Inside the Board Room: Reflections of a Former School Board Member is mandatory reading for potential school board candidates, veteran trustees, students of the local governance process and seekers of educational change. With brutal honesty and sardonic humor, Howie Good shares vignettes from his tenure as school board member and board president. His stories confirm that even the best intentions and the noblest causes fall victim to local politics, personal power plays, lack of knowledge or desire to know, and bureaucratic inertia. Good's writing mimics his classroom delivery, using laughter and self-realization to communicate life's toughest lessons.

Joanne Loewenthal, superintendent of schools, Hampton Bays, New York

Writing with a sense of humor, he questions the status quo on school reform, civics education, the decline of basic skills, and the role of guidance counselors.

Reference and Research Book News

Good, a SUNY New Paltz journalism professor and former president of the Highland school board, writes with insight, humor, and a well-ground axe about the inner workings of the American public education system and the often insoluble issues faced by the hardworking people who volunteer for school board service.

Chronogram

A series of humor-filled, light-hearted, yet brutally insightful vignettes.

Teachers College Record

School board service is serious business, but if board members can't take a light-hearted look at themselves now and then, public education is in for hard times indeed. Luckily, we've got Howie Good to help. His sometimes cynical, sometimes biting observations are always right on target. By shining a bright light on the foibles of the boardroom, he illuminates a path to good governance.

Sally Banks Zakariya, editor-in-chief, American School Board Journal