While working together to accomplish the task of enhancing student achievement, School-Based Decision Making Council members share equally in the decision-making process. Members of the School Council should do the following:

• Hold regularly scheduled meetings and conduct these meetings in a democratic manner.
• Be willing to call upon an expert in the area to provide needed information if assistance is needed in an area.
• Be willing to keep their focus on what is good for all the students within their building, not an individual student or an individual classroom of students.
• Remember that discussed items that aren't related to student achievement waste the valuable time of all the Council members.
• Keep an open mind and be willing to listen to and consider others' viewpoints.
• Provide information to constituents and obtain feedback and suggestions from constituents.
• Remain courteous to all members of the council, speakers, and presenters of committee reports, even when there are differing opinions.

The principal within the building will assume the role of chairperson of the SBDM Council unless the group has applied and received exemption from this statutory requirement from the Kentucky Board of Education. The chairperson is responsible for the following:

• Facilitating the council meetings through distribution of agendas (preferably prior to the council meeting, along with any supporting documents that may be available; your council bylaws may require this prior distribution)
• Encouraging all members of the council to voice their opinions and valuing these opinions
• Keeping meeting focused on discussions over which the council has authority
• Remaining neutral when presenting topics for discussion
• Maintaining the council's operational procedures, including committees' presentations and persons wishing to address the council on agenda and non-agenda items
• Being certain open-meetings and open-records requirements are met.

The Council also needs a person to act as a recording secretary to record the minutes of the meeting. This person may be a Council member volunteer, a volunteer other than a Council member, or a person who is paid to record the minutes of the Council (if the school budget allows for this). A person who records the minutes of the Council should do the following:

• Follow the open-records requirements.
• Reflect accurately decisions and discussions of the meeting when recording the minutes.
• Remain impartial when recording the minutes.
• Be responsible for typing and distributing minutes as appropriate (See your Council's by-laws to determine if distribution is a requirement of the recording secretary or of the Council chairperson.)