Santa Barbara School Board Bridge Statement of Intent
Opening Statement
Our community’s children require, and our shared future depends on, school boards that are knowledgeable, representative, deeply invested, and unwaveringly focused on student success. Santa Barbara School Board Bridge exists to cultivate and sustain that caliber of leadership.
Purpose
To strengthen public K–12 education in Santa Barbara Unified School District and its feeder or neighboring districts by engaging, identifying, recruiting, training, and supporting community members so they acquire the knowledge, skills, and confidence to serve effectively and ethically on local school boards.
We serve both new candidates seeking election and current school board members pursuing reelection. Through our Candidate of Distinction Program, we assess incumbents using the Eight Characteristics of Effective School Boards. Based on their assessment score, they will either participate in the School Board Bridge program to strengthen their governance capacity or, if they meet established standards, receive the School Board Bridge Candidate of Distinction designation and full program support as if they had completed the training.
Guiding Principles - Organizational Commitments & Candidate Development
1. Vision & Student-Centered Focus
Organization: We commit to a bold vision of high expectations for student success - articulating clear goals and ensuring our work never distracts from them.
Candidates: We recruit and train leaders who will set meaningful district goals, maintain focus on student learning, and use those goals to guide every policy decision.
2. Growth Mindset & Belief in Every Child
Organization: We operate from the belief that all students can learn at high levels - designing outreach and training to be inclusive and aspirational.
Candidates: We seek leaders who see challenges as opportunities to innovate, expect growth for all students, and refuse to accept persistent achievement gaps.
3. Accountability & Strategic Governance
Organization: We use SMART goals, data insights, and disciplined meeting agendas to drive improvement.
Candidates: We prepare board members who focus on policy and student achievement, track progress with data, and align resources to priorities.
4. Collaboration & Community Engagement
Organization: We partner with parents, educators, superintendents, students, and civic organizations to strengthen governance.
Candidates: We cultivate leaders who build authentic collaborations and actively integrate community input into board decisions.
5. Data Savvy & Continuous Improvement
Organization: We embed data use into our own operations - measuring outcomes and refining approaches.
Candidates: We train board members to embrace all forms of evidence, even difficult data, as a basis for improvement.
6. Resource Alignment & Professional Growth
Organization: We align time, talent, and funding to strategic goals, and prioritize leadership development.
Candidates: We prepare board members to secure and sustain professional development for themselves and district staff.
7. Team Leadership, Collaboration & Trust
Organization: We foster constructive, role-clear partnerships between future board members and district leadership, grounded in mutual respect and shared accountability for student success. We also work alongside parents, educators, students, civic organizations, current school board members, and district leaders to share best practices and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
Candidates: We prepare leaders who will work in unity with fellow board members and district leadership to execute the district’s vision, understanding the distinct but complementary roles of governance and administration. They will actively build collaborative relationships with other board members, educators, families, and community partners to strengthen decision-making, promote transparency, and sustain long-term district success.
8. Innovation for Adaptability
Organization: We integrate innovation into our daily operations to remain adaptive, resilient, and sustainable in a changing education landscape - continually updating curriculum, tools, and methods.
Candidates: We equip board members to carry this adaptability into governance, using state-of-the-art practices, forward-looking curricula, and evidence-guided strategies to keep schools future-ready.
9. Non-Partisanship
Organization: We remain neutral toward political parties, committed only to transparent, accountable, evidence-based governance.
Candidates: We train leaders to maintain focus on student outcomes over political agendas.
10. Integrity & Transparency
Organization: We operate with the highest ethical standards, making evidence-based, well-researched decisions in compliance with California’s Brown Act.
Candidates: We prepare leaders to campaign ethically, deliberate openly, and govern with integrity, in compliance with California’s Brown Act.
11. Equity & Inclusion
Organization: We intentionally design outreach, selection, and training to reflect the full cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic diversity of Santa Barbara. We remove barriers to participation and ensure our curriculum addresses the needs of all learners.
Candidates: We seek and prepare leaders who actively champion equitable access to specialized programs, best-practice pedagogy, and high-impact teaching strategies for every student - regardless of background, identity, or circumstance.
