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

Control

Use the board’s strongest operating levers: curriculum authority, instructional time, grading policy, budgets, contracts, and implementation constraints.

Curriculum and courses of study

A board should distinguish receiving an administrative recommendation from actually adopting it. When the board has legal responsibility for a curriculum adoption, textbook, course of study, vendor contract, or expenditure, members should know what they are voting to authorize.

• What student competency is the proposal intended to improve?
• What evidence supports it?
• What standards or benchmarks are affected?
• What instructional materials are involved?
• What is the implementation cost?
• What will be reviewed later to determine whether it worked?

Instructional time

Instructional time is finite. Before adopting a recurring program, require a written analysis of the annual minutes required, grade levels affected, and existing instruction that would be reduced or displaced.

For elementary grades, MLP’s draft framework gives special weight to protecting foundational reading/literacy and mathematics time and aligns that priority with Minnesota’s READ Act and structured literacy.

Grading and intellectual freedom

Board grading policy should identify what legitimate academic performance is being measured. Under the MLP draft framework, academic grades should measure knowledge, skill, evidence, reasoning, communication, and other legitimate academic performance, and should not depend on a student’s personal political or ideological allegiance or real-world political organizing.

This does not remove difficult or contested ideas from instruction. It separates studying an idea from requiring a student to personally adopt or act on it for academic credit.

Budgets, vendors, and contracts

• Total and recurring cost
• Contract term and termination provisions
• Staff training obligations
• Instructional or staff time required
• Measurable student or operational outcome
• Evidence of results before renewal

Use the Instructional Mandate Review for major proposals so cost, time, evidence, and displaced instruction are visible before the vote.

Professional development

Professional-development renewals should be treated as governing decisions when they involve material cost, staff time, or a significant instructional direction. Ask for the intended outcome, participation, hours consumed, cost, and evidence of impact before renewal.

Labor and CBA implementation

Board policy, Minnesota public-employment law, and the district’s collective bargaining agreements can interact. A proposal affecting schedules, preparation time, workload, assignments, compensation, evaluation, or grievance procedures may require additional analysis or bargaining steps. Other matters may remain within management authority. Do not assume either result; map the issue before voting.

Contract/CBA implementation checklist

• Does the proposal alter hours or schedules?
• Preparation time?
• Workload or duties?
• Assignments?
• Compensation?
• Evaluation?
• Grievance exposure?
• Does counsel identify a bargaining or meet-and-confer obligation?
• What management-rights language applies?
• What implementation date is realistic?

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