Transitions within a community can be challenging, and the Bentonville School Board is one example of a local panel feeling its way through changes in leadership styles.

Sometimes, school boards go through slow transitions: One member will step down, giving someone with new perspective a chance to step in while the rest of the board is populated with members of various levels of experience.

Other times, particularly after a school board has gone through strenuous decision-making on major issues, it undergoes a large amount of turnover in a short period.

In a recent news story, the Bentonville School Board’s situation was summed up like this: “Bentonville board members have an average of one year of experience. The average service time of a board member in the region’s other three big school districts - Rogers, Springdale and Fayetteville - is more than six years.”

“I think we have some differing opinions on the board as to what the scope and role of the board is as far as oversight,” said Grant Lightle, board vice president. “I think we’re going to still be feeling our way through that.”

That can be invigorating for a school district as new ideas flow from people putting a fresh set of eyes on the district’s challenges. It also creates a heightened level of tension as new leaders and the various constituencies of school boards get used to each other.

One would expect newer school board members to take on a more intensive level of involvement in the details of the district as they get their bearings.

It’s also important these school board members take care not to do unintentional damage to the professional administration hired to run the day-to-day operation charged with educating the community’s children.

Michael Poore, the superintendent who took on the job in July 2011, now works for a school board made up of people who did not make the decision to hire him. That in itself is not so unusual for superintendents, but that it happened so quickly after an administration change is.

One example of the environment of change is the school board’s decision after more than a decade to end a committee system. The entire board is now more intensely involved in gathering information and processing it through to a decision-making moment. Such a detail-oriented approach will require a great deal of time and patience. That needs to be balanced by the concept that the school board is meant to set broad policy, not inject itself into day-to-day operational decisions.

It’s a question of staying involved and informed vs. meddling.

Former school board president Travis Riggs’ concerns demonstrate the sometimes conflicting notions of how a school board should do its work.

“I think there are board members who think they know more about running this district than the professionals who are certified to run it,” Riggs said.

“And that concerns me as a patron.”

It’s reasonable to expect a relatively new board to need more information before making decisions.

If the board’s approach is designed to increase its members’ knowledge to make good policy decisions, that’s great. But if any board members have any intentions to be more controlling, they’re on a path that will ultimately do harm to the students they are there to serve.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 01/07/2014