Core Objectives - Why We Exist & How We Operate
The School Board Bridge exists to ensure our community has a deep, diverse bench of highly capable school board leaders who can uphold the highest standards of governance and student-focused decision-making. We do this by:
1. Identify & Engage - Build broad awareness of the importance of effective school boards by engaging community stakeholders year-round through forums, listening sessions, and workshops that highlight board impact and local priorities.
Measures: Number of events held, participant diversity, stakeholder satisfaction surveys.
2. Recruit & Select - Identify prospective leaders - parents, educators, professionals, and alumni - who demonstrate integrity, a growth mindset, a belief in the potential of all students to learn at high levels, and a willingness to commit to the responsibilities of governance.
Measures: Applicant pool diversity, candidate alignment with organizational values, selection rate.
3. Train & Equip – Deliver a structured, research-based curriculum aligned with the Eight Characteristics of Effective School Boards. Training includes governance duties, SMART goal-setting, fiscal oversight, data literacy, cultural proficiency, and coalition-building.
Measures: Pre- and post-training knowledge assessments, completion rates, participant self-efficacy ratings.
4. Support Candidacy – Provide strategic guidance, message development, compliance assistance, and voter engagement support to help candidates run competitive, values-aligned campaigns.
Measures: Percentage of supported candidates who file, win rates, voter engagement data.
5. Strengthen Governance Post-Election – Bolster newly elected board members with mentorship, peer networks, policy research, and continuing professional development to ensure effective governance from day one.
Measures: Board self-evaluation scores, adoption of SMART goals, evidence of policy alignment with district vision.
6. Model Innovation & Adaptability – Continuously evaluate and refine our organizational practices, curriculum, and support models to stay responsive to research, community needs, and the changing education landscape.
Measures: Annual program review, stakeholder feedback, adoption of new tools/practices.
7. Reelection – Candidate of Distinction Program – Offer current school board members seeking reelection the opportunity to apply for an assessment-based qualification using the Eight Characteristics of Effective School Boards. Based on their assessment score: Those meeting or exceeding standards receive the “School Board Bridge Candidate of Distinction” designation and gain full campaign and governance support as if they completed the program. Those not yet meeting the standards are invited to participate in the School Board Bridge program to strengthen skills and alignment with best-practice governance. Measures: Number of applicants, percentage achieving distinction, percentage completing program after assessment, reelection success rate.
Expected Outcomes – How We Measure Impact
Organizational Success
• Maintain a sustainable, non-partisan pipeline serving 100% of open Santa Barbara Unified School District and feeder/neighboring district board seats with at least one trained candidate.
• Achieve annual program completion rates above 90%.
• Demonstrate growth in candidate pool diversity year over year.
• Document annual curriculum updates in response to research and local needs.
Candidate Success
• ≥70% of graduates who run win within two election cycles.
• All graduates set and monitor SMART goals in their first year.
• ≥80% of major board policy decisions are evidence-based.
• Graduates demonstrate measurable growth in alignment with the NSBA’s Eight Characteristics of Effective School Boards, including:
1. Commitment to a vision of high expectations for student achievement.
2. Strong shared beliefs and values about the potential of all students to learn.
3. Accountability-driven governance focused on policy and oversight.
4. Collaborative relationships with the community and district leadership.
5. Effective use of data to guide decisions and improvement.
6. Alignment of resources with strategic priorities.
7. A strong, unified leadership team with the superintendent.
8. Commitment to continuous learning and development as a board.
• Performance on these characteristics will be assessed through board self-evaluations, peer reviews, and governance observation within the first two years of service.
Governance & Student Impact
• Boards with program graduates show measurable improvement in board self-evaluations on NSBA’s Eight Characteristics within two years.
• Increased adoption of policies aligned with evidence-based practices and equity in access to academic, arts, and career-technical programs.
• Improvement in district climate indicators (family engagement, staff satisfaction, student belonging) as tracked by district surveys.
• Demonstrated progress toward district-level student achievement and equity targets.
Commitment to Accountability
We will publish annual metrics - including candidate diversity, graduation rates, election outcomes, and post-election governance milestones - to ensure our pipeline remains responsive, non-partisan, and impactful.
By articulating this intent, we affirm our commitment to cultivating a new generation of high-caliber school board leaders who place the students of Santa Barbara Unified School District and its feeder or neighboring districts at the center of every decision.