School governor elections - how do I cast my vote wisely?

[Hallgerda]

It's that time of year again, when one is expected to decide between The Ordinary Mum, The IT Director, Sad Bloke Taking Annual Opportunity To Mention PhD, The Caring Professional, The CV Builder, The Ethnic Minority Community Leader and Something in Entertainment (different names but same basic types seem to crop up all the time).

All of you who are school governors, I'm not putting you down. I'm sure you all do a great job. But how do I vote sensibly in an election in which I don't even know what the contentious issues are, let alone how choosing a particular candidate would make a difference to their resolution.

It's easier when I know the people - after removing obvious loons the choice is usually easy but what do you do when you don't? Do you vote for the candidate most like yourself, or try to get a balance (that one's hard if you don't have the CVs for the members not standing for re-election). Or is there something you can read between the lines that I just haven't spotted?

I'm trying to do the decent thing for once - please help me!

[anteater]

the Ordinary mum looks like the choice from your list.. Often these boards need a bit more ordinary in them.
Next best would be nice but stupid (not on your list tho), puts the fear of god thro academia!!

[Marina]

We have this with elections to my professional association's national council Hallgerda. It does help that ALL the candidates in that one are Sad Blokes or CV Builders I guess
Could you suggest for future reference to the Chair that CVs are not enough, all parents need a mini-manifesto - say no more than a page of A4 saying why they want to be Governors and what their objectives during their term of office are?

[Hallgerda]

Nice but stupid never seems to stand in the schools mine attend - but an (alleged) arsonist did once! (I heard about the arson incident from the tenant in the flat above at the time).

[Hallgerda]

Marina, the candidates do say a little about their objectives, but it's far too general and anodyne. Everyone's in favour of excellent academic standards and impeccable behaviour, unsurprisingly.

[anteater]

On our board we have

CV builder x1
The Ordinary Mum x2
The Caring Professional x3
Community Leader x1
business people x5
Something in Entertainment x1

[bossykate]

hmmm. parent governors are elected but do not have a mandate to carry through a manifesto on the governing body.

[bossykate]

more useful...

The role of the parent governor representative
The PGR's role is to hold their local authority to account and consult and feed back to parents on the LA's discussions and decisions on education. Their task is to represent parents, not to be mandated by them to act in a particular way or to be their delegate. The role involves:

Speaking for parents and pupils on education matters at local authority meetings
Voting in key decisions
Keeping in touch with general views of parents
Acting as a sounding board for the local authority when it wants to get a feel for whether parents are likely to welcome or reject a particular proposal.
Although there are no financial rewards from being a parent governor representative, a PGR can expect:

To get personal satisfaction from performing an important public service
To develop a better understanding of how your local authority takes strategic decisions
To build effective and valuable working relationships with officers, elected local councillors, church representatives and other appointed committee members such as teachers
If you would like to contact the PGRs elected in your area, you can get in touch through your LA's governor services department.

You can also visit The PGR Network website, which offers the latest information, news and views from other PGRs. You can find the link to the website in the 'related links' list below.

from parentscentre.gov.uk

i would vote for the candidate who in their "manifesto" displays the best understanding of the role.

[Hallgerda]

Thanks, bossykate - that's probably the best thing I have to go on, but I wonder whether judging on how well the candidates' statements display understanding of the role and the qualities required for the job would result in over-representation of management consultants (and I know from bitter experience that their competence can be less impressive than their CV writing).

[mamijacacalys]

Why not stand for election yourself if you're not already a governor - you sound eminently qualified?!

[sorrell]

PSML at the categories Hallgerda. So true!

[Hallgerda]

I wouldn't want the job myself for several reasons. Firstly, I'm not available at the time they meet. Secondly, I think I might be more use as a free-ranging constructive troublemaker not tied by collective responsibility. Thirdly, I feel I've "done" committees and would rather be swinging my axe in the woods for the local wildlife trust. But thanks for the compliment, mamijacacalys .

[anteater]

actually we could do with an arsonist on our board

[clerkKent]

Hallgerda, one of them is a mumsnetter... its me!

I am not quite sure which one I am in your categories, but I can narrow it down to Caring Professional or CV Builder.

As it happens, I know one of the other contenders - we worked in the same company 20 years ago. I think his statement is very strong and he is bound to get in (Ros is a name he mentions - I know her too).

[anteater]

[Hallgerda]

Thanks for the information, clerkKent. If elected, could you do something about the lunch queue?

I hasten to add that some of my categories (including arsonist) referred to the candidates at my younger children's primary school.

[clerkKent]

The lunch queue is much improved from last year! The debit card system works well in speeding things up. I think it may be a problem for those in year 7 - they all go to lunch at the same time. I will ask DS about it...

