School Crossings - Fixing the Budget

12 04 2008 School Crossings
    We are fixing the budget. Over a year ago it was pointed out that if cuts were not made, the district would face a deficit of over $700,000 in 2008-2009. It’s time.

    The school board has been receptive to getting at the problem earlier rather than later. It is my job to recommend how we balance the budget. It would be easy to look back at former board members and administrators and criticize, but the fact is that Menomonie’s budget woes are primarily related to declining enrollment and how the state aid formula works against districts that find themselves in that situation. Although the district enrollment increased this year, the overall trend is disturbing, with a decline of over 300 students in the period 2000-2007.  That kind of decrease spells trouble and requires either a revenue boost through a referendum—or cuts. Given the economy, and the fact that I hear people asking for stability before considering a referendum, we need to cut.

    At last month’s board meeting I quoted FDR. “We know that self-serving interests are bad ethics; we now know that they are bad economics.” That is a little harsh but his point was that it is human nature to put on the blinders when it is time to cut. The other guy’s program always looks less important. That’s why we have school boards and administration. They are the only ones with a 360-degree view of all programs. As the process starts, some may ask for more input, for consensus, for meetings, and so on. Someone once said that when brown spots form on the banana, it’s too late to call a committee meeting. In fact, there has been input. It’s uniquely American and it’s the most powerful form of input there is. It is called a school board election. As the founding fathers conceived it, the whole point of representative democracy is to remove decision making from special interests and place it in the hands of folks who are elected to see all issues. That is why school districts that elect single-issue candidates experience heightened conflict.

    I am sorry to have to tell you this, but I am going to advocate decisions that not everybody likes. However, the worst mistake an administrator can make is to promise something that cannot be delivered. There will be no win-win in this budget. It is a tough situation, and we will make tough decisions and bring the budget in line. And frankly, as a taxpayer, why wouldn’t you want strong executive leadership in this situation, especially if you believe school leaders need to be more accountable? The tighter a leader’s hands are tied, the more accountability is diminished. You can’t fire a committee of volunteers. You can find yourself a new leader if you are not satisfied. Too much decentralizing of decision-making balkanizes school districts into tiny interest communities that battle, or even worse, ignore each other.

    When I was the superintendent at tiny Barneveld, WI, we had a tornado. Twelve people were killed, including my athletic director and a student. We did not call a committee meeting or hold hearings. I asked for help and received it, but many decisions had to be made quickly and unilaterally. Fortunately, the structure permitted it and the school recovered much quicker than predicted.

    State school board associations, and your own experience, will tell you that the pool of viable superintendent candidates, particularly among women and minorities, is drying up rapidly. It is easy to see why. The best candidates I talk to want no part of a school paranoia that eschews strong leadership. The idea that we can fix school problems by disorganizing and decentralizing is counterintuitive. During the process, we are not going to make everybody happy. We are going to balance the budget. I hope you will give us time and judge us on the result.


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School Crossings - Exhibit A

11 26 2008 School Crossings
What would Wally and the Beav say about bullying? Kids are a lot better than we give them credit for, but there is no doubt there is a concern in America over a generally perceived decline in respectful behavior—which occasionally boils over into tragedy. Why are things tough on kids today?  One factor that concerns me is that pop culture overwhelms the best efforts of parents and schools to model decent behavior toward others.

I think parents do the best they can, but with one or both parents working longer hours and the increase in re-constituted families, it’s a fact that there is not as much time to spend with kids. Schools work on behavior, too. When I went to school, the curriculum began and ended with the 3Rs. Now we spend significant time with children specifically addressing positive attitudes, relationships and behavior. I think a lot of good school-parent teamwork is undone by TV, DVDs and the Web.

Here’s where Wally and the Beav fit in as Exhibit A. As anyone who remembers Leave it to Beaver (or at least watched a re-run) knows, Wally’s character—popular, athletic, handsome—was a nice guy who took care of his brother, a loser in today’s parlance. Fast forward to today. I don’t watch TV much, but enough to know that popular shows tend to be about making fun of people and getting laughs out of it.  The good-looking, witty, handsome characters make fun of the losers. At this point, you need to ask yourself, “When something goes bad in the lives of real kids, is it the ‘Wallys’ who are at the center of it?” Not usually.

