The school board is made up of five volunteers who have been elected to guide and direct the school district. As elected representatives, the board is responsible for collecting input from the community. How do you make your school board work for you? To understand how best to work with your school board, it’s important to understand what the board does and doesn't do. A school board’s main role is to set direction and establish goals for the district. Members of the school board are responsible for governing, while the superintendent and his administrative staff are responsible for managing. The superintendent’s role is to implement and administer the direction set by the school board. Together, the two make up the leadership team for the district.

How To Work With The School Board

There are many ways to make sure your interests are represented, including through letters, email, and school board meetings. The school board typically meets on the second and fourth Thursday of each month beginning at 6:00 pm, in Chautauqua Elementary School conference room. Occasionally, this schedule will change due to school breaks so it is best to check meeting dates and agendas on the website before you attend a meeting.

School board meetings are open to the public, with the exception of executive and exempt sessions dealing with certain sensitive issues such as real estate transactions, labor negotiations, personnel issues or student and employee appeals. The agenda for board meetings is set by the board chair and vice-chair, who consider all requests made in writing received at least twelve days prior to the next meeting. The agenda and board packet are posted on the meetings and agenda section of the district website on the Monday prior to the Thursday board meeting. Hard copies of documents are available for review in the district office.

Time is set aside near the beginning and the end of each board meeting for community members to speak to the board for three minutes. We welcome and consider all public comments. 

In addition to providing a forum for community members to make comments and raise issues to the Board, our meetings are working sessions because they are the only time the five members of the board can legally talk about issues as a group. So the discussion and debate among the five members which you see is always free and open and sometimes untidy. That’s representative democracy. 

Letters and e-mail are effective ways to make your views known. Email addresses of school board members are listed above, you may also email the entire Board, the Board Secretary (Superintendent), and the Board Recording Secretary (Executive Assistant to the Superintendent) at: vashonschoolboard@vashonsd.org Letters should be addressed to the board chair who will see that all five board members receive a copy. The mailing address for written correspondence: Board Chair, Vashon School District, PO Box 547, Vashon, WA 98070-0547.