member makes a request for information or to put an item on the agenda via e-mail, and he is lucky if a majority of board members even respond to the e-mail. State Government Records Access and Management Act laws give the man-on-the-street more access to information than our board policy gives individual board members, which is why, earlier this year, I made a GRAMA request that elicited some attention. Also, while individual legislators can sponsor legislation, individual school board members cannot do the equivalent of that or even put items on the agenda.

Second, make the executive branch of school governance more accountable to the public. The superintendent and his staff are the executive branch. But there is no elected individual that presides over them, like the president in the federal government or the governor in state government. The board is supposed to direct the superintendent, but a group of individuals, like a board, makes a clumsy executive. If the board president were elected by all district residents, or if the superintendent were elected, the people would have a stronger voice in the day-to-day operations of a school district.

Third, apply the principle of checks-and-balances to school governance. Do you know that school districts hire their own building inspectors and their own auditors -- the people who are supposed to be checking up on themfi These practices fly in the face of good governance. Last year our auditor told me that I, as an individual board member, might request that he, our auditor, focus on certain areas in his audit; so I took him up on his offer and made a particular request. A few months later, I got the result back in a meeting with him and district staff. I was told a majority of board members would have to support my request before the auditor would execute it. My experience has been that board members will not support requests that make it look as if they do not trust the staff, so I didn't bother asking. I expect that our auditor changed his mind, because he knows who signs his check, and it's not me.

Over the past seven years I have been on the school board, we, as school board members, have tried but failed to complete school governance policies. We have failed because we're not smart enough -- we know too little about governance and too little about the operations of a school district. We depend on the superintendent and staff to tell us what will work, and they are not anxious to limit their own power. My suggestions are just a start. There are people who are smarter than we, as board members, are, and I would be grateful if they had the opportunity to really examine school governance and suggest how to improve it, even over and above what I have suggested here.

Sandy Packard is a member of the Provo School Board.