Members of the Springfield Board of Education spent time Tuesday working on themselves. While the discussion showed board members believe they've come a long way since tense meetings in 2023, it also revealed they still have work to do.
The board held a special retreat meeting on Feb. 20 to conduct a self-evaluation. Led by Katherine Whitaker, associate executive director of leadership and development for the Missouri School Boards Association, the meeting gave Springfield school board members the chance to focus on common goals and strengthen shortcomings.
Before the meeting, each board member filled out an evaluation, where each member's separate answers to a set of questions spread across varying levels of agreement or disagreement. Those results were used as topics of discussion between board members.
Instead of meeting on their usual dais, board members sat at one of two tables during the meeting. The two tables discussed issues separately for a few minutes, then the tables convened to discuss with each other for a few more. Board members were switched between tables every so often, in order to ensure everyone got a chance to work with everyone else.
Micromanagement, collective authority
A discussion on micromanagement revealed one of the bigger divisions in the Springfield Board of Education.
Board members were asked to consider what micromanaging looks like during a meeting, and outside of a meeting. Whitaker said that the Springfield Board of Education is far from the only board in Missouri that struggles with micromanagement.
“This is the hardest thing for them to wrap their heads around, because they care so much,” Whitaker said. “But they don’t realize when they are doing things that are out of their job description.”
As discussion continued, micromanaging manifested itself through board members giving directions individually.
Board member Shurita Thomas-Tate recommended that instead of one member asking the superintendent for an action or information, that the board should request that the president deliver such instructions.
“I think it’s best that we address those questions to the board president during meetings, rather than the superintendent,” Thomas-Tate said. “As a collective board, we’ve given that authority to our board president.”
Whitaker reaffirmed that by saying the board has a collective authority, not individual authority.
Board member Kelly Byrne said he had a different understanding of what a “directive” was, and said he felt that any board member should be able to request information from administrators.
“Requesting information is not a directive,” Byrne said. “It is up to each of us to decide how many questions and what type of questions to gather information for making decisions. And it is certainly not my job to tell another board member where that line should stop.”
Board President Danielle Kincaid said that such instructions are directives, and instances of micromanagement through requests for information from SPS Superintendent Grenita Lathan and other administrators have happened over the last year.
“I don’t think it’s fair to put Dr. Lathan in that position,” Kincaid said. “I think we have to hold each other accountable so that collectively we are getting the information the board needs.”
Improvements over the past year
The meeting showed that, while trust issues still exist, the board has come a long way since the elections of April 2023.
After a series of contentious meetings, board members in a similar retreat in May 2023 discussed ways to treat each other with more civility during meetings, according to a report from the Springfield News-Leader.
While the board still has split votes on some issues, and goes through tense moments during meetings, Byrne noted that meetings have improved — though board members still disagree, they have been able to do so respectfully, he said.
“It’s important for us to do our job to disagree,” Byrne said. “I agree that in general we do a good job of disagreeing effectively. I don’t think we always did that.”
