District Policies

School Board Governance Policies

Governing policies express the school board’s values, their expectations about the way the school district will be run, and the end results they want district staff to work to achieve. The board is able to lead, direct, inspire, and control the outcomes and operations of the district through carefully crafting this set of policy statements and effectively monitoring them.

Governing Policies provide a logical process for the Ferndale School Board to govern effectively. The board is committed to using them to:

• Eliminate confusion between board and superintendent roles;
• Focus on student outcomes and achievement results;
• Free the superintendent and staff to do their jobs without the board's intrusion into day-to-day management decisions; and
• Achieve control over operational decisions in a manner that maintains the board’s authority at the governance level. 

Superintendent Administrative Policies

Under a policy governance model, like the one we have implemented in Ferndale, the superintendent, not the school board, is responsible for the administrative policies and procedures that describe how the school district operates. Even though these administrative policies fall under the purview of the superintendent, in most cases the law requires the board to take official action to approve and/or adopt them. When there is not a legal mandate for doing so, the superintendent generally chooses to include new or significantly changed policies for consideration on the agenda of a board meetings anyway in order to keep board members informed. New administrative policies are included either as separate items for discussion or as part of the Superintendent’s Consent Agenda.

Administrative policies are categorized into the six following areas, which have been established at the state level and are consistent throughout school districts in Washington:  

POLICIES VS. PROCEDURES
Administrative policies are generally approved by the board and impose legal requirements on the district. New policies and policy changes often go through a public reading and comment process before they are adopted.

Procedures, on the other hand, are established by the district administration. Procedures do not require board approval. Procedures that are likely to be controversial may go through a public comment process, although this is not required.

Administrative policies and procedures are related because the procedures outline how school district personnel will implement the policies. If an administrative policy changes, procedures may need to be changed as well.

ONGOING POLICY REVIEW
Washington State School Directors Association (WSSDA) publishes a bi-monthly newsletter called Policy News that reports changes in the law, court cases, and attorney general rulings that affect school district policies. Each issue describes the specific administrative policies that have been affected and provides recommended changes. The Ferndale School District relies on the technical assistance of WSSDA and its reference policies to keep its administrative policies up-to-date.

If you have any questions regarding policies, please call the superintendent’s office at 360.383.9207 or email.

School Board Governance Policies, Interpretations, Monitoring Indicators, Goals, and Reports

GOVERNANCE CULTURE (GC): These policies define the board’s own work and how it will be carried out. They clearly state the expectations the board has for individual and collective behavior.

BOARD SUPERINTENDENT RELATIONSHIP (BSR): These policies define how authority is delegated by the board to its point of connection – the superintendent - and how the superintendent’s performance will be evaluated.

OPERATIONAL EXPECTATIONS (OE): These policies define both the non-negotiable expectations and the clear boundaries within which the superintendent and staff must operate as they run the business of the school district. They articulate the actions and decisions the board would find either absolutely necessary or totally unacceptable.

RESULTS (R): These policies define the board’s expectations about the achievement outcomes for all students in the Ferndale School District. They become the superintendent’s and the organization’s performance targets.

MONITORING SCHEDULE FOR GOVERNANCE POLICIES

*NOTE: During the first ten months of the pandemic (from February 2020 until December 2020), the Board chose to suspend its policy monitoring to allow the superintendent and administrative team to address the more pressing needs of caring for children, youth, families, and staff members and creating a new delivery system for teaching students remotely.