Kentucky School Advocate
August 2023
In Conversation With features an interview between a leader or figure involved in public education and a representative of the Kentucky School Advocate.
Tom Bertrand is the executive director of the Consortium of State School Boards Associations (COSSBA). COSSBA is “a non-partisan, national alliance dedicated to sharing resources and information to support, promote and strengthen state school boards associations as they serve their local school districts and board members.” Bertrand served as executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) and spent 33 years as an educator.
Q. You’re the first executive director of COSSBA, which was founded in 2021. Since there’s no playbook or predecessors to lean on, is that intimidating or liberating?
A. The word that came to my mind was daunting. You’re essentially building an organization from the ground up, so there’s a lot of things you just take for granted. But also, it’s not very often you have this opportunity in your career to start a new national organization. It’s a little intimidating, but it’s also very exciting. I don’t have a predecessor. What I have had is a lot of support and investment from my peers, from the different state associations, which has been really helpful. And a lot of in-kind donations of time and staff resources during this period of transition up until now. I’m grateful for that.
Q. What are your goals for the first 90 days on the job?
A. Certainly, building out the infrastructure of the association. We were fortunate that the North Carolina School Boards Association was willing to manage our finances for this first year. So now we’re making that transition, with COSSBA assuming responsibility for its own financial management. We’re migrating to a new association management system and we’re employing more staff to support the work of the association. We’re also onboarding new member states. We added Wisconsin on July 1, and we are adding the North Dakota School Boards Association. We have several new executive directors of our member state associations. We’ll be reaching out and onboarding them. And then, of course, we’ve got major events that are happening here in the very near future.
Q. A powerful conference in Tampa last April, an Urban Boards Alliance symposium, webinars, leadership events, advocacy initiatives … COSSBA set the bar high during its first year. Why has it been so successful?
A. I would attribute that to the collective effort of COSSBA’s member state association leadership. We couldn’t have done it without them. I didn’t take over until July 1. I was doing what I could once I was named the executive director, but I also had my own association to run, so it really did take a collective effort. We had staff that, in addition to their work with their state associations, supported COSSBA in developing content and the logistics for all of these events. There’s a real strong commitment by the states to the success of this organization. And that’s what it's going to take to help us get where we need to be.
Q. Prior to your leadership at IASB, you served more than three decades as an educator and administrator – including 16 years as a superintendent. How did working under a school board prepare you for serving school boards across Illinois?
A. I think part of that staying power and success is understanding the board’s work and the challenges school board members face. I never forgot who I worked for, and I always tried to keep in mind it wasn't about me. I worked hard on building trust. If the people you work with and for don’t trust you, you will fail. I think also, you’re not always going to be the smartest person in the room. I had a school board once with a U.S. attorney and three CPAs, so I didn’t pretend to know more about the law than my lawyer or about finances than my CPAs. You leverage that talent and wisdom. And I think how you treat people matters. You sometimes have strong disagreements with your school board members. How you treat people during the disagreement and afterwards often determines your success. You have to decide, is this a hill I want to die on or do I want to live to fight another day?
Q. No two states are alike. What steps will you take to foster unity and a common vision among the 25 different state school boards associations that are COSSBA members?
A. Illinois is really a microcosm of the country. We have a large metropolitan area, a large suburban area and then a large rural area, much like our country. You have to learn to navigate that type of diversity within your association, and at the national level you certainly do, too. (COSSBA) stayed very focused on these core values of being focused and responsive, transparent and efficient, reflective and relevant, and representative and accountable. When we had our transition steering committee, which was the temporary governing body of this association, from April of 2022 to January of 2023, we had a representative from every member state. That was a unifying element. When we developed the governance structure, there’s a rotation so that every state will eventually get an opportunity to serve in a leadership role and on the board of directors. I think it unifies the membership and gives everybody a voice. We also were very intentional about our advocacy work. You have to be focused on your advocacy agenda, and not let people put things on your plate that fail to unify your members.
Q. What do you see as the most common and urgent challenges facing state associations and their respective memberships?
COSSBA’s membership is currently comprised of the state school boards associations in 25 states (highlighted in orange), including Kentucky which was a founding member. Membership and participation are open to all state school boards associations.
We’re seeing the culture wars playing out at the local level, whether it’s book bans or equity work, partisan involvement in school board elections, which in some of our states became very overt. There are interest groups that are trying to leverage frustration that people felt during the pandemic, and the academic fallout and school closures across the country. They’re trying to leverage that into a push to privatize schools, and we have to be very wary of that. I think a challenge for our schools is how do you connect with and engage the community in a productive way? Academic recovery is going to continue to be a big challenge. We’ve got mental health issues. School safety remains a real concern across the country. Those are areas where we hope we can provide additional support to our state school boards associations.
Q. School boards are under a level of scrutiny that didn’t exist just a few years ago. The tone at board meetings and in state legislatures is increasingly divisive. What are state associations doing to support their school boards?
A. Working with boards about how to stay above the fray in terms of partisan politics. Providing more guidance to aspiring school board members. In Illinois, our association spent a lot of time and resources helping boards with managing conflict, managing hostility, community engagement, crisis communications and the importance of sharing your story. How do you build trust within your leadership team? How do you build trust with your community? Those are going to be big issues moving forward because, frankly, people have less trust in traditional organizations than they did years ago. We’ve got to work to build it.
Q. COSSBA is working on the long-term priorities of the federation. Can you share COSSBA’s focus for the coming years?
A. We’re at this point where (COSSBA’s board) identified potential strategic priorities. The next step is to shape that into an actual strategic plan. In August, we hope to present a draft to the board of directors for approval, and then we’ll release that to the state association members.
There’s currently no one providing state associations with a national perspective and analysis of what’s going on in the states. What are hot topics in states? What are hot pieces of legislation across the country? Those things have a tendency to move from state to state. That’s something I think will be part of our strategic plan, to provide state policy analysis and information to our members. That’s where we can be of support to our members.
Q. What is the most important thing that COSSBA provides state associations?
A. Our highest priority should be supporting the leadership of our state school boards associations – leadership teams and boards of directors – and really building a system that’s responsive to our members, which are the state school boards associations. We’ll be doing a needs assessment here very soon, to hear from the members. What are your highest priorities? What do you expect from your national organization? Because we need to be in alignment with that. Job one is supporting our state associations’ leadership so that they can in turn support their local school board members. If we do our job as a national consortium, that will result in healthier, stronger state school boards associations who in turn now can serve more effectively. The better your leadership is in your school districts, the better outcomes there are for kids.