Governing Board Member (Volunteer Opportunity)

DeKalb Brilliance Academy’s Mission. With unwavering commitment to exceptional academics, leadership development, and community collaboration, DeKalb Brilliance Academy prepares all Kindergarten-8th grade students to thrive in high school and college, have fulfilling careers, and become impactful leaders in our communities.

DeKalb Brilliance Academy’s Vision. Each child will know and leverage their unique brilliance to critically analyze the world around them and to design a better and more equitable future.

Purpose of the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is a critical part of the school’s success. DeKalb Brilliance Academy Board members share a powerful commitment to the school’s mission and vision. They are dedicated, passionate, and entrepreneurial individuals willing to volunteer their expertise, connections, and time to ensure successful founding, launch, and operations for DeKalb Brilliance Academy to fulfill its mission.

Responsibilities of the Board of Directors.

• Ensure the school's financial, legal, and programmatic success to be able to fulfill our mission
• Help cultivate community support and galvanize a network of strategic partnerships
• Develop and continue a Board to govern the school and be accountable for the school’s success

Expectations of Individual Directors.

• Use specific expertise for the benefit of DeKalb Brilliance Academy
• Advocate for the mission and vision of DeKalb Brilliance Academy
• Complete 3-year term of service
• Commit 1-2 hours per week to school-related work
  • Must be able to attend *in-person* meetings twice a month (once for full board, once for committee meeting)
  • Work on non-meeting weeks is virtual
  • Please note that once/year, state law requires that board members complete 12 hours of *in-person* training. Please plan to take 1.5 days off of work to complete this mandatory training.
• Execute $1,500 give/get fundraising per board member
  • Can be met through board donations, individual fundraising, corporate match, and/or in-kind donations (in-kind donations must be pre-approved by staff). We offer extensive fundraising tools to support board members in these efforts (see our newly-launched fundraiser here).
• Capitalize on personal/professional networks for the school’s financial/political/organizational benefit
  • Recommend community leader experts for Real-world Project-based Learning & candidates for the Board
• Ensure high-quality governance:
  • Comply with all open meeting and open records laws
  • Complete annual state training requirements for charter school governing boards (note this is 1.5 days *in-person* and will require you taking time off from work)
  • Disclose any potential conflicts of interest to the Board Chair
  • Support the decisions made by the Governing Board as a whole

Qualifications of Directors.

• Purpose-driven: have deep reverence for the brilliance of our children and unwavering commitment to empowering our children to have impactful legacies in our communities
• Community-minded: has ability work collaboratively with peers and manage up to improve the work of everyone around them
• Expertise in law, real estate, finance, governance, marketing, development, education, advocacy, community, and/or strategy
• Have a founder’s mindset: is a creative problem solver, enjoys building from the ground up
• Emotionally intelligent: knows how to care for themselves, collaborate with others, use tools to regulate their emotions under stress, and approach difficult situations with others with empathy and compassion
• Equity-minded: understand how specific behaviors, laws, and institutions limit the rights and freedoms of people and work with our community to take collective action to make our world fairer for everyone.
• Strong project and time managers: has ability to adapt and persevere to deliver consistent and timely results to reach our goals

Not applicable - this is a voluntary position.