[EdTalks] Greenville County School Board 101

Ever wondered how the most local form of government in your neighborhood really works? The Greenville County School Board holds immense responsibility for our students and community, but its operations can often seem complex and opaque. In this episode of Simple Civics Ed Talks, host Catherine Schumacher is joined by former GCS Trustee Derek Lewis to pull back the curtain on School Board 101. They demystify the board's structure, powers, and limitations, answering the core question: What can your school board actually do for you, and where does its power end?

This comprehensive discussion breaks down exactly how the Greenville County School Board functions, from its electoral process to its core duties. Derek Lewis explains what it means to be a policymaking body and clarifies the three primary responsibilities of a trustee: approving board policy, approving the district budget, and managing the superintendent. This episode answers the crucial question of what does a school board do by distinguishing between creating systems-level policy (like transportation rules or attendance maps) and handling individual constituent requests. We explore the value of nonpartisan school board elections and how the 12 single-member districts are designed to ensure community representation.

Get an insider's guide to the different types of school board meetings and learn why each one serves a unique purpose. We dive deep into the Committee of the Whole (COW) meetings, where in-depth discussions happen, and the regular board meetings, where official votes are cast. Derek and Catherine also explain the purpose of confidential executive sessions and special called meetings. For anyone interested in civic engagement, we provide a clear guide on how to speak at a school board meeting, including how and when to sign up for public comment. The conversation also addresses the challenges trustees face, such as combating misinformation and the importance of direct communication with constituents. Finally, we celebrate major successes, like raising teacher pay to competitive levels, and highlight the incredible pride families have in their local schools, reinforcing the strength of public education in Greenville County.

Episode Resources:

• Learn more about Public Education Partners

• Learn more about Greenville First Steps

• Find information on the GCS Board of Trustees

Introduction

Catherine Schumacher: Local school boards are among the earliest elected bodies created in the United States. Here in Greenville County Schools, 12 local leaders serve on the Board of Trustees and carry an enormous responsibility to represent their community and meet the needs of a growing and high-achieving district. How do they do that? I'm Catherine Schumacher with Public Education Partners Greenville County, and on today's episode of Simple Civics Ed Talks, we are bringing you School Board 101 to help you understand more about how our school board operates, what it can do, and what it can't. I'm joined by Derek Lewis, Executive Director of Greenville First Steps and a former Greenville County Schools trustee.

Catherine Schumacher: Welcome, everybody. Welcome to this episode of Simple Civics Ed Talks. This is School Board 101 is what we're calling this. And I'm joined by my partner, Derek Lewis. Excited to have him here as a recovering school board member. Our school board, our board of trustees, is such an important part of understanding how Greenville County Schools works and the work that our trustees do day in and day out to understand what's going on, to support the administration, to ask hard questions, to represent their constituencies and all of that. So I thought it would be great to give an overview of what the school board is, how it works, how it functions, and some of the key parts that we would want folks who are listening to this to understand from a civic engagement standpoint. First question, describe what the Greenville County Schools Board of Trustees looks like.

The Structure of the Greenville County School Board

Derek Lewis: I think that school boards are probably the most local form of government.

Catherine Schumacher: It's democracy in action.

Derek Lewis: Probably the kids on your street are going to a public school at some point during the day and are getting services that are taxpayer-funded that are both improving their outcomes and improving our community in ways that most people don't see with road construction or with a new commercial development that's being planned. I just think it's the most local form of government.

Catherine Schumacher: It's literally in your neighborhood.

Derek Lewis: And I loved serving on the school board. It was also fascinating to me the number of people who thought the school board members were appointed and not elected. Usually when I asked them to put a sign in their yard and they were like, "Oh, I thought the governor just picked you."

Catherine Schumacher: That's just the state school board.

Derek Lewis: Which would have been lovely, I think, to just been appointed and not elected because the campaigning was exhausting. But that's a different podcast for another day. One thing people should know is that there are 12 school board members for the entire county, and that is one person representing a twelfth of Greenville County's population.

Catherine Schumacher: So they're single-member districts. They have geographic. It's like a map. There are lines on a map that determine who they represent.

Derek Lewis: And so if you look at the map, they're pretty similar to the county council.

Catherine Schumacher: Some of them are a little weird.

