Why do school board members need to attend the NSBA Annual Conference and Exposition in these tough times? Five key talking points stress the critical value of your participation in a national conference and can be used to remind your community why educated school leaders are vital to student achievement. Utilize these points at board meetings, for press outreach, opinion writing and/or on your school district’s newsletter, website or blog.

Five Key Points on the Value of School Board Member Professional Development:

• As local school board members it is our responsibility to provide the best education possible for our students. One of the best ways we can work toward that end is by educating ourselves.

• The management strategies learned through quality professional development and conferences should save our district money and lead to academic success.

• We expect our doctors, lawyers, and teachers to continue learning about the latest innovations, solutions, and research in their fields. It is absolutely critical for school leaders to do the same.

• During these tough economic times, when we are faced with tough choices in our spending, a school leaders’ professional development conference may not appear to be a budget priority. But our children benefit from board members attending and then using their knowledge to make well-informed decisions about school policy, finance, personnel, or curriculum.

• The National School Boards Association Annual Conference and state school boards association conferences present new strategies to managing school district finances and operations, showcase the latest technologies that aid student learning, demonstrate best practices gleaned from real-life experiences at other school districts, and allow board members to network with experts and peers. The exhibits also introduce many new products and services.

NSBA’s Annual Conference

The NSBA Annual Conference & Exposition is the one national event that brings together education leaders at a time when domestic policies and global trends are combining to shape the future of our students.

LEAP forward with a lineup that includes:

• Leadership: Board members, superintendents and other educators from across the nation and around the world share wisdom in more than 200 sessions.
• Education: Augment the professional development opportunities offered by your state’s school boards association—NSBA’s curriculum is designed to complement your state courses.
• Achievement: Gain a national perspective on legislation and court decisions that are impacting your district.
• Progress: Maximize your budget with money-saving ideas that don’t undercut student achievement.

Join over 5,000 board members, superintendents, and education leaders from across the country and around the globe and gain valuable knowledge and information in five key areas – leadership, advocacy, technology + learning, urban school issues, and school law.

Gain ideas and strategies through more than 200 programming sessions, workshops, speakers, site visits and exhibitors, on cutting-edge content, best practices, and the freshest ideas to support student achievement.

Read what others have said about attending past conferences:

“NSBA offers a great opportunity to ‘recharge’ as a Board of Education member. The keynote speakers charged a magnetic energy into the audience. Knowing how difficult educational leadership is, NSBA shares research, information, and resources to help board members be better informed leaders. Many of the workshops afforded opportunities to identify key issues facing education in America and offered support for helping to address and resolve these issues. This was my 3rd NSBA Conference and I can truthfully say that attending each one has been a wonderful and most worthwhile opportunity.”
– Kathleen Yolish, Shelton Board of Education, Shelton, CT

“This was an excellent conference.  I really enjoyed the extra attention to the use of technology imbedded in the learning at the workshops.  The QR codes, and various free sites that were shared were invaluable.”
– Carolyn Ortman, Hillsboro School District, Hillsboro, OR

“This was my first NSBA Conference and I thoroughly enjoyed it — mainly being able to share ideas with so many others being across the country and finding out we really are all just one big common core!”
– Carolyn Jones, Carroll County, Carrollton, KY