The Clarke County School District Administrative Office is shown on Feb. 12. Local School Governance Teams (LSGT) throughout the CCSD work to assist school leadership in decision-making. “We provide them (with) a calendar to pace them throughout the year. Typically, they’re discussing how they’re going to spend their LSGT funds; each school has an allocation of funds,” CCSD Governance and Flexibility Specialist Stephen Nobles said. “The LSGT gets to work with the principal to establish or determine and establish what those needs are, and how they’re going to move forward to address it.” Photo by Aza Khan
CCSD’s Local School Governance Teams allow community input and school improvement within the district.
The Clarke County School District’s Local School Governance Teams (LSGT), which are composed of three parent volunteers, three instructional staff members, three community members and a principal at each school, work to provide the opportunity for CCSD community members and families to provide input on policy and influence change in the district.
The LSGTs meet 6-12 times per year to discuss various ways to improve their school communities through curriculum, school operations, budget and personnel. According to CCSD Governance and Flexibility Specialist Stephen Nobles, one of the main goals of LSGT is to allow for community input.
“It provides parents and community members an opportunity to collaborate with the principal. The one big thing that we always have to go back and forth with LSGT is that it’s shared governance – it’s not shared responsibility, it’s not shared management,” Nobles said. “So that can get tricky, but we wanted our parents and our communities to be more involved in schools to impact our students, so the LSGT is the perfect solution.”
Aside from providing the opportunity for involvement, LSGT programs are granted funds from the district to implement at their respective school buildings.
“If a school is like a mini school district, then the LSGT is like the mini board. A lot of the work that we give our LSGT revolves around innovation, so we want them to be forward-thinking, and we actually provide a pot of money that we allocate to the LSGTs each year for them to implement an innovative idea,” CCSD Director of Innovation Strategy and Governance Purposes James Barlament said.
“A lot of the work that we give our LSGT revolves around innovation, so we want them to be forward-thinking, and we actually provide a pot of money that we allocate to the LSGTs each year for them to implement an innovative idea.”
— James Barlament, CCSD Director of Innovation Strategy and Governance Purposes
For Nobles, having a strong LSGT team provides a chance for schools to change the narrative about their communities.
“The potential buy-in is enormous. It gives the district and schools and students, a lot of times, an opportunity to establish who they actually are, instead of being kind of boxed into what previous students have done, previous teachers or administrators have done,” Nobles said. “So buy-in to me is the biggest opportunity an LSGT can give.”
Moving forward, Nobles hopes that more parents and community members will get involved with school governance opportunities.
“I just encourage people to get involved – PTA, PTO, LSGT. Go to a sporting event and sit in the crowd, even if you don’t have a kid on the floor. Support and wear those colors. It matters.”
— Stephen Nobles, CCSD Governance and Flexibility Specialist
“I think our students need us to believe in them and that is just as important as anything we provide them. We have to believe their success is possible before this success will come,” Nobles said. “I just encourage people to get involved – PTA, PTO, LSGT. Go to a sporting event and sit in the crowd, even if you don’t have a kid on the floor. Support and wear those colors. It matters.”
