Franklin BOE member reaches new heights
Every school board member, for both county and city systems in Franklin, has the opportunity to strive for four different achievement levels through the School Board Member Academy, a program of the Alabama Association of School Boards. Franklin County Board of Education member Shannon Oliver recently achieved level three academy member.
“It’s a great accomplishment,” Superintendent Greg Hamilton said. Hamilton presented Oliver with a certificate for this achievement at the board’s November meeting.
Oliver said the new level achievement reflects extensive time and training he has been through.
“The levels are based on the hours of training a board member completes. For level three it was 75 hours,” Oliver said. He said part of that training meant attending district meetings, annual conventions and whole board training. There is also online training available.
“There are two conferences every year that count toward training, but these meetings are a great time to get to meet board members from other areas and ask questions and learn,” Oliver said.
Topics at these meetings include technology, community engagement, student performance and testing, just to name a few.
Now that Oliver is a level three academy member, he has the chance to rise up to a level four member, which he said requires 100 hours of training plus completion of eight core courses offered through AASB: roles and responsibilities, effective boards and relationships, financial accountability, developing a highly effective staff, academic achievement, creating the optimal learning environment, policy and planning and community engagement.
“It’s all to help the students’ learning,” he said.
Helping the students and the community, Oliver added, is the reason he ran for the board position in the first place.
“I wanted to help, and on the board, we do what we can to make sure the kids get a good and fair education,” Oliver said.
This is Oliver’s second term on the Franklin County BOE, and he said he enjoys working with the other board members and the administration.
