Chain of Command

Back in 1965, my mom got really mad at my junior high principal. You see, we were supposed to bring in a self-addressed, stamped envelope at the end of the school year in which our report cards would be mailed home. Feeling a little “full of myself” with end of the school year silliness, I addressed my envelope with more detail than necessary. After city and state, I added United States of America, North America, Planet Earth, Universe.

Now my Principal, Mr. Brock, who was not overly endowed with a sense of humor decided that a letter addressed in such a way should not soil the U.S.Mail. So he held my report card. Mom contacted the school looking for my missing grades and was invited in to conference with the Principal. He apparently assumed she would readily agree that such a serious act was just one step away from being a juvenile delinquent. My mother concluded that he was either working too hard or he was just an idiot.

Sometimes folks get mad at me, just like my mother was at Mr. Brock. Sometimes they’re not really mad at me, but they’re mad at something that happened and they express that anger freely too me. Sometimes they get real fired up based solely upon the information provided by their child. Most often, when we add other information to the student’s story, we get a clearer picture of the entire incident and the anger diminishes.

We’re not a real big district so I’m available for trouble shooting. I’m pretty easy to talk to and I try to be respectful to all callers. But, unfortunately, I am most often not the one who can fix the problem or right the wrong because I wasn’t there. You would be surprised at the folks who begin their conversation with a threat that if I don’t take care of this, they are going to call the Governor, or Joe Biden, or the United States Superintendent of Schools.

I generally try to steer parents/guardians back to the source so that the problem might be resolved at the lowest level possible. If it happened on the bus, contact the bus driver and if he/she doesn’t respond, call Bill Morris, Supervisor of Transportation. If the problem happens in the classroom, contact the teacher and if the issue is unresolved, contact the school principal. If, after giving the principal a chance to solve the problem, you are still not satisfied, then contact me.

And if, after meeting with me, you’re still not happy, you can appeal to the Board of Education. We even have a special form for that.

Good old mom went to the person responsible for that decision back in 1965. She followed the chain of command.

We accept in our business that the occasional decision, made in the best interest of the child, may not be well received by the family. But we have learned that most of the time folks get upset, it’s because they don’t have the full picture. When they get a chance to talk with the employee, things get worked out just fine. And they don’t need me, or the Governor or Joe Biden or the U.S. Superintendent of Schools, whoever that is.

The Flu

I have a cold. It’s not the flu, just a cold that started with a little sinus drainage, moved to sore throat and has now dropped into my chest in about 3 days. I’ll survive.

At least it’s not the flu. My wife had the flu about a month ago (the non-porcine kind) and it was a rough one. This lady generally works 8 days a week and she ended up being home for about 10 days straight. Maybe if I was a better nurse she would’ve recovered more quickly.

This flu thing, swine or other, has us all thinking more cautiously. We’re washing our hands more. Just the other day, after the usual break in our church service where everyone greets one another with a handshake or a hug, I found myself asking my wife if she had any hand sanitizer in her purse. Now I keep it in my car and at my desk.

Here’s a little quiz to test your knowledge of prevention basics. Share them with your family.

Q: If your hands are occupied and you have to sneeze, what’s the best way to catch it?
A: In the crook of your arm, inside your elbow.

Q: How long should you wash your hands?
A: As long as it takes to sing Happy Birthday.

Q: If you’ve been away from school or work with the flu, when is it safe to return?
A: When you’ve had no fever for 24 hours with no assistance from fever reducing meds.

Bottom line is, I tell parents to count on their child getting the flu and make plans for caring for them. We won’t keep children at school when they have a fever. We won’t send them home on the bus either. Child care centers won’t take them. So, be sure to have a family plan. I know it may be a burden on the family income, but failure to act responsibly risks spreading infections further.

We understand that the Department of Public Health is devising a plan to offer swine flu vaccinations to students at school this fall. No details are available at this time, but hopes are they’ll get the details out in October and begin the shots in early November. In the mean time, this website can keep you informed. http://dhss.delaware.gov/dhss/dph/index.html.

If you want to talk to someone in the district about the flu, your child’s school nurse is the most knowledgeable resource we have.

Stay safe and wash your hands.

School Uniform and School Pictures Go Together

We have a uniform dress code, but we don't really have school uniforms. If we had school uniforms there would be one color shirt and one color pants/skirt for every student. Our policy requires a collared shirt and permits families to choose from several colors. Same thing for the bottoms.

This week I've had a few calls from parents questioning why students are being told they must wear the uniform for school pictures. "I spend my money to buy those pictures and they should wear what I want them to wear," they say. In past years some of our schools permitted parents to send their children dressed any way they like on picture day. Others required the uniform.

Because we were not being consistent, this year our principals agreed that they would all do the same thing to reduce confusion at home. They decided that for Fall pictures, all students would be required to be dressed in our daily uniform style. Why?

Our principals reasoned that the Fall photo always goes into the school yearbook. The school yearbook is our official visual record of the school year. Pictures of students in the yearbook should look like they look in school. I agree completely. It's as simple as that. School pictures do generate a little profit for the school, but if requiring the uniform means you don't want to buy any pictures, that's OK with us.

As Paul Harvey would say, "Now you know the rest of the story."

And in the Spring, when the school schedules Spring photos, we'll let the parents dress them up any way they like.

Respect for the Office

Our Governor, Jack Markell, will be visiting some schools this year. He has asked for the opportunity to address students during school and talk to the faculty after school. He'll visit one of our most improved schools, W.T.Chipman this month. We will show him some Spartan hospitality and welcome him with all of the courtesy and respect that is due the office of Governor of the First State.

It will be a great opportunity for a first hand lesson in government and certainly opens the door for some interesting classroom assignments afterword. It doesn't matter if you are a republican or a democrat or if you voted for him or not, he's everyone's Governor right now and he has a very challenging job.

Would we offer the same respect if the President of the United States wanted to visit one of our schools? Sure we would.

As it so happens, President Obama is planning a visit to schools on Tuesday at noon via the Internet and CSPAN. Like George Bush did in 1991 he wants to launch the school year by addressing the nation's school children. And, like the opposing party in 1991, there are those who say the president is using this speech for political gain.

According to the press release, the speech will take no more than 20 minutes and "the president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning". It seems to me that those are goals that all of us can support. If, because the words come from the President, they stick with a few students like never before, that would be a good thing.

So, it has been a little surprising that we've had some parents contact us even before we knew of the speech and threaten to keep their children home. We have also had some parents ask if we are going to view it, can they come and view it with their children.

Here's how we'll handle what has become a somewhat controversial issue. At Central Elementary and W.T.Chipman, students who return a permission form will have the opportunity to view the speech live. At Lake Forest High School, they plan to download and save the speech to be used in individual Social Studies classes. One of the reasons they chose that option is that they're trying to reduce the number of school wide-interuptions to the day and they already have a pep-rally scheduled for next week. Sorry, Mr. President, football season is about to start.

We're not sure if students in our elementary K-3 schools will understand what the President has to say, so teachers in those schools will wait to review the message before determining if there is a usable lesson that is applicable to our social studies curriculum.

So that's the plan. We'll use discretion and we'll allow parents to choose whether their child should view the speech live. And we'll allow teachers to determine after it is delivered, if the material is appropriate for a social studies lesson.

Harry Truman said, "When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn't for you. It's for the Presidency."

I'd like to think that if the President called, President Obama or any future president, and wanted to speak at one of our schools, we would show him the same courtesy and respect we do for our Governor. It's not so much the person, but the Office that would deserve it.