Recently we saw the administration of a school district decide to change some school starting times due to the lack of bus drivers. This had been an ongoing problem in which students were waiting for up to an hour for their bus, and up to that point, there had been no viable solutions from any parties.
On face value, there seems to be nothing wrong with this situation. In actuality, the administration made the change without going through the school board first.
This action apparently angered one of the board members, as she tried to add that topic to a board meeting agenda to allow the board members to be the ones who made the decision. According to news reports, no other board members agreed to discuss it.
In fact, one other board member said that if the board were to take it up, nothing could be implemented until at least December, and that would require families to continue facing transportation hardships for at least another month.
That begs the age-old question: do the ends justify the means?
On one hand, the leaders of the school district wanted to take immediate action that was sorely needed. On the other hand, they didn’t go through established procedures to come to that decision, even though the result had positive effects.
I’ve said before that even if rules and regulations, policies and procedures, or even the law says you’re right, it is possible that you are still wrong. That is the case of the school board.
Yes, the administration didn’t run the school time change through the board, but if they did, families would continue to experience hardships and challenges.
Rather than get into a tizzy about what happened, the school board member could have said, “While we don’t agree with how the decision to change school starting times was made, we know that at the end of the day, we must do what’s best for our students and their families.” Right now, the school board member seems to be spiteful, like they would rather continue to have inaction just for the sake of process.
Meanwhile, I acknowledge that the administration probably should have at least given the board a heads-up. (This may have happened, but I’m not privy to the details.)
Key takeaway: Leaders need to be empowered to make executive decisions when time is of the essence. This is accepted practice in most organizations, and it should be within this school district.
The leaders also need to issue a statement that helps save face for everyone. For example, “We knew we couldn’t make families wait any longer and action had to be taken immediately. This was a special circumstance in which we had to make an executive decision, and even so, this decision followed weeks of discussion with stakeholders and the board.”