II-01: Governing Board

North Sanpete School District
Statement of ............. 

Board Policy with Guidelines

Policy Number: II-1
Effective Date: 12/16/1982
Revised Date:
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Subject: Governing Board

BOARD POLICY
The Constitution of the State of Utah charges the State with the responsibility of maintaining a system of free public schools for all children in Utah. The state legislature fulfills this responsibility by enacting laws to regulate the schools, providing a portion of the funds needed for operating the schools, and delegating the immediate control of the schools to the boards of education elected within the local school districts.

However, by custom and tradition, local school boards have responsibilities to the local citizenry they serve and, by ethics, to the professional personnel they employ. Recognizing this three dimensional concept of source of authority and responsibility, the Board of Education of North Sanpete School District is the policy making body for the North Sanpete Schools and serves within the framework provided by law, the will of the local citizenry, and the ethics of the professional personnel employed by the Board.

The wisdom and foresight of the members of the Board and the effectiveness and efficiency with which the board as a corporate body discharges it's duties and obligations will determine to a large extent the educational level of the citizens of the community.

GUIDELINES

1. Legal Basis School Laws: 1953: State Code 53-6-20: "Every board of education shall have power and authority to . . . and may do all things needful for the maintenance, prosperity, and success of the schools, and the promotion of education; and may adopt by-laws and rules for it's own procedure, and make and enforce all needful rules and regulations for the control and management of the public schools of the district."
   
   
2. Corporate Powers of the Board: The North Sanpete School District is a body politic and corporate, and as such, capable of suing and being sued, contracting and being contracted with, acquiring, holding, possessing of real and personal property, and taking and holding in trust for the use and benefit of the North Sanpete School District any grant or devise of land and any donation or bequest of money or other personal property.
   
   
3. Election of Members: The Board consists of five members elected by the people for a period of four years as prescribed by law (State Code 53-4-3).
   
   
4. Election of Officers: It elects it's President and Vice-President from is own membership. Each officer shall serve for a period of two years (State Code 53-6-3).
   
   
5. Duties of Officers State: 
6. President. The President of the Board of Education shall be the presiding officer of the board. He shall preside at all meetings of the board and shall sign all warrants, checks, contracts, conveyances, notes, bonds, and other instruments which have been ordered to be executed by the board or as prescribed by law.
7. Vice-President. The vice-president shall perform the duties of the president in the absence or disability of the president (State Code 53-6-14).
   
   
8. Function: It shall be the policy of the Board of Education to act as a corporate body and to make decisions only when in session on all matters pertaining to the authorizing of services, formulating of policies, legislating of rules and regulations, approval of budgets, authorizations and appropriations of expenditures, and all other matters which may properly come before the Board. Each member serves in the interest of the people of the whole district and the people of the state rather than in the interest of the election precinct from which he or she was elected. The Board delegates the execution of it's policies to the superintendent and his staff.
   
   There shall be no standing committee in the Board organization. Any committee appointed within the Board or made up of Board Members and any of the executive officers shall be for specific assignments or for (1) fact finding and research purposes only. The Board appoints the superintendent. The Board employs all other employees upon the recommendation of the superintendent. It is the Board's purpose that every act it takes either (I) conform to policy already existing; (2) modifies existing policies; or (3) establishes new policy.
   
   
9. Oath of Office: All officers made elective or appointive by the Constitution or by the laws made in pursuance thereof, before entering upon the duties of their respective offices, shall take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this State, and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity."