Commentary: Calls for school board term limits are motivated by campaign season
Recently, a proposal was presented to the Newport-Mesa Unified School District to place on the November ballot a measure to impose term limits on school board trustees.
While I have no issue exploring with the community the advantages and ramifications of term limits, I do question the hasty timing and politically motivated reasoning behind this important issue.
The two main premises stated by the proponents are that trustees without children currently in school have lost touch with the school community, and that long-term trustees can be too close to district leaders to oversee the superintendent properly.
It is no surprise that those who brought this idea forward are candidates running for seats on the NMUSD board and currently have children in Newport-Mesa schools. This is a campaign ploy that implies current district leadership is not doing its job and that parenthood is the primary qualification our community needs in its leaders. That is clearly not true.
As a current board member, I strongly disagree with their reasoning. I was elected in 2014 to serve as trustee of Area 1. My children had attended Estancia Zone schools, beginning in kindergarten, and graduated in 2012 and 2014. Having children that attended our schools gave me an invaluable overall picture of the K-12 experience. It helped me understand student needs and parent concerns at all stages of learning.
However, simply having children in school, doing volunteer or committee work, or connecting with one school, doesn’t mean one is in touch with the greater community. There are many vital and essential skills that any citizen can bring to the Board of Education, whether they have kids in school or not.
Trustees are not supposed to represent their own interests, but the interests of all parents and residents in the entire school district. It is a short-sighted and narrow view of the leadership responsibility to say that we should be a collection of self-interested area or individual school representatives.
Further, having a good relationship built on trust and respect with the superintendent, district staff and administration does not compromise a trustee’s ability for oversight. Good governance means being able to ask tough questions and have honest dialogue based on mutual respect about what is in the best interests of all children. Micromanaging every decision is misplaced oversight and counterproductive the overall effectiveness of the district.
I believe a healthy board should have a combination of new and experienced trustees. However, we must not lose sight of the importance of trustees having the qualifications, time, and motivation to serve all of our students, families, and citizens. Arbitrarily limiting capable leadership while isolating representation into narrow geographic interest groupings is not the way to go.
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VICKI SNELL is a member of the Newport-Mesa school board.