Submitted applications which do not meet award eligibility criteria, will not be forwarded for judging.
- A Governance Team is defined as the governance leaders of the District or County Office of Education and incudes elected or appointed school board members and the superintendent
- Applicants must be current CSBA members at all times during the application and award process.
- Former Governance Team of the Year winners are not eligible to apply again
Governance Teams may be subject to disqualification at any time during the nomination submission or judging process for the following reasons:
- Any member of the team is or has been the subject of an internal or external investigation conducted by or on behalf of a CSBA committee.
- Any member of the team is or has been the subject of a local jurisdiction investigation.
In addition, Governance Teams of the Year who are found, during the year of designation, to be in violation of the attributes of this award will be disqualified and removed from the Hall of Fame. In furtherance of these objectives, CSBA, in its discretion, may revoke any application or Governance Team of the Year title.
The application narrative should address significant contributions made by the applicant team within the last twelve months to twenty-four months, which may represent a culmination of efforts begun prior to twenty-four months. Applications will be judged on the information provided in the Entry Form.
The criteria below identifies attributes of an effective governance team as outlined in the CSBA Professional Governance Standards for School Boards, which is available at this link, for districts and county offices of education.
Governance teams will be judged on their ability to:
Focus on learning and achievement for all students.
- Maintain accountability for student learning by adopting the district/coe curriculum and monitoring student progress.
- Ensure that a safe and appropriate educational environment is provided to all students.
Communicate a common vision.
- Involve the community, parents, students and staff in developing a common vision for the district/coe focused on learning and achievement and be responsive to the needs of all students.
- Provide community leadership on educational issues and advocate on behalf of students and public education at the local, state and federal levels.
Govern Effectively.
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- Operate openly, with trust and integrity.
- Govern in a dignified and professional manner, treating everyone with civility and respect.
- Take collective responsibility for the board’s performance.
- Recognize and respect differences of perspectives and style on the board and among staff, students, parents and the community.
- Ensure opportunities for the diverse range of views in the community to inform board deliberations.
- Maintain a successful on-boarding process for new governance team members to ensure board commitments are met.
Govern within board-adopted policies and procedures.
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- Update, adopt, and implement policies consistent with the law and the district/COE’s vision and goals.
- Evaluates its own effectiveness.
Adopt a qualified budget based on the district’s/ coe’s vision and goals, and regularly monitor the fiscal health of the LEA. (From CSBA Board Governance Standards)
Apply an equity lens to guide decision making.
Adopt responsible bargaining agreements.
Participate in CSBA professional development and commit to ongoing education to be an informed and effective team.
- Applications will be judged on the information provided in the Entry Form.
- Each CSBA region will have a Regional Judge panel identify the top two applications from the respective region (for a maximum of 21 nominations statewide)
- Regional nominations (for a maximum of 21) will be submitted to CSBA for a second round of scoring, to be judged by the Statewide Award Panel which will select the Governance Team of the Year
- Site validators will visit the top Governance Team to view a Board Meeting. Site validator will verify that the information submitted in the application is consistent with what is being practiced.
- The Governance Team of the Year will be notified by CSBA of the award and will receive the Golden Gavel Award and be inducted into the Golden Gavel Hall of Fame.
CSBA reserves the right to bypass the regional judging and proceed straight to the state-wide judging process based on the number of applications received.