SBDM bylaws must comply with KERA, unless the district in question is a DOI, in which case the SBDM has additional leeway.

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You may be thinking to yourself: Come again? English please? 

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And I wouldn’t blame you-- education experts often have what seems their own secret, jargon-y language that few can understand. But that’s exactly why I’m writing this post. We want education policy conversations to be accessible to everyone, students especially. 

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So to start, here is a simple cheat sheet.  Bone up on these terms if you want to better understand how decisions are made in Kentucky schools:

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Regulations: Regulations are supplements to laws. If a law has wiggle room or loopholes or is not specific enough, a regulation can be used to fill in the gaps. Regulations dictate how laws are implemented.

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Kentucky Department of Education (KDE): This is the government agency responsible for running Kentucky’s public school system. All public school teachers are employed by the Kentucky Department of Education. 

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Kentucky Board of Education (KBE): This is the board that adopts regulations related to education. Its members are appointed by the Governor. The person in charge of the board is called the chair. Its abbreviation is KBE.

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Commissioner of Education: This individual is voted by KBE to be the head of KDE. He (or she) is kind of like the principal for the state. 

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School Board/ County Board of Education: These create the budget and rules for each school district. School districts usually match with county lines, except in the case of independent districts. School board members are elected. The person in charge of the board is called the chair.

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Superintendent: This person is hired by the school board to run the district. 

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Student Member of the Board (SMOB): Some districts have a student member serving on their board. This person is usually advisory. 

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Site-Based Decision-Making Council (SBDM): This is sort of like the school board for a specific school. It sets curriculum, schedules, classroom assignments, dress code, and budget for the school. It also hires teachers and administrators. Voting is done by consensus, meaning everyone must agree. Each school council has one administrator (the principal), two parents teachers elected by their constituents. Under KERA regulation, students can’t be voting members of school councils. 

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Ex-officio member: A fancy way of saying member who can’t vote.

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Advisory member: A fancy way of saying member who can’t vote.

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Personnel decisions: Decisions related to hiring.

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SBDM Committee: SBDMs have committees that deal with specific issues. For example, they might have a Climate Committee that focuses on school climate. 

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Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA): This law, passed in 1990, reformed Kentucky’s education system, as the name might suggest. It decentralized school governance with the creation of the SBDM, among other overhauls.

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District of Innovation: Schools can undergo a very extensive application process to become a “District of Innovation.” This basically means that they are exempt from certain provisions of state law. Only Districts of Innovation can have voting student members on their SBDMs.

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Bylaw: The rules that govern a committee, council, or board.

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If you walk away with nothing else, at least remember this: the Kentucky Board of Education and the Commissioner of Education make rules for the state, the local boards and the superintendent make rules for the district, and the principal and SBDM make rules for each individual school.

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Congratulations!  You are well on your way to sounding like a pro in all those education policy conversations in which you, as a beneficiary of the public school system, have every right to participate.

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