The board room where school officials hammer out budgets and policies can seem far away from the classroom where students learn new skills and ideas.

School districts in Central Point, Eagle Point and Grants Pass, along with Southern Oregon Education Service District and Rogue Community College, have joined in a project designed to help connect board duties with how kids do in school.

"This will focus board members on the things that brought them to the board in the first place — helping kids learn," Central Point Superintendent Randy Gravon said.

The three-year project, conducted and funded by the Oregon School Boards Association and Oregon State University, calls for districts to evaluate their administration, map out changes to make it more effective, then implement those plans. They’ll collaborate with the education service district and community college to create an overall environment that supports educational success, said Greg McKenzie, OSBA’s leadership services director.

"If you have a healthy organization where all the parts work together, you get a motivated staff, energized students and a supportive community," he said. "If you have all those things, you likely will have high achievement."

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The OSBA based its project on research and writing on effective organizations of all sorts, including corporations, the military, nonprofits and schools.

The Iowa School Board Association did some of the key school research that looked at how administration differed in low-achieving and high-achieving schools. That project identified good practices that top schools had in common. The Oregon program, which includes three other teams of schools around the state, wants to see if putting the good practices in place will boost student achievement.

"This has great potential to see the link between a board’s work and student achievement," Southern Oregon ESD Superintendent Steve Boyarsky said.

He hopes the teamwork between the ESD and school districts in this project will bring about new collaborative projects that will help all students thrive.

"We’re looking at this as a way to aid us in increasing student achievement," Eagle Point Superintendent Bill Feusahrens said.

Eagle Point board Chairwoman Teresa Hulla said she and other board members were excited about the evaluations and training they would get through the project.

"A lot of what we do can seem kind of far from the actual students," she said. "I think this will help to have a connection."

The project organizers hope to publish the results, perhaps making them part of a national study by the researchers in Iowa.

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail aburke@mailtribune.com.