Saginaw Intermediate School District (SISD) is joining school districts throughout the State of Michigan to celebrate January as School Board Recognition Month. School board members represent their fellow citizens’ views and priorities in the complex enterprise of maintaining and running community public schools. Locally elected school boards also reinforce the principle of local control over public education, which is an important, highly valued aspect of education in Michigan.
“In a year of unique pandemic-driven challenges for public education, not seen in recent modern history, our school board members led through the adversity of 2020 to support the best possible educational opportunities for our students,” said Jeffrey Collier, Superintendent of the Saginaw Intermediate School District. He added, “Celebrating School Board Recognition Month is one of the very small ways to express our appreciation for their leadership.”
School Board members play a crucial role in educational achievement and academic excellence by establishing policy, approving budgets, and supporting personnel. To achieve these goals, school boards focus on the following:
- Creating a vision for what parents and citizens want their school district to become and how to make student achievement the top priority
- Setting standards for what students must learn and be able to accomplish
- Assessing whether schools achieve their goals and whether students are learning
- Accounting for the outcomes of decisions and tracking progress and reporting results
- Aligning the use of the district’s human and financial resources
- Creating a safe and orderly climate where students can learn and teachers can teach
- Collaborating to solve common problems and to support common successes
- Focusing on continuous improvement by questioning, examining, revising, refining, and revisiting issues related to student achievement and educational opportunities
We celebrate the men and women serving the Saginaw ISD Board of Education and their years of service:
- Richard Burmeister, President – 29 years of service
- Ruth Coppens, Vice-President – 32 years of service
- Joseph Powe, Treasurer – 36 years of service
- Irma Scott, Board Trustee – sworn in September 2020
- Laurasue Holcomb, Board Trustee – sworn in November 2020
Saginaw Intermediate School District joins educators and community members in expressing gratitude to education advocates across the Great Lakes Bay Region, throughout the State of Michigan, and the entire United States of America.