Derek Lewis: Basically, my area went from essentially Greenville High School to Mauldin High School, and they are adjusted every time the census comes through. And they are nonpartisan, which is another thing that's different about school board races from most races is that you don't run in a primary, you don't get a party endorsement, you typically are just running as a person who wants to do this. Because they're nonpartisan, that means anyone who wants to run for school board can sign up to run for school board, and they can put their name on the ballot, and there's not a huge process to get in there.

Catherine Schumacher: The value of that from an access standpoint for people who want to serve is really meaningful because running for elected office now is expensive and the process of campaigning is expensive. And having that opportunity where it's nonpartisan. And I also like to say potholes are nonpartisan, and I'd like for schools to be nonpartisan, too. I think it's a really wonderful component of what our school board is and how it's set up. All right. So 12 folks.

Derek Lewis: It is really great. And if you look at those folks, most of them were PTA officers. Most of them were SIC or booster club officers, or they're former teachers. They're usually people who somehow have a relationship with the school.

Catherine Schumacher: They've been a teacher, maybe. I'm thinking about who's on there now.

Derek Lewis: And decided, "Okay, this is so important to me that I want to help influence that work." I think it's just a great microcosm of our district.

What Does a School Board Actually Do? The Three Core Responsibilities

Derek Lewis: Those 12 people work with the superintendent and they approve board policy, approve the budget, and manage the superintendent. And those are the only three things they do. Everything else is influencing those things. But at the end of the day, our board policies, our budget, and our superintendent are the three things that the board...

Catherine Schumacher: It's a policy. It is a policymaking board. And that's, I think, probably was a learning curve, too. What are the responsibilities that a board has? And what are the responsibilities that the board doesn't have oversight over? And what does admin do versus? I think that is all very interesting. What are the processes? What did that look like? What was your job?

Derek Lewis: A lot of it came from those three things. I think a good example is attendance areas. So if a parent called me and said, "I have been zoned for Augusta Circle and I would prefer to be at Blythe," there is a process to move you. The board cannot look at that family and move that family from Augusta Circle to Blythe. That requires action. Those processes are approving the attendance maps and then in revising those attendance maps as we need to. And so rather than looking at each individual parent's concerns, it's more about are the systems in place to accommodate that? If they need a bus and the bus is taking 45 minutes, then what are our bus transportation policies that would help that family?

Catherine Schumacher: It's systems. It's creating those systems and structures to allow the administration to respond to individual issues, opportunities, challenges as they come up.

Derek Lewis: And that may be very different than, say, how a city council may operate, where they've actually got people knocking on doors and asking people, "Do you want your trash picked up on Monday or Tuesday?" The school board is not in that level of weeds.

Catherine Schumacher: Doesn't work that way.

A Guide to the Different Types of School Board Meetings

Catherine Schumacher: As a school board watcher, there are several different kinds of meetings. If you go to the school district website, they actually have a really fantastic page dedicated to the board of trustees. They just redid it. They did an amazing job of really rethinking how that page is set up. Everything you would want to know about when meetings are, what the agenda items are, all the presentations, all of that is on there. I really encourage you all who are interested in learning more about how the school board works to go there.

So, three categories of meetings. Some of these are similar to what you'll see in other elected bodies and how they work: Committee of the Whole meetings or COW, the COW meeting, the regular session, the regular meeting, and then executive sessions. And then there are also special called meetings that fall into a separate category. My personal jam is the COW. Explain what the Committee of the Whole meeting is and why it's so important to the trustees to help them make the right decisions for who they represent.

Derek Lewis: It used to be that the board had these little committees. There was a finance committee, there was an instruction committee, there was an advocacy committee, there was an employee relations committee. And those committees met and they made decisions. And then those decisions were sent up to the board. What the board realized way before I was there was it meant a few people knew a lot about a few things and everyone else was just waiting for the board meeting to learn about those things.

And so they changed it to a Committee of the Whole model, which is the COW, where instead of a few of us hearing about finance, we all 12 get a presentation on finance and then we all 12 ask questions. Then if we're ready, that information gets moved forward to the board meeting two weeks later where we're actually going to be asked to actually vote on the thing.

Catherine Schumacher: If there's a thing to be voted on. And sometimes stuff presented at COW is just for information to inform those decisions.

Derek Lewis: We can have the whole instruction conversation on just how are our third-grade math scores.