While schools and parents at least attempt to address the feelings of kids who struggle with self-concept and popularity, what has the (adult-controlled) mass media done to help? They put on shows about making fun of people who are not self-confident or popular. They make millions selling hip-hop albums that abuse women and glorify violence. Video games about assault and armed robbery and car theft have become so popular that no one seems to even notice what a crazy thing that is. It is not a stretch to posit a connection between pop culture and some of the horrific tragedies that have Americans worrying about schools and public places.

Children need to be responsible for their own actions, but one thing we know is that adults make and profit from the music, the videos, and the sitcoms that damp out the effect of good role modeling in homes and in the classroom.

The answer is not necessarily censoring or a ban. Solving a problem with a negative is a last resort. Sometimes it is a lot easier to substitute a good thing for a bad thing than it is to ban it. If everyone made an effort to present kids with more positive opportunities, there would be an immediate change for the better. Activities like summer school, family vacations, church programs, the YMCA, and scouting engage kids and expose them to strong role models. Left alone, children follow the path of least resistance to the diversions of TV and pop culture with bad results.

Let’s work together to give kids positive alternatives. And let’s watch what they watch a little, too.
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School Crossings - Home Is the Place

11 20 2008 School Crossings
    One of our greatest American poets, Robert Frost, said, “home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”  I would have said it a lot nicer, but he conveys the truth that, no matter what, people need a last resort of security and caring. Especially children.
    A school can never replace a home, but when it works right, school strengthens and builds homes. I have not been able to get out in the Menomonie schools as much as I anticipated, but to the extent I have, I’ve visited little kids. My roots are in elementary schools. When I’m bogged down in my office, it clears my head to get out and visit our younger students.
    Children have an unusual sensitivity and empathy toward certain subjects. Sometimes I say to them, “I’m new.” They get that right away. They don’t know what a deficit or a contract is, but they know what it’s like to be alone. I think aloneness is fear children have and it is why good schools try to support and strengthen families. I saw an example this past week at Wakanda where teachers, the county sheriffs and parents met with children to celebrate the graduation from their “D.A.R.E.” course. D.A.R.E. is a cooperative effort to give children awareness of alcohol and drug issues and support them in making good choices. As the students read their essays, received certificates and shared their achievements, they were surrounded by support—teachers, administrators, parents, and law enforcement. They were not alone. School is a safe place—just the way home is.
    I’m having these thoughts about home because I have a daughter in Virginia and one in Colorado.  They are in their twenties but they are still growing in many ways. They are still my kids. I get to watch them grow up in pictures, except now. The holidays are approaching and they will be coming home.
Maybe you need to be separated from your children by geography, or be the new guy for a while, to realize how important home is. I hope you will allow me to remind you that the grind at work, the bills, the taxes, the house that needs shingling, the leaky faucet, are all worth it because that is what makes home. Let me close by sharing with you what one of my new student friends, Betty, wrote me about home.

My Favorite Place
My favorite place is home. Home is my favorite place because you can smell the fresh air and the food when cooking. You can see a swing set with kids playing on it. You can see cars driving past, and leaves falling in fall. You can hear the car motors when they are going past. And the leaves falling to the ground. Also you can hear the wind blowing, and voices of little kids screaming. You can feel the wind blowing on you. I lived here all my life since I was born. I remembered the first time we got the swing set. I love home. --Betty, 5th grade

    I think Robert Frost should have talked to Betty. Happy Holidays.

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School Crossings - Winter Sports Season

11 12 2008 School Crossings


It is winter sports season. To fans, that means basketball, wrestling, hockey and other exciting diversions from the Wisconsin weather. It also means Rolaids time when things get a little too exciting. Indoor sports have the drawback of allowing only a limited number of children to play at one time compared to say, football, where lots of people can play, or track, where anyone who wants can give it his or her best.


