Education over the past few hundred years has brought about many changes and advances in how it is administered, what is included, and who is allowed to attend it. The idea of ​​a school board and what it should represent (serve) for a community has changed and remained true to its founding principles. The power of the education system is controlled through a network hierarchy. There are three main levels where power is transferred through the federal, state, and local levels. The local school board is a representative group of members made up of citizens elected from that district. The local school board has the power to “[hire] personnel to manage schools, to determine organizational and administrative policy, and to evaluate program outcomes and staff performance.” (Ryan and Cooper [Page 354]). At the local district level, a school board can range from nine to twelve members. There are two different ways to add a member to the local school board by being “elected by the citizens who live in the school district or [by being] appointed by the local government in which the school district is included” (Tozer, Senese, and Violas [Page 313]). An exception to this process is made in "certain city school districts where school members are appointed by the city mayor." (“Internal Structure of a School”) People who run for the position of school board member are usually people who have a deeply rooted personal connection to that district. In most cases they are parents of a child who currently attends, or has attended in the past, while their child was still at school. Members chose the position because they want to be part of change and policymaking. In an official occupation "they were... at the center of the paper... and of a school board." Nyssba.org. New York State School Boards Association, nd Web. May 19, 2014. . SCHOOL DISTRICT OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE OPEN MEETINGS ACT "Business and Discussion Items." Notes from the school board. 12th ed. vol. 33. Williamsville: Williamsville Central School, 2014. 1-2. Williamsville Central Schools. Network. 20 May 2014. .“Parliamentary”. Operatec. Np, nd Web. May 20, 2014. Ryan, Kevin, and James M. Cooper. Those who can teach. 13th ed. Wadsworth: Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.Tozer, Steve, Guy Senese, and Paul C. Violas. Historical and contemporary perspectives of school and society. Seventh ed. Np: McGraw Hill, 2013. Print. School and society.