Catherine Schumacher: Which is so interesting. And the great thing about COW, they're at 9:00 on the second Tuesday of the month. So there's one a month. They're live broadcast on the district's YouTube channel. Usually, there's a link right on the homepage of the GCS website when it's going on. So you can listen live, but they're also recorded. You can learn a lot. Any presentations about when test scores come out, they always have a conversation about that. Right now, we're going through a really deep dive into how Greenville County Schools serves students with special needs. I'm sure there will be a presentation about that soon that will come and be presented at COW. It's a really great place. I've learned so much listening to COWs.

Derek Lewis: And they're long. They start at 9:00 a.m.

Catherine Schumacher: They can be very long.

Derek Lewis: They may go to 3:00, 4:00. But you're right. And the other thing that I love about COWs is that the COW is the opportunity for an individual board member to say, "I'd like to know more about X." I remember in my first year, one of the things I wanted to know about was our after-school programs. What is the difference between an afterschool and an extended day program? How much do they cost? How many kids are in them?

Catherine Schumacher: Who's paying for it? Is the district paying for it? All of that.

Derek Lewis: And I got a one-hour presentation on this is the system that is extended day programs. This is how they're funded. And then the board could use that information either to answer constituent concerns or to talk about, is there a change in policy that needs to occur as a result of what we've learned here?

Catherine Schumacher: COW meetings are actually open to the public. They actually have a comments period at the top. So sometimes people will come and speak, not as often as they do for the regular board meetings, but that is on the agenda. But you can sit there and you can listen and then you can certainly watch it at home afterwards. Often what will happen if there's a particular policy change or something needs to be voted on, it will be initially approved at the Committee of the Whole meeting. And then it gets moved to the regular board meeting.

The regular board meeting is exactly what it says. It's at 6:00 p.m. on the fourth, usually it's the fourth Tuesday of the month, not always, but usually. So talk about the regular meeting and what that looks like.

Derek Lewis: That's one of the things that people miss if they don't know all of this about the COW, is that they come to the regular board meeting and there's a 15-minute discussion on a thing that was talked about for two hours, two weeks before. So they may see it and think, "Well, why is nobody sharing anything?"

Catherine Schumacher: Why is no one asking these questions?

Derek Lewis: Well, it's because we asked them two weeks ago and we got our answers. Probably you're only asking follow-up questions or you're asking questions that a constituent said, "Hey, you didn't ask this two weeks ago, will you ask this now?" And so it's really just a chance to make sure everybody's on the same page. That's typically what's going to happen. A good example might be, let's say the district wants to approve some new purchase of a new property. Then we may talk about that at the COW, but it won't be until the board meeting that actually this thing is now we need you to vote on this thing and are we going to do this thing or not.

Catherine Schumacher: It's the official vote. And sometimes there will be some conversation at the regular board meeting, questions that came up in the middle. And sometimes, honestly, school board members are elected officials and they want their people to know that they're paying attention. So sometimes questions that maybe were asked at COW will be reiterated. That is obviously at the discretion of the members. And I get that, because most people are paying attention to the regular board meetings more.

How to Speak and Provide Public Comment at a Board Meeting

Catherine Schumacher: And the other thing, comments from the public are also welcomed at the top of the regular meeting. And that's when most people, if they're going to speak, will come speak. You can sign up online for 24 hours before the meeting, and then you can sign up in person. I think it opens at maybe 5:15 and then closes at 5:40. Again, check the website for that. But you can sign up in person and then go and you have three minutes unless a lot of people have signed up and then they may cut it to two. But it's a really great opportunity to share if you've walked a challenge or something up the pipeline and you want the trustees to know about something. It's, again, a public forum. So it's an important time for that kind of feedback from the constituents.

Derek Lewis: The other thing I would want people to know is that there's very little opportunity at the board meeting for new business to be done because it's usually getting done at the COW. One of the things that I could tell people would be really frustrated about is they would come to the board meeting and they would say, "I want the board to do something about the amount of time kids get in recess." But there's not a place in the board meeting for me to introduce a new recess policy. I've got to go back through the COW, which means it's going to take 30, 60 days to get it through the system. And sometimes I think people feel like they're not being heard, but it's because the process requires a different timeline than you want.

