Cedar Springs school board gives itself low ratings in self-assessment

By Madison Bennett | MLive

The Cedar Springs Board of Education recently received some blunt feedback after receiving low scores in a self-assessment in leadership and superintendent-board relations from the Michigan Association of School Boards.

Scott Morrell, facilitator from the MASB, came to an Oct. 23 work session to present the results of a self-assessment, which six out of seven of the board members took part in.  

"Isn't that what we're here for, the two biggest jobs we have, work with our one employee and lead our district, and yet you as a group, this isn't anybody else scoring, this is the seven of you, saying we aren't doing a good job of it," Morrell said.

According to Debbie Stair, MASB board development manager, the assessment was designed so school boards could take a look at their current practices and determine areas they could improve.

The assessment consists of a series of questions in areas of leadership, academic performance/accountability, board effectiveness, data-driven decision-making, board-superintendent relations, board responsibilities and community engagement/advocacy.

Each question asked board members to rate themselves from zero, which stands for don't know, to five, meaning excellent.

Board members received their lowest score, an average of 1.97, in board-superintendent relations and their next lowest in leadership, which received an average of 2.02.

In total, the board scored between a 2, which stands for needs improvement, and 3, meaning satisfactory, in every category.

Morrell told the board that some reasoning behind the low scores are trust issues and not having a set of expectations as a team.

"That's really where it's coming from, is why these scores are so low. It's because there's a split in this board in the belief of what the board is about," Trustee Ted Sabinas said at the work session.

In response to community members attending meetings and expressing concerns, Morrell told the board that it starts with them.

"When the board starts functioning better, these community members are going to stop coming because they've got better things to do tonight. I'm sorry, but you guys are crazy. You've got better things to be doing than this monsoon that's going on," Morrell said.

"What we have to start doing is building trust and respect versus setting our hair on fire. When we set our hair on fire, it's a big show so here comes the community."

Morrell suggested that the first thing they do is take a retreat to help them communicate better and start breaking down barriers. Additionally, he recommended they take a personality profile to get an understanding of themselves as individuals and help them learn more about each other.

When contacted, Superintendent Laura VanDuyn referred questions to Board President Matthew Shoffner, who said the results were "fairly expected."

"I knew that we needed, you know, a little bit of improvement as a board in general so I wasn't too surprised at the results," Shoffner said.

Moving forward, Shoffner said that the board as a whole needs to look at this is affecting kids.

"We are the leadership to the whole district and we want to set that tone," he said.

Shoffner added that he is unsure if they will take part in the personality profile but they do plan to participate in a retreat in the future.

This post originally appeared Dec. 7, 2017 on MLive.com.