The Leaders of the Leaders

CUBE chair offers leadership ideas to new and veteran urban board members

CUBE Steering Committee Chair Gill Garrett urges school board members to commit to being the solution-driven leaders needed to make change for our schools.

January 15, 2025

School leaders at a training session
CUBE CONFERENCE 2024 ATTENDEES PARTICIPATE IN AN EXPERIENTAL LEARNING SITE VISIT.

PHOTO CREDIT: ILIAN RIVERA

While attending the recent Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) Annual Conference in Las Vegas, I was reminded that I started my CUBE journey at the conference in that very city 17 years ago. I grew up in CUBE. It helped raise me to become the husband, father, school leader, and professional that I am today. 

During more than two decades in law enforcement, I discovered that I have a passion for education. I have been kind of an undercover educator with a love for working with misunderstood kids, the so-called “bad kids.”

Today, we are all aware of the many challenges in public education—teacher shortages, mental health, school safety, political and personal attacks, the underfunding of state-mandated curricula. In some communities, parent participation is a challenge, as is staff burnout, legislation that is passed without fully vetting the consequences for our schools— and let’s not forget the crime and violence that some of our children face.

But I believe that the solution to these challenges, and ensuring that our schools work for our children, was sitting right there during the conference.

At the 2023 NSBA Leadership Seminar, author and thought leader Stephen M.R. Covey told attendees, “You are the leaders of the leaders.”

Those words and Covey’s message have stuck with me: We, as school board members, must be the solution-driven leaders needed to make change for our schools. You may not have expected this when you took the Oath of Office, but I’m here to tell you that’s what you are.

Based on emails and questions to CUBE, I offer a few suggestions that may help both new and veteran CUBE members execute their leadership roles.

  • Remember your “why” for taking this school board journey. It may come in handy on those days when it seems that certain people only want to engage with you when they want your endorsement.
  • Be intentional about your work and assignments. Ensure that you make adequate time to study those board meeting packets. When there’s material you don’t understand, remember that there are people on your board who understand and can help you.
  • Be open to hearing about new strategies, even when presented by folks who may not look like you. Consider that they may possibly offer a better way of doing things. If they haven’t been culturally invested in your community, that may require bringing them up to speed on engaging better and more effectively in your space.
  • Spend time building relationships with other board members and community stakeholders.
  • Identify and activate that board member who can best connect with and engage parents in the community.
  • Collaborate with federal and state legislators to advocate for the district’s educational needs.
  • Show up to all events, not just the ones you enjoy. Be the representative on behalf of public education. Be the professional in the room.
  • Find a way to offer more flexibility in your school structure so that students who attend irregularly, who are coming from challenged environments, and who need to see school as that stable influence in their lives will keep coming.
  • Remember the Oath of Office you took when you got elected. Reread it before going to your next board meeting. 

If you don’t take this work seriously, those of us in law enforcement have to deal with the consequences. It’s important that we get this right. And that we lead.

(This article is adapted from Garrett’s CUBE Annual State of Urban Education address in Las Vegas.)

Gill Garrett (gillgarrett@me.com) is the 2023-25 chair of the CUBE Steering Committee.