"The thing that I really like about it was that all the rules were spelled out...so when I came to Sudbury Valley, the first thing I did was read... the Law Book and all the school's rules."

The school as a legal entity is a Massachusetts Corporation, The Sudbury Valley School, Inc. Because it is a non-profit corporation, there are no shareholders. Instead, the Corporation consists of the school's Assembly which, under the by-laws, is made up of students, staff, parents, trustees, and specially elected public members. The Assembly meets regularly once a year, in the late Spring, and determines all the school's basic policies, the annual budget, salary scales, tuition, the award of diplomas, and the Officers and Trustees. The agenda of the Assembly is published in advance and mailed to all members. Any Assembly member can put an item on the agenda by mailing it to the Secretary of the Corporation, c/o the office; items (with a few exceptions) can also be brought up on the floor of the meeting for discussion and vote.

The Officers of the Corporation are a President, who presides at meetings of the Assembly and Trustees, and whose most important power is that of calling special meetings when he sees fit; a Treasurer and a Secretary, both of whose functions are the standard ones implied by their titles.

Every year the Assembly also elects a Board of Trustees which, unlike virtually all other schools and corporations, in our case has no power at all. Rather, the Board is our advisory panel, studying as best it can the various questions referred to it by the Assembly and reporting back to the Assembly when it is ready to do so. As a matter of tradition, Trustees meetings are open to all Assembly members to attend and, where possible, advance notice is given of the topic under discussion.

The day-to-day life of the school is governed by the School Meeting, both directly and through its various agents.

The School Meeting consists of all the people at school on a day-to-day basis -- namely, all students and staff, each of whom has a vote. (As a practical matter, students greatly outnumber the staff. This really keeps the staff on its toes. Any staff member wishing to promote a particular scheme has to have his facts and arguments carefully honed to convince a majority of those present and voting, most of whom are usually students.) The School Meeting meets every Thursday at 1:00 PM. The meetings are run efficiently and formally according to strict rules of order. The agenda is always published in advance and is called the School Meeting Record.

The School Meeting has full operational authority to run the school, subject only to the policies set forth by the Assembly. The School Meeting does it all: it spends the money, hires (and fires) the staff, passes all the school rules (the permanent rules are codified in the School Meeting Law Book which can be obtained through the office), oversees discipline, and sets up all sorts of administrative entities to keep things running smoothly. It is presided over by the School Meeting Chairman who is effectively the school's Chief Executive Officer. In the early years, the Chairman was almost always a staff member, but since 1973 Chairpersons have been students. The School Meeting also elects a Secretary to keep records.

School Meetings are open (except on rare occasions; they are closed, for example, when there is a personal discussion involving a particular student). You should attend one some day -- it is the heart of the school and is an amazing institution to observe.

To keep all the myriad activities of the school running smoothly, the School Meeting creates Clerks, Committees, and School Corporations. (These are all spelled out in detail in the Law Book and in a Management Manual.)

Clerks are basically administrative officers. For example, there is an Attendance Clerk who supervises attendance records, after-hours use of the building, keys, etc. There is a Grounds Clerk who takes care of the grounds, a Building Maintenance Clerk who takes care of the buildings, and so on. When the School Meeting creates a Clerkship, it spells out the officer's exact powers and duties and confers its authority on the Clerk within the domain it has defined.

Committees take care of broader tasks. For example, the Aesthetics Committee takes care of all matters relating to the school's appearance, interior and exterior design, furnishings, exhibits/art work, cleanliness.

School Corporations are formal interest groups. They are Sudbury Valley's equivalent of Departments at other schools. For example, there is a Woodworking Corporation which takes care of all woodworking activities; a Photolab Corporation; and so forth. Corporations are chartered for a specific set of purposes by the School Meeting and given certain powers. Funds are channeled through the Corporations to support various educational activities. The great advantage School Corporations have over Departments is that the former can be formed and disbanded according to the needs and interests of the students, while the latter, unlike old soldiers, never die or fade away, but just keep rolling along.

The school's disciplinary problems are taken care of in the context of the Judicial System established by the School Meeting. The details of the system are, again, spelled out in the Law Book.

Permission to freely copy and distribute this document is given, provided that the text is not modified or abridged and this notice is included. For more information about SVS available electronically, check www.sudval.org.