When Dr. Naismith invented basketball, he laid down rules so that only five people can play at a time. Five people whose efforts are influenced by coaches’ and referees’ decisions. Since the coaches, referees and players are all humans, they make mistakes. Everyone sees the mistakes because indoor sports feature a proximity to coaches and players not found in other sports.


It is a huge temptation to offer advice at a basketball game. People think that coaching or refereeing basketball is like building a campfire. Anybody can do it. Everybody’s opinion is expert. Never mind that very few people, including myself, have any real expertise in the game. Check it out sometime. Most of the people who talk at games about how the coaches, kids and refs can do better are just like you and me—they played in high school, maybe even tried a sport in college, maybe coached a little bit for a church team or elementary team. That kind of pedigree does not justify the certainty with which some fans read the riot act to coaches and refs. And yet, at any high school in America, you can see your friends and neighbors become experts the minute the ball goes up.
No one knows how the Menomonie teams are going to do this year. We know that they will try hard. They will feel badly when they lose. Maybe coaches like Bobby Knight know more about how to win games than our coaches do, but they certainly do not care about the kids more than the Menomonie coaches.


It is hard to handle when your child is on the wrong end of a call. It hurts when he or she does not get to play as much as you think is fair. Nonetheless, until you walk in the moccasins of the coaches, it is hard to understand how much they also want to do the right thing.
It all seems so important, but is it? I have literally seen thousands of students play on teams over the course of my career. In all of that time, I have seen ONE student make a living from sports. When I was at Sauk Prairie, we had Paul Gruber. He went on to play pro football. He was something else. I have never seen anything like him since. But that’s it. A few other young people have had scholarships.


The reality is that most children will leave school with nothing to take from sports other than intangibles which we do not seem to value as much as winning. The intangibles include a sense of good sportsmanship, giving your best effort, and keeping in shape. Young people get that from playing on teams. Some fans do not think that’s enough if the winning is not there. The athletes sense that and it can take the fun out of playing. This is why kids do not play pick-up games on their own anymore like they did when a lot of us were young. They do not have the same joy that we used to have in calling up a few buddies on a Sunday afternoon and playing for hours in a game that was over when it got dark, not when someone won.


There’s a mountain bike race in Colorado that I have done. It’s a hundred miles long. It goes through forests, creeks, and boulder fields and up to a mountain peak at 13,000 feet. It’s tough stuff. I have never done it fast enough to win the silver belt buckle they give to the best racers. But I love that race. The Leadville 100 race motto is, “You are better than you think you are. You can do more than you think you can.” That is the only thing that counts in sports. We will all have more fun if we remember that, when all the scorebooks are closed and the students have moved on, what remains for the them is not the wins and losses as much as the memories of teammates and the satisfaction of knowing that they gave it all they had.

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School Crossings - Paying It Backward

11 06 2008 School Crossings

Wisconsin is a tough place to keep in shape in the winter. We cyclists, for example, are so desperate that we resort to indoor trainers. Indoor trainers are boring, so we watch TV while we do it. Any TV.

Last holiday season, for once, I was glad for that. I was desultorily flipping through channels when a segment on the evening news caught my eye. I think about it every holiday season. Thanksgiving is coming up and the tale bears retelling. The story began in a coffee store in Florida.

It was rush hour, the drive-thru line was backed up, tempers were short and nerves were frayed. The Christmas spirit was in short supply until one customer made a choice. He received his drink and was fiddling with it, while trying to pay at the same time. The driver behind him started
leaning on the horn, making gestures, and creeping up on his rear bumper.

The first customer happened to be a martial arts expert. He had options. His first inclination was to get out of the car, walk back, and straighten the impatient driver out. His training, however, also consisted of self-control and restraint. On second thought, he took out ten dollars, handed it to the cashier and said, “Buy that guy behind me his coffee.” Then he drove away.

The irate coffee drinker pulled up and began to rant about the delay until the cashier said, “Sir, your coffee has been paid for by the man who was in front of you.” Deflated, and not a little chagrined, he thought it over and said, “ Here’s some extra money from me. Buy the guy behind me his coffee.”

