DRAFT 1.1 • GOVERNANCE CENTER • Audience: Minnesota school board members and district leaders

Act

Use practical tools to move from orientation to lawful board action.

First 90 days

Days 1–30: learn the machinery

Read board policies, bylaws, agenda rules, and the meeting calendar.
Read the superintendent contract and evaluation calendar.
Read the district collective bargaining agreements.
Map statutory and local curriculum/advisory committees.
List major curriculum, vendor, budget, and contract renewal dates.

Days 31–60: convert priorities into board work

Select two or three board-level outcomes.
Draft policy language, motions, or information requests.
Identify legal, financial, bargaining, and operational constraints.
Put the items through the board’s normal agenda process.

Days 61–90: vote and follow through

Take the vote.
Assign implementation responsibility.
Set reporting dates and required artifacts.
Return to the agenda to verify that the adopted action occurred.

Board Authority One-Pager

Question	Check first
Does the board have general district authority?	Minn. Stat. §123B.02 and district policy
Is this a board management, instruction, textbook, or course-of-study matter?	Minn. Stat. §123B.09 and applicable state requirements
Is this day-to-day supervision?	Superintendent authority, §123B.143, board policy, contract
Is a parent asking to review curriculum?	§120B.20 and district procedure
Does a curriculum advisory body have a role?	§120B.11 and district policy
Could this affect employee terms or conditions?	Collective bargaining agreement, PELRA, counsel
Can members discuss this privately?	Open Meeting Law, board policy, counsel

Superintendent Goals Worksheet

Expected outcome	What result should exist?
Artifact or deliverable	What document, posting, report, schedule, or policy proves completion?
Measurement	How will the board know whether the outcome occurred?
Reporting dates	When does the board receive evidence?
Legal/policy constraints	What law, board policy, contract, or bargaining obligation applies?
Evaluation evidence	What evidence will be used in the board’s formal review?

Contract/CBA Checklist

Hours or schedules
Preparation time
Workload or duties
Assignments
Compensation
Evaluation
Grievance exposure
Bargaining or meet-and-confer obligations
Management-rights language
Realistic implementation date

Parent review and transparency tools

Minn. Stat. §120B.20 requires districts to have a process for parental review of instructional materials and arrangements for alternative instruction when the statutory conditions are met.

Publish where requests are submitted.
Make the process easy to find and understand.
Apply the process to identifiable digital lessons and materials when they are part of required instruction.
Track whether requests receive timely responses.

See the Parent Kit for the existing curriculum-review letter and records-request tools.

Model motions and resolutions

The Direct page contains the Board Action Builder with sample motions organized by board power and issue.

The existing Downloads page includes the current model board resolutions and parent tools.

The governing test

Before leaving an issue, ask: What did the board actually adopt? Who owns implementation? What artifact is due? When does it come back? What evidence will show that it happened?

Status: Draft 1.1 governance guidance; not adopted law and not legal advice.