The public schools belong to the people. People govern the schools under rights guaranteed to them under the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Indiana. The people exercise their proprietorship through the elective process. They elect state and federal representatives who establish -- through the Legislature and the Congress -- the framework of law within which the schools operate. And the people elect the School Board to represent them and to determine local educational plans and policies and to establish public endorsed educational goals and objectives. The Board of School Trustees of the Vigo County School Corporation functions as an agency of the public within this framework.

The Board of School Trustees is mindful that the people are the ultimate governors of public education and that the Board is directly accountable to the people through the elective process. But the Board also believes that accountability is a shared responsibility involving students, employees, and the people themselves as well as the Board of School Trustees. The Board, therefore, asserts these beliefs and expectations: Students should be trained at home and by the schools in order that they will lean to hold themselves accountable for their own lives, actions, and decisions as maturing members of a democratic society.

Teachers should hold students accountable for achieving (within the limits of each student's abilities) the objectives of each learning experience.

The Superintendent should hold employees accountable for working with diligent effort and with intelligence and imagination in achieving the objectives directly related to their stated job responsibilities.

The Board of School Trustees should appoint the most capable person available to hold the position of Superintendent of Schools and hold the Superintendent accountable for providing creative professional leadership and counsel in all aspects of the School Corporation's programs.

The Board should also hold itself accountable for carrying out its mandate to plan, to make policy, and to lead in the identification of goals and objectives and the resources necessary for their achievement.

The public should hold itself accountable for maintaining a vigorous interest in, concern for, and constructive criticism of the schools; for electing the most able persons available to represent them on the Board of School Trustees and in the State Legislature and in the U.S. Congress; and for providing the resources necessary for the Board of School Trustees and its staff to accomplish the publicly endorsed goals and objectives of the School Corporation.

Adoption Date: August 26, 1976

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