School Board Statement on Appropriate Scope of Comments?

[Anonymous]

My kid’s school board of directors recently issued a scope of appropriate public comments for the school. This is an all-girls New York high school.

"Emma Willard School is an institution dedicated to the education and advancement of girls and women. Public comments by our school must therefore be connected to our mission. Our school may only comment publicly on societal issues related to: 1) education, 2) the leadership and advancement of girls and women, 3) protection of women’s rights, and 4) alumnae who are fulfilling our mission to serve and shape the world."

Are other DC schools doing such statements? I’m mildly supportive of this board statement but was curious about other people’s reactions.

[Anonymous]

An independent school board’s entire duty to a school is to employ a Head of school, be the fiduciary for the school, and uphold the mission. The head of school’s sole duty is to uphold the school’s mission. These are basic governance and accreditation standards.

I think this statement makes a bit more sense if they’re talking about what the Board itself will or won’t say. But I can see the extreme case right now of either a school community pressuring the school to speak out on things and/or a Head wanting to speak out, and the Board using this statement to not-so-gently remind everyone of how independent schools are supposed to work.

As a former trustee, it would be a pretty crazy situation that would put us in the position of having to say something like this. I don’t envy the work they had to do to get to this statement, but if I were a current trustee I would copy and paste this into a just in case file for myself for the future.