Catherine Schumacher: And then sometimes you have executive sessions. That's something that you'll often hear that will happen before, usually before the main meetings. And the current chair of the trustees, Dr. Carolyn Styles, when she comes in, she starts the meeting and says, "Want to update the public that we met in executive session about certain matters." Sometimes it's special exemptions. Sometimes it's employee issues, no votes were taken or whatever the action might be. It's an opportunity for the Board of Trustees to discuss sensitive matters involving particular people where they have a responsibility to provide that oversight.

Derek Lewis: I think a great example of that was the district's decision to adopt the Evolv program where we had school detectors. The district actually took us through the whole process, showed us all the protocols that were in place that they felt we should be aware of. Then we had a chance to ask questions about where are the blind spots? How do we know that this is going to effectively deter weapons? Have you tested it? All of those things, we would want to have an executive session. You would not want to have a public discussion about these are the protocols, these are the gaps we've found.

Catherine Schumacher: You don't want everybody to know all of those things.

Derek Lewis: So then we came out of executive session with everybody comfortable with what they heard and we voted to fund the Evolv program. That was one of those places where people emailed me and said, "Well, why didn't you ask any questions?" And I was like, "Because we've already walked through the system in a way that wasn't, I think, really appropriate for the whole public to be a part of."

Catherine Schumacher: That brings up a good point of trust and transparency. And I think one of the things that I really encourage folks to do, because I've taken the time to know the trustees, I'm present at all the school board meetings. Y'all come join me. These are people making decisions. They are making decisions. They take their work very seriously. That idea that if someone isn't asking questions, generally speaking, it's because they've asked them somewhere else or in another setting. I think it is important to try and to build that trust. And that's why we, again, I like these podcasts because it's an opportunity for people to go behind the curtain.

The other kinds of meetings that you will often see for the school board are special called sessions. What are some of the things that a special called meeting might address?

Derek Lewis: Special called meetings typically involve a specific topic that doesn't really fit into this process. We could have a special called meeting about our third-grade reading scores. It could be a board member, it could be the administration, somebody has decided that we need to spend some time talking about a specific thing that may not require action, it may require action, but it's going to require a little bit different format than the typical.

Catherine Schumacher: It could be like an advocacy. If you were going to pass an advocacy statement that you wanted to send down to Columbia.

Derek Lewis: For example. Something we had to do pretty quickly, maybe that is going to fit on the calendar. Or it could be something that, I don't need you to vote on third-grade reading scores, but I want you to see how every one of our elementary schools have changed in their third-grade reading score performance over the last two years. So that in six months, when we come to you and talk to you about taking a strategy we learn from one school and replicating it in the other elementary schools, this is where that's going to show up in the budget.

Catherine Schumacher: And unlike executive sessions, special called meetings are open to the public. People don't often go, but you could if there's a topic that you're interested in. But those are open to the public. And I think that's important from a transparency standpoint, too.

The Challenges of Serving: Communication and Misinformation

Catherine Schumacher: As you look back, the challenges of working in this kind of, you get thrown together with these folks, what are some of the challenges of working together with a school board, with fellow members?

Derek Lewis: I think that one of the biggest challenges that I saw before I came on the board was I had no idea what was going on. And no one was, I felt, being transparent with me about the actions that were happening at the board. As a board member, that was one of the things that was really important to me was how do I keep my constituents informed?

Catherine Schumacher: How do I communicate with the folks who voted me in?

Derek Lewis: And not just about the thing I did, but the thing I'm being asked to do in two weeks so that the constituents have an opportunity to respond. Some board members do that through newsletters and some of them do it through social media and some of them do it through going to talk to their Sunday school class. But I think that is the biggest challenge is you've got this huge swath of land and people. I don't know all of them personally. Other than the people I see at church or my son's baseball game, most of the people I'm communicating with electronically. But keeping people informed, I think, is a really big challenge because they're getting information from somewhere and it may not be accurate. And if they don't trust you as someone who's keeping them informed, then they may never come to you and say, "Hey, I heard that there was an incident at my school and nobody told me about it."

Catherine Schumacher: Or so many issues. It's, especially in this day and age, a game of telephone where there's some kernel of something and then it gets passed around and passed around and passed around. And so, again, that's why I really encourage folks to build those relationships. If you have students in the schools and you hear something, engage with the teacher, engage with the principal, build a relationship with your school board member, really get those facts about what's going on.