It went on like that all day. At closing time, not one single customer had paid for his own drink. Everybody pulled up, learned they were taken care of, and paid for the person behind. No one broke the chain all day. There is a popular phrase for random acts of kindness like this—paying it forward. I guess in this case, they were paying it backward.

As we head in to the holidays, I want to thank all the residents who have supported the children in our schools. Just today, I ran into three separate groups of local folks helping out—Optimists, Rotarians and the Chamber—all involved in positive acts that ultimately support families and kids. There are many other helpers in Menomonie—churches, Lions, parent clubs—in fact, more
helping groups than I have seen in any other Wisconsin community.

Small acts of volunteerism and kindness go on every day. I am sure we never come close to thanking everyone who pitches in—sometimes the helpers even demand anonymity.

Let me reassure you that the support does not go unnoticed by the kids. I think they learn a lot when they see grownups help. They learn to be kind, to look out for others, and some day, they will buy the next person a cup of coffee.
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School Crossings - Horatius at the Bridge

10 29 2008 School Crossings

For the past two years, I have taught UW-RF graduate courses for teachers who want to become administrators. My field has been school politics. Some day I think I will go back to that, but not now. My focus is on Menomonie 100%. However, I am still trying to figure out what aspiring administrators need to learn, so I spent last night dusting the cobwebs off my notes. I want to keep refining what I know.

It is hard to know where to start.
 
There’s federal politics—No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation being the prime example. Because of NCLB, schools are testing and comparing children like never before. NCLB may end up affecting schools like the farmer who tried to make his cows heavier by weighing them, or it may increase accountability and performance. There is not enough evidence to know for sure. Absent enough facts, the future of this far-reaching law will be determined politically. You can count on it.

Federal politics reach into local schools through the state. Mandates like NCLB get administered at the state level. For example, the way Wisconsin complies with NCLB is different from the way Arkansas or Massachusetts or Utah complies. How can people come up with such different interpretations of the exact same federal mandate? That is state politics. On top of the administration of federal law, states add on their own political agenda. In Wisconsin, our state aid formula—the lifeblood of school revenue and the key to property tax relief—is determined, changed or sustained through a political process. Very few legislators understand the state aid formula and equity issues well enough to run a school, but they know how their party votes. It’s not about the facts as much as it is about the politics.

All of this devolves to the local level where it must be unraveled by school boards composed of citizens, most of whom work full-time, who are lucky to meet a couple of times a month. They also add in their own political agenda through board policy. Where does their policy come from in part? To answer that question, you need to ask another question. How are school board members chosen? Community politics. Community politics affect schools—from what you name the buildings, to staff levels, to intergovernmental relations. For example, is there a sharing attitude, or a rivalry between the municipalities and the school? Good or bad, that is politics.

I tell aspiring administrators that, considering the pervasiveness of politics, we should be very proud of how successfully most Wisconsin schools navigate the perfect storm of adult opinions without disrupting the education of children. Aspiring principals need to prepare themselves to stand like Horatius at the bridge and filter out inappropriate politics, be it federal, state, or local, to the best of their ability. And because that, in itself, is a political act, a new experience for all rookie principals will be to learn that they can never satisfy everyone. They will be too strict for some and too lenient for others. No matter how dedicated they are, someone will be dissatisfied. I tell them that comes with the territory. If they are lucky and work hard, they will hold up as well as the best administrators I have mentored over my career—people who run schools and focus on kids first, while others above them wrestle with politics. I’ll also tell them that when they interview for jobs, make sure they do it in communities that, over time, find a way to avoid being stirred up, because when the elephants wrestle, the grass gets trampled.

I wrote that last sentence for a lecture two years ago. Looking at it now and applying it to the present, I am struck by how patient the Menomonie community has been in the first three months of a new administration. As I look around, the grass is growing straight, which makes improvement the responsibility and obligation of administration and the board and the staff.

The community is doing its part.

Thanks for reading.
 
