One of the main responsibilities of the Board of Education is to develop policy that governs the District beyond the compliance requirements of state and federal laws. Portage Public Schools’ policies are divided into four sections:

- The Board employs the Superintendent to work toward achieving the long-range objectives of the community, which are described in the Ends Statements. The Board of Education recognizes more detail is needed in this section and is in the process of further defining this section of the policy manual.
- While working to accomplish the long-range goals defined in the Ends statements, the Board has expectations of circumstances and conditions the Superintendent and the District must avoid. These expectations are detailed as Executive Limitations policies.
- The Board defines its expectations of itself and how it will govern through the Governance Process/Ownership Linkage Commitment policies.
- The working relationship between the Board and the Superintendent/staff is established through the Board-Superintendent Linkage policies.

This policy manual is the guide with which the Board expects the school District to operate. The Superintendent has the responsibility, in conjunction with District staff, to establish regulations and processes to implement these policies. The Superintendent will produce a monitoring report for the Board relative to each policy contained in sections 1 and 2 of the manual. The Board will produce monitoring reports relative to the policies in sections 3 and 4. These reports are intended to demonstrate compliance with policy and will be generated at least once a year. The policy manual is a working document that the Board will continually examine and revise as needed. Policy Manual

In addition to the policies, the Board of Education Bylaws provide overriding definitions of Board membership and Board operational protocols. Bylaws