[clerkKent]

OK I spoke to DS - there is a problem. He says Year 7s are slow getting to the lunch queue. If you leave it until the queue has died down, the best food has all gone. So you have to rush to get there first.

[Hallgerda]

Yes, that's the trouble. Some Year 7s (not my DS1) have had detentions for not getting to afternoon registration on time after spending most of lunchtime queueing. They've not been helped by some teachers asking them to write down their homework at the start of the lunch period. I'm glad to hear the situation for Year 8s is better.

Having said all that, if the length of the lunch queue is the biggest problem DS1 has encountered in nearly two weeks, things must be going well for him!

[queenceleste]

Hallgerda, I agree with mamijacacalys and despite your resons for not wanting to stand I think your school would be lucky to have you on board. Having been a parent governor for a year now (so not an expert!) I am amazed at the opportunity I've had to really support the school in doing its job. You seem to have a slightly negative view of those who stand - is that based on a bad experience of individuals or a healthy cynicism! What I've found is a lot of really dedicated people who give loads of time to support the school iin a practical way.
Can you ever be available for meetings? Have you checked the days they have committees? I am unavailable this year for full gov body meetings but can still make my committees. I can still feed into the system and email my thoughts to the chairman. You sound exactly the kind of passionate axe wielding parent schools need to thrive! I'm often sitting in meetings wishing there were just more of us to support the Head in the incalculable load of paperwork she has to plough through before getting on with running the school.

[chestnutty]

I got to be a parent governor by default.
There was 3 vacancies and 3 people applied. I only did a brief cv as I only wanted the board to be full, if some one more qualified had stood I would not have fought them for it.
Now - 3 years later- I'm glad to be a governor , one less suit.

[Hallgerda]

queenceleste, thanks but I have enough on my plate at the moment what with three sons, a distance learning course starting up in a few weeks and the nature reserve voluntary work.

I really wasn't putting down school governors - DS2 and DS3's primary school has an excellent set of parent governors at the moment - dedicated, approachable and with skills, interests and experiences that complement one another. There have been some less good ones in the past (inflexible, set in their ways and resistant to change, lording it because of their exalted position etc) so I know that the quality of the governors makes a difference. That's why I'm keen to vote for the right people.

I take bossykate's point that the job is not about party politics and that the governors are not mandated to follow a manifesto, but some indication of what the candidates see as the main issues, and what they would bring to the role (other than membership of The Great and the Good) would be helpful. But then again, the primary school has an excellent governor who stood on an "I just want to give something back" statement - she was elected because pretty well everyone knows and respects her. I can also see that it's easier for candidates to write about issues if the school has problems.

My main problem was one of adjustment from knowing all the candidates at primary school to knowing none (or so I thought!) at secondary (DS1 has been there under two weeks) and so being more dependent on the written statements.

It's interesting that there's been more response to this thread from governors and candidates than from the electorate, but then I have known the candidates to outnumber the turnout in parent governor elections so perhaps it's not altogether surprising.

[queenceleste]

Hallgerda, forgive me if I sounded like I was harrassing you to be a gov - I didn't mean it to come out like that, I meant it to be a compliment - very sorry. I've only been lucky enough to have one child and am not yet back at work so have the luxury of time to give for a short time before I go back to work.

I had no clear idea what the governing body does until I joined it and it has been absolutely fascinating, rewarding, tough, scary and sometimes a huge laugh. I didn't expect most of that list! I am still amazed at what an important role the body has and also how few people are able to make the commitment of time for very good reasons. It's worrying that schools have to rely so heavily on this volunteer force.

I wondered if you could ask the chair of governors for advice? Our chair is wonderfully available if contacted. Maybe he/she could give you a chance to speak to the candidates. Our school used to arrange an annual meeting but no parents came so they stopped! All the best.

[snorkle]

Message withdrawn

[Hallgerda]

queenceleste, I took absolutely no offence from your earlier post - I hope I didn't cause any, and I'm sorry if I did. You imply you will have to stop being a governor when you return to work and it's clear you would like to continue. Would it be worth asking your employer for paid time off? I know it sounds cheeky, but civil servants can get "facility time" to be school governors, magistrates etc. and some other employers like to show commitment to the wider community by supporting their employees' involvement in such roles.

The closing date for voting was yesterday, and DS1 got my ballot paper in on time - I'd been rather concerned he'd miss the deadline and I'd have wasted everyone's time on here.

(snorkle, the lunch queue is the school governor election analogue to The Irish Question - for form's sake I had to ask clerkKent something!)

[clerkKent]

I was away on business last week - I didn't get in. If I applied again, I would change my personal statement fundamentally.

Interestingly, the letter informing me said nothing about who was elected, and the school web site also says nothing about who the existing or new governors are, or when they meet. I have no idea how to get in touch with them.