Playing the numbers
How you stack up as a board
by Amanda Finney, senior marketing coordinator
Every two years, OSBA conducts a survey of public school board members. The purpose of this survey
is to get an accurate and timely demographic profile of Ohio’s boards of education.
This year’s survey was emailed to each district treasurer to complete and the responses were collected
online. The results give important demographic information on the board members who serve Ohio
school districts. More than 300 districts responded to the survey, creating one of the highest response
rates ever recorded and helping ensure statistical validity.
What follows is a brief demographic synopsis of board members in Ohio based on biennial survey
responses. Due to rounding, some survey categories do not total 100%. n
Number of regular or special
meetings each month
three per month: 0.5%
two per
month:
30.5%
one meeting a month one per
month: 69%
52%
77%
Of board members
hold jobs in addition
to their board duties
two meetings a month three meetings a month Board members’ terms of service
more than 12 years nine to 12 years 17% 14% 27% five to eight years 25% one to four years Have children in grades K-12
less than one year 8
OSBA Journal — June 2012
17% 3,380
game
member
Total number of public school board
members in Ohio (according to the
OSBA database on May 3)
36% Diversity of
board members
25% Caucasian97%
12% 4% 0.3% 66 or older ed
56-­‐65 %
%
r
1%
4%
ge
7%
41
47
39% of board
members spend
16 hours or more
per month on
board business.
46-­‐55 ce
nt
e
36-­‐45 nt
25 or 26-­‐35 younger vi
lla
0.3%
ed
Other re
er
Latin-American.01%
Ages of
board
members
Ca
Asian-American0.5%
22% D
in istr
t i
Lo he ct
s
Ci cal s
ur rep
t
Ex y
ve re
ES em
y se
pt
C
African-American2%
OSBA Journal — June 2012
9