"There shall be in the department a board of elementary and secondary education..."

With the inauguration of the new governor have come a number of questions of what authority the Governor has over K-12 school governance in Massachusetts. 

This involves the interaction of three sets of players: the Secretary of Education; the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education; and the Commissioner of Education

The Secretary of Education is a cabinet member of the Governor. They are appointed by the Governor, and serve at the pleasure of the Governor. They oversee an Executive Office of Education, which is not the governance system of the state.
By virtue of that appointment by the Governor, they have a voting seat on three Boards:

• The Board of Early Education
  
• The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
• The Board of Higher Education

Governor Healey has appointed Dr. Patrick Tutwiler as Secretary of Education; this position was held by James Peyser under Governor Baker.

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education was created by MGL Ch. 15, sec. 1E, the Board consists of eleven voting members as follows: 

    1. The Secretary of Education: As above, this is Dr. Tutwiler. His term is entirely up to the Governor, but he can serve as long as Governor Healey is Governor.

    2. The Chair of the Statewide Student Advisory Council--This student member is the only elected member of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, as the chair is elected by their peers on the Council. They are elected in June and serve for one year. This seat is currently held by Eric Plankey, who is a senior at Westford Academy (which is the public high school in Westford). Eric's  term ends in June.

    3. A member whose term is coterminous with the Governor. That seat was held by Tricia Canavan of South Hadley; as such, this is a seat which Governor Healey now can fill with a person of her choice.

The term of all other seats is for five years, with a single renewal of an additional five years allowed.

    4. A labor representative, selected by the Governor from a list put forward by the State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. This seat is currently held by Darlene Lombos of Boston, who is the executive secretary-treasurer of the Greater Boston Labor Council. Darlene was appointed in June of 2020; as such her term should run through June of 2025, though she could be reappointed to a second five year term at that time if Governor Healey wishes.

    5. A "representative of business or industry selected by the governor with a demonstrated commitment to education." This seat is held by Katherine Craven of Brookline, who is Chief Administrative Officer of Babson College. She was appointed in August of 2014, and had her term renewed by Governor Baker; as such, her term expires in August of 2024.

    Important note: Though Craven currently serves as Chair, the Governor appoints the Chair, so  Governor Healey may appoint a different chair from among the members if she wishes.

    6. A "representative of parents of school children" selected by the Governor from a list of three put    forward by the Massachusetts Parent Teacher Association. This seat is held by Mary Ann Stewart, formerly a member of the Lexington School Committee, who was appointed in August of 2014; she was reappointed (or was she?) by Governor Baker, and thus her term expires August 2024.

The remainder of the five seats are non-specific, though the law specifies: 

No appointive member of said board shall be employed by or receive regular compensation from the department of education, or from any school system, public or independent, in the commonwealth, or serve as a member of any school committee.

 and not more than two can work for the state.
Currently, they are: 

    7. Matt Hills, Vice-Chair (elected to that position by his colleagues for the year), formerly a member of the Newton School Committee, is a Managing Director at LLM Capital Partners. He was appointed to the Board in March 2019--despite it not saying that on the Board page--thus his term should be up in March of 2024, though Governor Healey could reappoint him for a second term at that time. 

    8. Farzana Mohamed, also of Newton, was just appointed by Governor Baker this past July; as such    her term runs through July 2027, though she could be reappointed for a second term.

    9. Michael Moriarty, a former member of the Holyoke School Committee (prior to receivership), is the Executive Director of the OneHolyoke Community Development Corporation. He was appointed to the Board in September of 2015, and was reappointed by Governor Baker; as such, his term ends September of 2025.

    10. Paymon Rouhanifard of Brookline, is the former superintendent of the Camden, NJ schools under state control; he current runs Propel America. He was appointed in September 2019, and thus his term ends in September 2024, though he could be reappointed for a second term.

    11. Martin West of Newton, is a profession of education at Harvard Graduate School of Education. He was appointed in September 2017; as such, his term ended September 2022, unless he has been appointed for a second term.

Now there's something weird going on with appointment dates; the "official" website of terms of office, I am told, is here. Setting aside that the secretary of the Board (the Commissioner) is still somehow Jeff Wulfson (who was serving as interim five years ago), and the student member is two years of out date, the terms of office are strangely off, as follows:

• Lombos was only appointed in 2020; her appointment should run through 2025. The website has 2023, but the law has no three year terms.
• Craven's is correct.
• Peyser's blank (serves with Baker) is correct.
• Stewart was appointed in 2014, thus her first term did, as noted here, expire in 2019. She has continued to serve, though, so her term of service should run, one assumes, through the second five years, expiring in 2024. This is assuming that she was reappointed. 
• Moriarty's is correct.
• Canavan's blank (coterminous with Governor) is correct.
• West was appointed in 2017; as such, his first term have should run through 2022, unless he was reappointed. The site has it as 2025, but there are no eight year terms.
• Mohamed's is correct.
• Hills was appointed in 2019; as such, his first term ends in 2024. The site has it as 2027.
• Rouhanifard's is correct.

The law is quite clear on five years, allowed to be renewed once. The only exception is if someone is appointed to fill a partial term vacancy of less than three years. If the argument is that Hills, for example, first filled Sagan's additional year, that still only gets him to 2025, not to 2027. 

I don't like what looks like fudging here, and I hope that the state's former top lawyer, now running the show, straightens this little mess out.

It is, however, the Board, who you will note do NOT answer directly to whomever is currently the Governor, that appoints the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, who is the executive of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which oversees K-12 education in Massachusetts.
Currently, the Commissioner is Jeffrey Riley, former receiver of Lawrence, who was appointed Commissioner in 2018. He can serve as long as the Board wishes him to do so. He has no direct reporting line to the Governor.

Think of the relationship of the Board to the Commissioner as paralleling the School Committee to the Superintendent, with the Secretary simply serving as a voting member.