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The article describes the process of mentoring and training, specifically in regards to new school board members. The author suggests that situated learning, or legitimate peripheral participation, can be used by school boards to train new members by allowing them to observe board meetings. The author compares school boards to tribes, and members to tribal elders, and recommends boards to seek out new members and maintain contact with Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) and education foundation boards. The article also includes the personal experiences as a new school board member of Mark Sasfy, a middle school science teacher from Crocker, Missouri.

The article discusses the positive impact of the parent-teacher association (PTA) in an urban elementary school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The author comments on the creation of a task force to improve parent participation in the school and reduce the community threat of gang violence for its African American-majority student population, as well as community activities that increased the relations between the school and its community. Topics include the importance of educational leadership within the PTA, as well as the use of the school cafeteria for school-related community events.

The article offers news briefs related to education in the U.S. Oldham County, Kentucky parents have established a special education parent-teacher association (PTA) to address the needs of disabled students. Pension administrators in Ohio have proposed to impose 5% and 2.5% increase for the contributions of teachers and their school districts by 2016. Computer hackers have stolen about three million dollars from a bank account of a rural school district in New York in December 2009.