• Atlanta's Board of Education oversees the city's public schools.school image by Andrey Dikiy from Fotolia.com
  
  The Atlanta local school council is known as the Atlanta Board of Education. The local school board oversees every aspect of public education in Atlanta. Those enrolling their children in the city's public schools or curious about educational politics will be interested to know the duties of the Atlanta Board of Education.
  
  

Objectives

• In addition to specific duties, the Atlanta Board of Education has overarching goals and missions. For example, the board bears final responsibility for developing the school district's resources and talent in the best interest of Atlanta's public school students. The superintendent of schools must be present at all meetings to ensure that the board's objectives are being actively pursued.
  
  

External Interactions

• The Atlanta Board of Education delineates duties for the purpose of interacting with external individuals and bodies. While individual voices are heard during meetings, after a decision is made the board speaks as one. To ensure this method of communication, the board's chair or vice chair acts as the public voice of the committee. The board works to advocate for schools and education in the city. Board members are expected to maintain confidentiality about private information and communicate in a positive fashion about the school district.
  
  

Internal Communications

• The Atlanta Board of Education also has responsibilities related to internal communication--among its members and within the district. Board members are expected to treat each other and district employees with respect at all times. This includes respecting the time of fellow board members and employees. Board members must have all relevant data and research in place for meetings. Members who arrive to meetings late are expected to take the initiative to catch up on what they missed.
  
  

Finances

• The Atlanta Board of Education oversees the school district's finances. The board has specific duties in the areas of purchasing, pay day scheduling, gifts, allocation of earnings due to investment, preparing a budget and accounting. Georgia's Governmental Accounting Standards Board issues standards for the maintenance of financial records statements and reports to which the Board of Education must adhere.
  
  

Committees

• The Board of Education is treated as a committee of the whole by the board's own rules. However, the board has the power to create ad hoc committees at its own necessity. All board members have the right to refer business to these ad hoc committees at the discretion of the board's president.