July 21, 2006 Outlook & Review (124k )

Boards of public charter schools may join OSBA as associate members, was the unanimous decision at the June 24 board meeting.

Charter schools have long sought services from OSBA. The association’s staff and board have generally believed that accommodating charter schools’ needs meets OSBA’s goals of serving Oregon K-12 students by providing services to the boards that govern their education. However, association policy had not been adapted to the existence of public charter schools in the K-12 education system. An OSBA subcommittee studied the issue and made recommendations to the board in June.

“As a school-board association since 1946, we obviously have a wide range of expertise and services that can help ensure that public charter school leadership will be at its best,” said OSBA President David Beeson. “We’re allowed by our constitution to create other classes of membership, so that’s what we’ve done for charter school boards.”

As associate members, public charter-school boards may access membership benefits that come with annual dues, such as those related to policy, human resources, public records, leadership, and publications. They may also purchase charter-school-employee health insurance through the OSBA Health Insurance Trust and property/casualty coverage through PACE, Property and Casualty Coverage for Education.

Although most OSBA legal services are available to associate members, they may not be represented by OSBA lawyers if they are involved in a dispute with other school districts, community colleges, education service districts or the State Board of Education.

Staff is refining the process for accepting associate members and will contact public charter schools throughout Oregon. Charter-school board dues will be based on ADM, as are the dues for other members.

Following board action, Policies Pertaining to the Organization and Management of the Oregon School Boards Association (218k ) has been changed to describe associate member status and services. 

In Other Business: Committee Will Examine Governance

Also at the June meeting, the OSBA Board agreed to create a Governance Review Committee. 

OSBA President David Beeson (Silver Falls) will appoint a committee that represents a cross-section of OSBA members. It will examine how OSBA has conducted and will conduct elections and other business to increase member involvement and representation.

“OSBA is 60 years old this year - it’s time to re-examine how we govern ourselves,” Beeson said, noting that the committee will reflect the diversity of Oregon school, ESD and community college boards. Watch for his “Insight and Action” message in the August Outlook & Review.

Charter School Resource Center