school boardn.
/ˈskuːl bɔːd/, U.S. /ˈskul ˌbɔrd/ 1. A body of people, typically elected, responsible for the provision, maintenance, and administration of schools, or for determining educational policy.The constitution and duties of such bodies varies over time and from place to place.
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society > education > educational administration > school administration > [noun] > school board
school committee1747
school board1833
1833 Edinb. Rev. July 514 No doubt, the intimate relations of the School-Board [in Prussia] with the Consistory proper, and its peculiar duties, render it essentially religious.
1857 Harper's Mag. Sept. 571/2 Can you inform me where the president of your school board resides?
1870 Amer. Jrnl. Educ. 20 459 The teachers in the towns [in Denmark] are appointed by the school-board of the ‘amt’ (subdivision of the diocese).
1911 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 11 Apr. 7/3 The school board which recently submitted its estimates for the year to the city council will have to revise them.
1972 Evening Telegram (St. John's, Newfoundland) 24 June 6/1 The government..tried to save a few dollars on the busing of children to school. There were immediate cries of pain from the Opposition and from some school boards.
1995 D. Marc Bonfire of Humanities 121 School boards ban the ‘pornographic’ novels of J. D. Salinger and Mark Twain.
2. spec. In England and Wales from 1870 to 1902, and in Scotland from 1872 to 1918: a body of people elected by the ratepayers of a district, charged by statute with the provision and maintenance of sufficient accommodation in public elementary schools for all the children living there. In later use, in Scotland (from 1988 to 2006): a body of elected parents and teachers, and members of the local community co-opted by these, responsible for determining school policy and objectives. Now historical.In England school boards were established only in districts in which either a majority of the ratepayers approved, or the existing accommodation in public elementary schools was considered by the Education Department to be insufficient. The Education Act of 1902 abolished school boards in England, and transferred their duties and powers to the County Councils.In Scotland there was a school board in every district (usually a burgh or a parish). By the Act of 1872 the control of the burgh and parish schools established by previous Acts was vested in the school boards, which were also required to establish and maintain such additional schools as might be needed.The Education (Scotland) Act of 1918 abolished school boards in Scotland, and transferred their duties and powers to burgh or county education authorities. The later Scottish boards were established under the School Boards (Scotland) Act of 1988 and abolished in 2006 by the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act, to be replaced by Parent Forums and Councils.
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1870 Act 33 & 34 Victoria c. 75 §10 If..the Education Department are satisfied that all the public school accommodation required..has not been so supplied..the Education Department shall cause a school board to be formed for the district.
1872 Act 35 & 36 Vict. c. 62 §8 A school board shall be elected in and for each and every parish and burgh [in Scotland].
1882 M. Arnold Irish Ess. 131 You often see the School Boards..making the programme of their elementary schools too ambitious.
1913 Glasgow News 12 May 2/6 The School Board has twa-room-and-kitchen hooses,..and every wise-like lassie has to go and learn in them the way to wash a floor, and clean a grate.
1990 ACE Bull. Sept. 13/4 About 2,500 out of 3000 schools in Scotland now have their own school board.
2007 Victorian Nov. 21/4 It still has its iron railings and boundary walls..and is a rare survivor of those schools built prior to Forster's Act of 1870, which established school boards and heralded a huge expansion in educational provision.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
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1843 Ann. Rep. Trustees & Visitors Common Schools Cincinnati 33 (heading) Proposed school board library.
1871 Literary World 10 Nov. 301/2 He seems always to be lecturing somewhere or talking at the School Board meetings.
1891 R. Kipling Light that Failed xiv. 273 Alf was not a nice child, being puffed up with many school-board certificates for good conduct.
1958 J. Kesson White Bird Passes ii. 17 She wasn't old enough to be behind with her rent. She wasn't young enough to have the School Board Man searching her out.
1972 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 22 Apr. 13/5 The Indian students attend the two English high schools in Richibucto, which prompted one school board member to suggest that some means be found to establish greater dialogue between the two French schools and two English schools.
2007 Herald-Times (Bloomington, Indiana) 26 Jan. a3/5 Serial meetings, in which a mayor or school board president, for example, meets with only a few members at a time to discuss public business.
C2.
school board visitor n. (also with capital initials) now historical (in England and Wales) a person representing a school board, charged with visiting the homes of children not attending school in order to enforce their attendance.
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1871 Manch. Weekly Times 29 Apr. 6/6 (headline) The difficulties of a school board visitor.
1929 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 92 533 The backbone of the Poverty Survey was the analysis of information furnished by School Board Visitors.
1993 E. Ross Love & Toil i. 21 School board visitors..gradually learned that by and large it was the mothers, not the fathers, who decided whether or not a child would attend school.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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