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School Crossings - Something To Be Said

10 23 2008 School Crossings

Years ago, a friend told me a story about one of his co-workers. The man suffered chronic health problems his entire life. At the age of sixty, he was told he probably had less than a year to live. He decided that he was not going to spend that year working. He retired with the intention of doing what he had always wanted to do—go fishing every day. He did, and fifteen years later, he was still fishing.
There is something to be said for living every day as if it were our last. A lot of the things that cause us stress and worry would not be allowed a place in our mind if we knew there was no tomorrow. Someone once told me, “The worst thing that ever happened to me never happened.”
Think about how that applies to raising kids. For what it’s worth, I am now a veteran, with my third and last one in college. I think back to some of the troubles I had as a young parent, and I realize that I don’t push the small stuff as much as I used to.
If it were your last day alive, would you want to spend it bickering over something trivial? At first I worried that terrible things would happen if I eased up. But lo and behold, no great catastrophes occurred. None of the girls tried to take advantage of the little bit of extra freedom. I think we were all a little bit better off for it.
It’s a good day and I’m going to get out and enjoy a high school football game, living today as if it were my last and remembering that kids are better than we give them credit for.
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School Crossings - “Moose Country”

10 16 2008 School Crossings

North of Highway 8, I listen to “Moose Country” radio. If you listen to “Moose Country,” you hear C&W music and if you listen to enough C&W, eventually you hear Johnny Cash, which made me think about school – and who influences children the most.

Johnny Cash’s mother was his dearest and most important influence. His earliest memories were of her playing a cheap Sears and Roebuck guitar. Years later, he could not say if his mother was actually a good player, but he knew he loved to listen to her. He wanted to be like her.

Neighbors were scarce in the part of Arkansas where Cash grew up. He did not have many, but down the road lived his second life influence, Jesse Barnhill. Barnhill played a kind of music one does not hear anymore – old style bluegrass and gospel-rooted country music. Unaccompanied and unamplified, Barnhill’s shade tree playing mesmerized the young boy. Despite a crippled arm, Jesse had become a gifted player using his damaged arm to strum, while fretting chords with his good hand.

Barnhill taught the little boy his first chord, even though Johnny’s hands were not big enough to go around the neck of the guitar. Day after day, Johnny walked miles to Barnhill’s to listen and learn. He stayed until dark and then walked back. He recalled long walks home through piney mountains. As shadows lengthened into darkness, he was haunted by howls and cries of panthers. How did that little boy find the strength to make long, scary walks? Music pulled him through the darkness and led him home.

The stories of Johnny Cash’s life dramatize three things that go to the core of child-rearing:

1) Parents are the first and most powerful influence. Moms and dads, if you read to children, if you play music for them, if you are kind to them, they will copy you. Johnny Cash’s mother’s playing inspired the man that many regard as America’s greatest and most original country artist.

2) Other adults who are kind make a huge difference, too. Not everyone has children in the house, but all of us bump into kids every day. Neighbors, grandparents and adult friends are essential ingredients to a child-centered community. Who knows with whom a child will connect?

If you are lucky enough to have a child look up to you, to ask you a question, to follow you around (maybe even bug you), you are receiving an invitation to make a difference. If Jesse Barnhill had not taken time for little Johnny Cash, think how much poorer American music would be today.

3) Music and the arts can pull you through the darkness. Just as young Johnny Cash was led home through the dark woods, he found his way through the trials and tribulations of drug use by following the pure heart of his music.

We cannot predict who will fail and who will succeed, or what small influence makes a difference. But we know that every community has children who find little in math, or language arts, or sports, or social activities to match the hold that music and the arts have on their hearts and minds. Johnny Cash was led through the darkness by music over sixty years ago. Children have not changed. What’s wrong with providing the opportunity that Johnny Cash’s mother and Jesse Barnhill provided for the Man in Black?
“My father was a man of love. He always loved me to death. He worked hard in the fields, but my father never hit me. Never. I don’t ever remember a really cross, unkind word from my father.” – Johnny Cash
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SCHOOL CROSSINGS

