Citizens should look for independent-minded candidates for school board positions. After honesty and integrity, it's the most important quality.
Although locally elected, school directors are really state officials. The General Assembly conferred broad legal powers to the local boards, making them autonomous in many of their operations. When a majority of board members surrenders those powers to the superintendent, they allow that person to govern without checks and balances, to be unaccountable.
A submissive board violates a key concept of control: "The essence of an effectively controlled organization lies in the attitude of its management. The control environment consists of the actions, policies and procedures that reflect the overall attitudes of top management and directors about control and its importance to the entity." The consequences of board members not acting independently can be very damaging to school districts, in prestige and monetary indemnities.
Citizen attention to school board candidates is extremely important. The elected board members must be willing and capable to lead.