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.