Cooperative Education Services pitches governance training to improve district outcomes

David Chavez, executive director of Cooperative Educational Services (CES), and trainer Yolanda Montoya Cordova described a governance‑focused professional development model the agency is scaling to districts statewide.

Chavez said CES’s six‑year pilot included 13 districts and combined strategic planning with board governance training, executive coaching for superintendents, and progress‑monitoring frameworks. The model centers on measurable student outcome goals, guardrails set by boards, and regular, board‑level progress monitoring tied to those goals.

Yolanda Montoya Cordova described how the training is delivered: a retreat orientation, required readings (AJ Crabill’s Student Outcomes Focused Governance), development of SMART student outcome goals, setting guardrails, establishing a calendar for progress monitoring, and ongoing coaching including board‑meeting observations and one‑on‑one support for board members and chairs. She said boards benefit when chairs learn to coach and when progress monitoring becomes a regular meeting feature.

Caroline Grant, president of the Penasco school board, said the training changed board behavior, improved relationships with staff and community engagement, and helped the district exceed its first progress‑monitoring goals. CES staff said they are regionalizing training to reach more boards and adding trainers to scale capacity; they emphasized the need for sustainable funding and locally adapted delivery.

Why it matters: Legislators and presenters agreed that stronger board governance can help districts sustain improvement even amid leadership turnover. Committee members asked how to reach boards that resist training; CES described regional delivery and peer‑to‑peer coaching as part of its effort to broaden uptake.