10 10 2008 School Crossings
 
Last summer, as I was packing up to leave after 20 years at St. Croix Central, a young man walked in to my office. I was surprised.
Happily surprised.
Frankly, I don’t get many visitors who drop in just to chat. Most of them have an agenda. It’s not that I don’t like the Department of Public Instruction, or salesmen, or attorneys that advise on negotiations for the school, but most of them are on a mission. It turns out that my visitor did have an agenda. We’ll call him “Joe.” He wanted to say thanks and share with me what he was doing. “Joe” is pursuing higher education in a career he loves. He felt that school helped him pursue his goal in many ways. He came back to tell a few people that he appreciated it. I was lucky enough to be one of those people.
I was thinking about Joe’s visit while watching the current political activity. Education has slipped to the backburner—for obvious reasons. One of the items on the backburner for candidates is the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB). When the candidates left off to attend to financial issues and other pressing problems, they did not agree on much, but when they talked about education, there seemed to be consensus that NCLB is not doing what it was supposed to do. I have mixed feelings. I am all for improvement in education. My motto has always been “Every year, a little bit better.”
However, expensive, government-mandated testing, which is the backbone of NCLB, is not the best and only way to measure whether schools are getting better. It fails to take into account the individual student and from where he/she is starting. In “Joe’s” case, his career path is a new one. It is very viable, but outside the box. Standardized testing markers do not do a good job of predicting how he will do. The predictors were there for people who care. “Joe’s” ability to identify teachers who could support and encourage was a predictor of success. His willingness to do extra around the school was a predictor. His ability to get along with adults and learn in informal, as well as formal, work situations was a predictor. The signs were all there for “Joe.”
I am not surprised he is doing well. However, none of it would be predicted one way or the other by NCLB. If NCLB is not the ultimate answer for evaluating your school, what is?
Well, it is amazing to me how many people have never been in schools for a meaningful period of time during the school day. Would you buy a car without ever having seen it on the road? Would you buy a house without ever having set foot in it? Yet in the most expensive, important local undertaking in our community, most residents have never made an appointment to take a walk-through of the schools in action and see what makes people like “Joe” come back and say that school works.
Thanks for reading.


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School Crossings - Making Sense

10 02 2008 School Crossings

Here is a bumper sticker that makes sense: “If you are worried about security, invest in children.”

Who is not worried about security? We all have a dog in that fight. The president tells us we are on the brink of a financial crisis of epic proportions, gas prices continue rising, health care is a bigger worry than ever for most folks, and, more than anything else, we are not a world at peace.

Who is going to fix this? It should be obvious that it will not be any of us who, in the words of the poet, “have more yesterdays than tomorrows.” If things are to improve in the future, the people who will make things better are in our school systems right now. There will come a time when all of us reach an age where we need help. For some of us, we will lose our independence and be completely at the mercy of others to take care of us. The people we will reach out to are today’s students. No other investment will come back to reward us, or haunt us, like the investment we make in children.

We know that new strategies for energy consumption and alternative sources of energy must be developed for our way of life to continue. Will America be the country to solve that problem? The answer is in our schools. Bacteria continue to mutate into new forms that are more and more drug resistant. If the technological breakthrough that may cure you from a new form of pneumonia is to be found, it will be discovered by someone who is in grade school today.

The current generation of leaders has done the best it can, but it is not good enough. Our country is involved in a major conflict with an uncertain end, the specter of terrorism stalks the world in a manner we could never have dreamed of a few decades ago, and to put a global crisis in the simplest terms, people just don’t seem to be getting along.

On the bright side, America is still handling factionalism better than any other country by embracing diversity. And where is that done first and best? In the school systems. Is it any wonder that countries that encourage separatism of beliefs and creeds and colors through segregated schools are reaping a harvest of distrust and violence, especially among their poor?

We are a long way from establishing a completely fair and just society, but no country in the world is close to America in its willingness and ability to address that problem. The 9/11 Commission recommended building good public schools as the first step to building good governments in the Middle East. Does our own country deserve less? Our public schools, which accept all children, regardless of race, creed, or handicap, are part of the reason we enjoy the freedoms that no other country in the world does.

Thanks for investing in Menomonie Schools and in our future.
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