School boards
An independent way to ask complete questions without turning a board meeting into a performance.
Pope Studios presents
THE BOARD
INTERVIEW
The person asking the superintendent questions shouldn't report to the superintendent.
Independent questions. Complete answers. Real follow-ups.
Independent enough to ask the question. Fair enough to hear the answer.
“I'm not here to get you. I'm here to get the answer.”— Mike Pope
What it is
A public interview built for the questions a board meeting rarely answers.
The Board Interview is an independent, recorded conversation between Mike Pope and a superintendent. The school board helps choose the subject. Parents, teachers, and community members help surface the questions. The superintendent receives the core questions in advance.
Then Mike asks the questions, listens to the complete answer, and follows up when the answer does not yet belong to the question.
How it works
Prepared, fair, and independent.
- 01
Choose the subject
The board identifies one issue the public needs to understand.
- 02
Collect the questions
Board members and the community submit what they genuinely want answered.
- 03
Prepare openly
The superintendent receives three to five core questions in advance. No ambushes.
- 04
Record the conversation
Mike conducts a 45–60 minute interview and asks real follow-ups.
- 05
Publish the complete exchange
No deceptive editing. The audience hears the answer in context.
Why it is different
Independent does not mean hostile. Fair does not mean passive.
- No gotcha questions.
- No ambushes.
- No deceptive editing.
- No communications employee interviewing the person who employs them.
- No first answer automatically treated as the final answer.
Who it serves
A better public conversation for everyone in it.
Superintendents
A fair chance to explain decisions fully, with advance notice and room for context.
Parents and teachers
A direct route for questions that are often filtered, reframed, or left unanswered.
Communities
A record of what was asked, what was answered, and what still needs follow-up.
Concept video · September 21, 2026
The idea, explained by Mike.
This is a concept video—not a completed pilot and not evidence that a district is already a client. It explains why the format should exist.
Watch on YouTube →Founding pilot
Request the first Board Interview.
We are inviting a small number of school boards to help prove the format. The founding pilot is offered at no cost. No final public pricing has been set, and no district is represented here as a completed pilot or paid client.
The right pilot has a real question, a superintendent willing to answer it, and a board willing to let the public hear the complete exchange.
Parents, teachers, and community members
What should your superintendent be asked?
Submit one clear question and enough context to understand why it matters. We will not publish private student information or treat every submission as verified fact.
Why Mike
He knows the room—and he is outside the chain of command.
Mike Pope spent 22 years in education, including eight years teaching and fourteen in administration. He is a former principal, author, speaker, interviewer, and public conversationalist. He understands how schools communicate, how boards govern, and why a complete answer sometimes requires one more question.
About Mike Pope →