MTSBA’s Leadership Engagement Action Plan (LEAP) has been under development and refinement since March 2007, when the MTSBA Board identified an intended emphasis on building our members’ capacity for leadership and advocacy during the MTSBA Board’s strategic planning session. Following its meeting in March, the MTSBA Board incorporated funding for attendance of delegates at MTSBA’s Delegate Assembly for the first time, and the delegates responded with record attendance and dedicated participation in a facilitated process of refining the intended direction of LEAP. Following Delegate Assembly, the MTSBA Board decided to take LEAP to its members for exposure, feedback and refinement as an internal leadership development movement.

MTSBA's Leadership Engagement Action Plan (LEAP) is intended to equip boards of trustees to effectively focus their activities to support student achievement. MTSBA will provide advice, information and training on how to effectively manage relationships: among the members of the board of trustees; between the board and the superintendent and other staff; and between the district and the community it serves and to whom it is accountable.

MTSBA’s LEAP is based on elements of promoting:

1. Community Engagement;

2. Group Learning for the Leadership Team; and

3. Advocacy for student achievement and quality education

MTSBA's LEAP is intended to heighten awareness of the importance of the relationship between boards and their communities, as a primary vehicle for increasing student success and strengthening families and community. By building on the development of productive relationships that revolve around the common interest of serving the interests of children, Montana School Boards can become positioned to effectively advocate and motivate other stakeholders to advocate for the programs and services that are necessary to provide a public education of sufficient quality to be worthy of the term "quality" as used in the Montana Constitution.