How does your school system work?

What I am specifically curious about is if the board is elected or appointed? Who makes the decisions about how the schools are run? What city you live in (feel free to answer about other systems if you know about them).

Here in the Memphis area the city of Memphis will be voting to surrender their charter to the county. People are freaking out. Part of the problem is Memphis will then have a large say/vote on who will be on the board of Shelby county, which no one has confidence in. Even people in Memphis admit too many clueless people are voted in for the wrong reasons.

But, it seems to me some cities appoint board members? And, I have seen Mayor Bloomberg of NYC talk about education in the city, and it appears he has a lot of control over the school system there.

So, I am just trying to understand the varying ways schools are run, and which way you feel is most effective.