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The Other Board Member

  
Thanks to Bob Dillon for authoring this piece about the role of learning spaces
Photo of Bob Dillon

In every district there is an unelected board member, this isn’t the person in the community that knows the district and communicates to a huge network of individuals throughout the community. They are important, but they aren’t the unelected board member. The unelected board member isn’t the top businessperson, entrepreneur, professor, or mayor either. Each of these folks have a role in supporting the modern school. The unelected board member is the story that is told by each of your school buildings. These spaces tell the story of learning for the district. These are the same learning stories that the elected board is sharing in the community so that a positive light is cast onto the hard work of teachers and leaders.

 

It is amazing to think about the number of individuals that drive by a district’s schools everyday. Each passing brings a judgment about the learning taking place inside. For example, the school sign looks modern or dated. It showcases athletics or academics. It speaks to the mission of the district, or it is filled with events. Each of these realities is a story being told by the district and the board of education. Great districts are intentional about their signage, the conditions of their buildings and grounds, and how the details of the buildings are maintained because they realize that this may be the only “board member” in which some interact.

 

There are other parts of a district’s learning spaces that also serve this unelected board member role. Consider the entryway of a school. Does the first impression resonate a sense of welcome, pride in the building, and feel like a modern place of learning? This doesn’t mean that schools have to spend huge amounts of money on the entryways, but it means that everyone should be having a conversation about the story the entryway is telling. School board members in a number of districts are revisiting their schools through this lens to see if the entryway tells the same positive story that they are out telling in the community. Each day, students, parents, and others experience the story of the entry of the building, and it impacts the energy of the space and more.

 

The unelected board member is powerful. It says, without words, that the space and the people that serve inside of it care, listen, love, and learn. It tells a story that the district is forward thinking or stuck in the past. Thoughtful, well designed spaces impact the narrative told about a district, a narrative that is extremely hard to recraft once it has taken hold. What is your district known for? What do you want it to be known for? If these are different, then are your buildings supporting this change or inhibiting it?

 

There are other spaces in the district to consider as well. After school hours, there are many groups that use the buildings for meetings and practices. This includes some families that attend the school, but it is also a time when the building is filled with others that only hear the story that the building tells. What story is the unelected board member telling in these moments? Do the hallways, because of their design, showcase an attention to detail and the type of learning that happens throughout the day? Do the bathrooms, because of the signage, cleanliness and amenities, talk to visitors about caring for kids, seeing kids as humans, and being dedicated to excellence. The building, your unelected board member, is always telling a story. Is it the story that you want to be told?

 

Telling a modern learning story without words takes some attention to detail and a willingness to ponder why things have been set up and decorated in the same way over time. It means making the invisible things that school staff walk by each day visible again because every detail is seen by someone in the community each day, and when they notice these details, they are crafting their own story about what learning happens in the district.

 

Make sure that the unelected board member, the physical spaces of the district, are telling the same story that the board of education and the school personnel want the community to see and hear. Doing this right will amplify the hard work of teachers and bring community partners and resources closer to the daily learning throughout the district.


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