Board of Directors Overview

Your Board of Directors cordially invite you to attend Board meetings and to take an active role in the educational affairs of your community. The decisions of your elected Board affect your child, your child's future, your tax rate, the well-being of your community, and, in the long run, the well-being of your country.  Persons with disabilities may contact the Superintendent's office so that the district can arrange for them to participate in board meetings.

The Board President is the official recipient of correspondence directed to the Board and will provide copies of correspondence received to other Board members and the Superintendent.  Therefore, you can always contact the School Board through Mr. Henry Browne hbrowne@cheneysd.org or through the Superintendent's Office at 12414 S. Andrus Rd., Cheney, WA  99004, (509) 559-4502. 

There are many ways for you to participate in your schools:

• Keep informed and interested in your schools.
• Appear before the Board to express your views.
• Correspond with the Board.
• Elect the best-qualified Board members.
• Participate in local parent groups and on educational committees of various civic organizations.

Regular meetings of the School Board are open to the public and are held on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, with a usual start time of 6:00 p.m. in the Cheney High School Library, 460 N. Sixth, Cheney. Board meetings are held at individual school sites a few times per year and the start time may vary. The schedule for the entire year is adopted in August, and is posted on this website, and notices of all meetings and Board agendas are provided to local newspapers and the offices of all schools. Requests to place an item on the agenda should be submitted to the Superintendent in writing by the Wednesday preceding the meeting. Members of the School Board and/or the Superintendent may question a speaker and/or comment on his/her remark.

Functions of the Board

Although members of the School Board are elected locally, they are state officers responsible for governing a political subdivision of the state. The Board operates independently of city and county governments but cooperates with them. The Board is a policy-making body and, within the framework of state law, exercises complete control over the educational and financial affairs of the school district. Among its numerous duties, the Board adopts an annual budget and approves all expenditures; employs personnel; approves curriculum textbooks and courses of study; and makes decisions on school sites, building plans and construction contracts. School Board members have no power to act individually in the name of the Board. Action can be taken only when the Board is meeting in formal session with a majority of its members present. Under this sound principle, each member can reserve judgment on each matter until he/she has had an opportunity to hear the recommendations of the superintendent and to discuss it with other Board members. The Board recognizes that it has an obligation to the people of Cheney Public Schools to plan the best possible program of education and to expend revenues wisely. The Board also recognizes it has a unique function to interpret the schools to the community and the community to the schools.