Monday, May 7, 2012

Board self-evaluation: relatively low self-scoring re "ethics"


     We recently reported that the SOCCCD Board of Trustees were about to meet to “evaluate” themselves as trustees and as a board. We snidely suggested that they would give themselves an “A.”
     Well, today, Chancellor Poertner directed the district community to the results of the trustees’ self-evaluation. And we weren’t too far off the mark.

Strongly agree  agree  neutral  disagree  strongly disagree

     The evaluation comes in two parts. Part I concerns 56 statements—positive ones such as "trustees are knowledgeable"—that the trustees rated from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” Of the 56 statements, only 7 record any disagreement (i.e., “disagree” or “strongly disagree”). That is, in 49 of the 56 statements, trustees scored only "strongly agree," "agree," or "neutral." In the case of most statements, all or most marks were for "strongly agree" or "agree."
     Natch.

Excellent — good — neutral — fair — poor

     Part II concerns 8 goals, and the trustees rated themselves from “excellent” to “poor” relative to those goals. (Evidently, trustees, unlike students, can’t fail.)
     Of the 8 goals, no trustee gave the board a “fair” or “poor,” although, in the case of 7 goals, some “neutral” votes were recorded.

     Evidently, all seven trustees filled out the evaluation, since 7 votes are recorded. (I’m assuming that the student trustee was not asked to fill out the evaluation form.)

     Here are some noteworthy cases:

The relatively disagreeable:

     Again, the trustees tended to give themselves high marks, but there were some exceptions to the rule of unanimous or near-unanimous self-congratulation:

Statement 3: the board spends adequate time discussing the future needs and directions of the district.
Strongly agree – 2
Agree – 2
Neutral – 2  (29%)
Disagree – 1  (14%)
Strongly disagree – 0
Statement 16: the board periodically reviews the chancellor’s contract to assure appropriate support and compensation.
Strongly agree – 1
Agree – 3
Neutral – 3  (43%)
Disagree – 0
Strongly disagree – 0
Statement 40: the board expresses its authority only as a unit.
Strongly agree – 1
Agree – 3
Neutral – 1  (14%)
Disagree – 2  (29%)
Strongly disagree – 0
Statement 42: the board regularly reviews its code of ethics or standards of practice and has a policy on addressing violations of the code.
Strongly agree – 2
Agree – 3
Neutral – 1  (14%)
Disagree – 1 (14%)
Strongly disagree – 0
Statement 43: board members uphold and comply with the board’s code of ethics.
Strongly agree – 1
Agree – 3
Neutral – 3 (43%)
Disagree – 0
Strongly disagree – 0
Statement 49: board meetings and study sessions provide sufficient opportunity to explore key issues.
Strongly agree – 1
Agree – 3
Neutral – 2  (29%)
Disagree – 1 (14%)
Strongly disagree – 0
Goals:
     The trustees generally gave themselves high marks relative to “goals” also. No trustee selected “fair” or “poor” re goals. The worst marks were “neutral.”
     Three goals received 2 neutral votes:
Goal 2: in addition to reviewing and adopting an updated code of ethics policy, the board will discuss and renew commitment to communication protocols and expectations for trustee roles during board meetings and with college staff and community
Goal 5: the board is committed to listening to and considering faculty, staff, and student perspectives and recommendations in local decision-making. It is committed to clarifying its rationale for decisions that may be counter to those recommendations.
Goal 6: the board will seek opportunities to inform administrators, faculty and staff about board roles, limits, responsibilities, accountability to the community, and rationale for decision-making.
     Unsurprisingly, the board gave its highest score to statement 33: the board maintains an adequate financial reserve
Strongly agree – 5  (71%)
Agree – 2  (29%)
Neutral – 0
Disagree – 0
Strongly disagree – 0
     Later, if I have time, I'll present the results of the employees' survey

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, is that employee survey link at the end from the December survey? If so why only district & board portions? How can we view the whole thing in its entirety?

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...