
Transforming school board meetings: The power of a flipped agenda

Many teachers use a popular and innovative education practice called the flipped classroom model. In the model, students watch short videos and do online work at home. Teachers use classroom time to engage students in discussions, collaboration and project-based learning.
School boards and other elected bodies also are turning to this model to promote board member engagement. Flipped meeting agendas require board members watch prerecorded presentations and read materials before the meeting. Meetings are shorter and more efficient, with the board spending their valuable time together asking questions, discussing and deliberating, not watching staff presentations.

Wisconsin’s Sun Prairie Area School District board has been using the flipped meeting agenda model for about five years. District leaders credit the model with increasing engagement and participation among board members, as well as holding more effective meetings.
“That format not only has supported the board to be able to have really constructive conversations during board meetings, but it's also allowed us to create this catalog of videos that we can then use for extra transparency across our district,” said Bradford Saron, Superintendent at Sun Prairie.
The advantages of flipping the agenda
During traditional board meetings, school board members listen to numerous presentations from staff members at the beginning of the meeting. Staff must pack a lot of information into board meetings, including updates on district operations, student achievement, teacher professional development, budgets, facilities and many other subjects.
“Cognitively, people can focus up until about 90 minutes,” said Sun Prairie board member Steve Schroeder, who serves as the board’s governance officer. “After 90 minutes you start to lose that function. So, sitting in a board meeting for four or five hours — it's not ideal.”
The flipped agenda model allows the board to dive into their governance work right away, instead of wading through information overload. In Sun Prairie, staff prerecord their presentations, which are linked in the online board agenda. Board members must do their homework by watching all the presentations before the board meeting.
By making the presentations available before the board meetings, members can watch them in small batches, taking as long as they need to understand and absorb the information. They can replay or pause to take notes and jot down questions to ask at the board meeting. This format can be more inclusive for board members who may have different learning styles or need accommodations.
Using the flipped model can convince board members of the importance of preparation before the board meeting. With the traditional agenda model, board members anticipated that information would be presented at the meeting. With the flipped model, they realize that they won’t be as effective at the meetings unless they prepare ahead of time.
“Board meetings should be spent hearing from board members, and board members should be engaged with one another, tackling the tough issues that are facing them, in our case, public education in our district and in the state of Wisconsin,” Schroeder said.
Effective meetings and no late nights
Without extended time for presentations, board meeting time is freed up for discussions and deliberation about the matters that the board faces. They can ask staff thoughtful questions about the presentations they viewed earlier. They also have more time for the public comment period.
At Sun Prairie, the board meets twice a month. The average board meeting time has gone from four hours to about 90 to 120 minutes as the result of the move to using the flipped meeting agenda. “I know four hours may be nothing for some folks, but for people who work all day, including our administrative staff to come in and sit in a board meeting, it's a lot,” Schroeder said.
Board members listen to administrators and staff give a 60-second overview of the topic “because we’ve already watched the screencast,” he said. “Then we can engage in conversation and in some cases healthy debate amongst one another. So that's been a huge turning point for our district.”
Saron added, “Board meetings should have board members talking more than administrators. Many districts have an unbalanced amount of time with administrators talking. In Sun Prairie board meetings, we believe the Board should be heard more than our administrative team.”
Make changes with caution
Being able to spend more time at meetings in discussion and debate will sound appealing to most board members. However, switching to a flipped meeting agenda model requires a change in culture and mindset.
The board president and top administrator will need to be open to try running meetings differently. They also need to be willing to give the new model a chance and work through any bumps or difficulties during the changeover without abandoning it.
Staff will need to be trained on how to best present in a virtual environment, as well as on using the technology to record their presentations. This will require them to understand basics on sound and lighting.
Chandramathi Vemuri, Executive Assistant at Sun Prairie, advises that, “for a board to be engaged, you have to involve them in that process of creating agendas because it is their meeting and we just have to acknowledge that and that our job is to support them in running effective meetings.”
Keeping the public informed of the changes is essential. Boards considering making the switch may want to hold information sessions about the advantages of the flipped board agenda model. Board presentations are part of the public meeting record, so board administrators will need to ensure that members of the public have access to the same presentations and information that board members can see.
Board management software can support board meeting effectiveness
Flipped meeting agenda models depend on the reliable, robust and accessible technology. and the right technology. Using board management software like Diligent Community allows board administrators to embed links to presentations in the board agenda, making the presentations accessible not only to board members, but to the public and staff members.
Diligent Community comes loaded with a customizable document library, which provides a convenient, secure and centralized location to upload and manage your documents. You can structure the library so that it has searchable public content and internal folders to protect sensitive information.
Recordings of presentations can be added and shared to board members along with supporting documents in advance of meetings.
Diligent Community is a cloud-based software solution that is specifically designed for publicly elected boards. It is a powerful tool that can help them be efficient and effective, providing a centralized platform that enhances administrative processes, streamlines communication and improves overall efficiency.