So, you want to run for school board.
First, I need to know if you’ve recently suffered a blow to the head. No? OK. Are you aware it’s an unpaid position that requires you to pretty much be on call 24/7? Yes? Did you know people will tweet you, comment on your Facebook wall (and probably your spouse’s, kid’s, or even mother’s wall), email you, call you, and even track you down while you’re eating dinner to vent their spleen? And trust me, they rarely if ever do all that if they just want to pat you on the back and tell you did a good job.
You’re aware of all that? Then I got nothin’. I mean, for real, there’s nothing in the world that would convince me to run for school board, so more power to you.
However, having covered more than my fair share of school board races, and having talked to voters extensively about what makes them decide which candidate to vote for (it’s not that hard because barely anyone votes), I have come up with a few things you should know if you want to run for school board.
Now, the first thing you should do is take a look at your resume. Yes, you may have all kinds of superlatives, but I’ve had more than one voter (actually, more than 30) tell me that they are looking for a candidate who has boots-on-the-ground experience in Dallas ISD schools.
Now, you may point out that you’ve got a pant-load of experience that will translate well to the gig. And a person who actually knows what a school board trustee does and what the district as a whole faces will agree with you. However, as we have seen in several races, your average voter wants to know if you know about Dallas schools, and apparently that means you need to do some work with a school. And trust me, showing up and rolling up your sleeves will never hurt you as a candidate. And it does show you have a commitment to Dallas ISD that goes beyond elected office.
So volunteer with an organization that will put you in those schools, or pick a school in the district you want to run in and sign up to volunteer. Think about offering to work on a Site-Based Decision Making Committee. Be seen at the occasional school board meeting, even though they are as long as Eeyore reading “War and Peace” aloud, and about as easy to stay interested in. And yes, I know you can watch them online, which is my preferred way to watch them because wine and yoga pants. But you need to be seen at a few of these, in addition to catching them regularly online.
Next: read up. It’s not enough to know what Dallas is doing. Be aware of what other districts with similar challenges and demographics are doing. Look for innovation. Read ahead. And acknowledge your knowledge gaps – they’re only a weakness if you do nothing about them. Identify people who have a working, legitimate knowledge of parts of the district that you don’t know about, and learn at their feet. And after that? Verify, verify, verify.
So, say you’ve put in some work with a school or three, have studied up, and you are starting to put out feelers about running. Maybe you don’t have a ton of money. So here comes my other bit of advice: Show up. When a group who regularly gives endorsements invites you to participate in their process, do it. If you are invited by the paper of record to participate in an interview with the editorial board, do it. If you want to talk to actual voters, invest in some shoe leather and start hitting the streets, knock on some doors. All of this is free advertising, and if you show up prepared and with real facts, you’re going to find it beneficial advertising.
Next, maybe you have gotten a few donors and can afford some campaign literature and signs. Scoot closer to the screen. Read this next sentence repeatedly: Have your stuff proofread by more than one set of eyes. There is probably nothing more ridiculous than a person running for school board with signage and literature riddled with grammatical or spelling errors. For instance, learn where apostrophes go.
A brief primer:
- Students – more than one student
- Student’s – one student possesses something
- Students’ – many students possess something
Be ready to give specific answers to specific questions. If someone asks you about, for instance, whether your desire for cooperation on the board means you will compromise with obstructionists, acknowledge the rashes of consent agenda hijinks going on. Yes, I get that you’re trying to enter office without bad feelings already ginned up, but it’s not that difficult to explain how you’d like to head that sort of thing off at the pass by, for instance, meeting with those trustees before the meeting to ask for their reasons for pulling the item. If someone asks you what you would change about TEI, have a specific thing you think should change, be it better quality control on the evaluations so the data they render is more reliable or even a better plan on what the district will do with all that new data it’s collecting to better identify teachers that could be mentors, and teachers that need mentors.
Bring something to the table.
As you campaign, you will find people who will want to support you. So here’s the other thing: Not all of those people will be helpful. Remember, this is your reputation and your name. It’s absolutely within your rights to ask that supporters stay on message. I think we’ve seen with this most recent race what can happen when supporters decide to go rogue. It’s your job to gently and firmly tamp down enthusiasm when it is going to damage your reputation. Yes, you might win without asking your supporters to stick to the platform, but you will also forever have a reputation for dirty politics, whether you actually encouraged it or not.
This is by no means a comprehensive list. But it is a list of common mistakes I see when folks run. As you can tell, you might do OK with a spur-of-the-moment decision to run, but you’ll do even better with a campaign that begins quietly far before you ever even file.
