SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL:

Forty-six school boards from across the state will soon receive the 11th annual Alabama Association of School Boards President’s Award. The AASB District Meetings will be Aug. 30-Sept. 20 in nine geographical regions.

The Enterprise and Geneva city boards, and Barbour and Henry County school boards will receive their awards at the District 3 meeting Sept. 13 at Hoppergrass Restaurant in Ozark. James Rodgers of Covington County serves as director of District 3, which also includes school boards in Coffee, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Geneva, Houston and Pike counties and in the cities of Andalusia, Daleville, Dothan, Elba, Eufaula, Opp, Ozark and Troy. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. with networking, and dinner is at 6:30 p.m., followed by a 45-minute program. School board members earn 1.5 credit hours in the AASB School Board Member Academy for the session.

“The AASB President’s Award is presented to boards that have had at least 60 percent of their members attend three or more School Board Member Academy courses in the 2015-16 academy year,” said AASB President Pam Doyle. The academy year ended June 30.

“This award inspires school boards to take seriously their roles as education leaders, community representatives and advocates of student achievement,” Doyle said.

“AASB has always striven to provide school boards meaningful training and educational opportunities to strengthen their leadership and boardsmanship skills. To benefit from that training, boards must exhibit a level of commitment to learning all they can about education issues and effective governance.”

District meetings are held within a reasonable driving distance and provide school board members with 1.5 hours of low-cost, educational programming. This fall’s topic, “How to Support Positive Student Behavior,” will focus on how school boards can develop policies that focus on a structured and supportive discipline system that allows for consistent documentation and action from teachers. The main purpose of any discipline system is to lessen the occurrences and reoccurrences of undesirable behavior, and this session will show how a having the right system in place positively affects not only students, but the school as well.

The program will be facilitated by Dr. Mona Hurston, AASB’s assistant director of leadership development and the former director of the Alabama Positive Behavior Support Center. AASB will also survey members about legislative issues on the horizon.