Congratulations on your election! The New Director Network connects newly elected school board members across the state to learn, share, and grow together.
Join us for monthly virtual gatherings at noon on the third Thursday of each month (except July & August), where you’ll:
In this opening session of the New Director Network for 2026, we’ll make some introductions, give an overview of WSSDA and the abundance of resources, tools and supports we offer. We’ll also take a quick tour of the WSSDA website, annual event schedule, and go over the roles and responsibilities of a school board.
Through lens of the Open Public Meetings Act, we’ll go over the various components of board meetings: the agenda, public comment, the purpose of different types of meetings, and give a quick overview of Robert’s Rules.
In this meeting of the New Director Network we talk about strategic plans. We’ll explore the board’s role and introduce you to WSSDA’s strategic planning workshop and consultation services.
We’ll explore the board’s role in district budgeting. We look at the various components, financial reports, values-based budgeting, fiscal responsibility, and budget approval.
We’ll talk about working with parents, staff, students, and constituents, and representing your community’s interests.
We’ll talk about the board’s responsibilities around policies and procedures, give an overview of WSSDA’s model policy development and revision, and WSSDA’s policy and legal services.
In this meeting of the New Director Network we’ll discuss the importance of superintendent evaluation, approaches for relationship-building and professional growth, and introduce the superintendent evaluation models that WSSDA offers.
We’ll go over understanding student outcome data, opportunity gaps, and other types of data. We’ll practice a sample data review and brainstorm questions a board might want to ask about the data. Last, we’ll talk about getting ready for the biggest school board learning and networking event of the year: the WSSDA Annual Conference.
In our final gathering of the year, we’ll provide a brief overview of school board-related research, board self-assessments and the value of discussing your own effectiveness, and share opportunities for leadership development through WSSDA, like committees, the Leadership WSSDA program etc.