DAYTON–At the conclusion of each year, directors on the Dayton School Board utilize the Washington School Board Standards to serve as a guide to evaluate their performance.

School Directors discussed points in the self-evaluation at the October 2 work session. Superintendent Doug Johnson was unable to attend the work session due to a prior commitment and Director Fred White was also absent.

The board opened this work session reviewing the Washington School Board Standards and Benchmarks before discussing each of the Benchmarks sections and grading themselves as to how successful they were or if they needed to address areas that were falling short of their goal. After a lot of soul searching and discussion the board was able to complete half of the evaluation and will complete the project at another meeting.

The process is intended to help boards understand and apply common principles of good governance, and to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their own governance to continuously improve their performance. Performance is evaluated in terms of generally accepted principles of successful board of directors’ operations and in relation to their annual goals and objectives.

The guide includes five core principles:

1. Responsible school district governance

2. Communication of and commitment to high expectations for student learning

3. Creating conditions district–wide for student and staff success

4. Holding the district accountable for student learning

5. Engagement of the community in education.

To assist the board’s efforts, there are Standard benchmarks of success and indicators to evaluate how the board is working together as a group and also to evaluate themselves individually.

The board of directors’ self-evaluation shall address their performance related to the key function of the Dayton School Board of Directors–vision, accountability, financial goals, decision-making, evaluation of superintendent, support for all students, communication with public (all stake holders) and advocacy. The results of the self-evaluation shall be used in setting goals for the subsequent year.