Derek Lewis: And I just think that's so important because I think sometimes people hear that something happened, or they hear that the district is doing something, or they hear that a teacher is doing something. And it may not actually have even happened in this state. I remember multiple times people emailed me concerned about a post they saw about something that happened in Greenville, and it was a different Greenville. But they saw that this thing happened in a Greenville school, and they assumed that that meant it was happening in all of our schools.

Catherine Schumacher: I've had things too where folks have come to me about something, and there's some information that I'm not privy to, obviously. And I think that's the other piece of it that's really hard. I do think it's, again, back to that trust. And I've heard that a lot. If you've been listening to these podcasts and you hear a principal speak or a teacher speak, the need to trust is hard. It's a hard thing. And I think figuring out a way to get there, particularly around schools, which are, again, in our communities and of our communities in a really particular way, I think is really, really valuable. And that's something we're hoping to build through these kinds of conversations.

Success Stories: Raising Teacher Pay and Building Community Pride

Catherine Schumacher: What about bright spots? What are some things that you're really proud of?

Derek Lewis: The thing that I'm most proud of that we did as a district was raising teacher pay. When I came on the school board, teacher pay was, I think we were 30th in the state and now we're in the top 10. And not only percentage-wise, but just amount-wise. I think we're getting to a place where teachers' pay is equivalent to a livable wage that rewards them for this advanced degree.

Catherine Schumacher: And we're starting to hear that it's having an impact. More people are enrolling in teacher prep programs. And that's a statewide commitment. And again, kudos to kudos to everybody for raising the issue and then advocating around it. And particularly to Greenville trustees for being ahead of it, being ahead of the curve. We were, I think, the first district in the state to pay 40. And now we're above 50. And really maintaining that competitive edge in terms of hiring and retaining the best is really a priority.

Derek Lewis: I think the other thing that I'm really proud of in Greenville is that families are really proud of their schools. And if you look at surveys, parents are surveyed every year, so we have pretty consistent data that most of our school satisfaction surveys are in the upper 90s, 90% positive responses. It's easy sometimes to hear, particularly people running for elected office, to say the problem with our country is our schools are terrible.

Catherine Schumacher: Failing public schools.

Derek Lewis: But then if you ask a parent, "What do you think about your child's school?" it's usually incredibly positive. I think that one of the things that we have are a lot of really great schools. And we have parents who are proud of those schools. I think the need we have is for those parents to repeat that message to people who don't have kids in school. If you are an adult and your child is an adult, then it could have been a decade since the last time you set foot in an elementary school and what is happening today in an elementary school did not happen 12 years ago and certainly didn't happen 30 years ago. So I think just being an advocate to say, "I have been in my child's school and I have seen this happen," whatever it is that I think is remarkable, it probably didn't happen 20 years ago.

Catherine Schumacher: And also share that news. And I think that's the other thing I would encourage folks to do is to share the things that you are happy about at school board meetings and to your school board representative and to your principal and to the administration, because that is really valuable. The vast majority of school-aged children in Greenville attend Greenville County Schools. That's because the schools are excellent. And I think we really want to lift that up and celebrate that here on the Ed Talks podcast.

Derek Lewis: I think sometimes people don't understand the very small number of people who reach out to their board member. If I was a board member and I got three emails about a problem with a youth sports program, three emails would be a crisis.

Catherine Schumacher: Yes.

Derek Lewis: And the superintendent would get a call if I got three emails from someone concerned about a high school football program or concerned about a biology instructor. But that means there's probably a hundred people who are delighted with what's happening who haven't responded. And I don't think you should do it every day, but if you have a good experience with your marching band program, you should email your board member and say, "Hey, I just want you to know I'm a parent in the Greenville High marching band program and I am happy with what is happening here," because those positive emails will also create some really good opportunities for the district to see where the great stuff is happening.

Catherine Schumacher: And what from an investment standpoint, I think continuing to say these are our schools. If you just moved here, they're your schools, too. If you have no kids in the schools, they're your schools, too. That's the power of public education and public schools in our communities. Thank you so much, Derek. I appreciate you being here and hope you all have enjoyed School Board 101. And we'll look forward to talking to you next time. Simple Civics Ed Talks is a joint project of Greater Good Greenville, Greenville First Steps, and Public Education Partners Greenville County.