Smoke Signals Need Explaining Fast

ISSUE 71 | JANUARY 31, 2006

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But when you smell smoke at school—signs of financial, academic or labor trouble—do you tell others? Direct them to action? Become more alert? Or do you ignore the warning signals and move on, hoping the problem will magically fix itself?

Every district has hot spots: points of friction where interests conflict. If you have been in leadership long enough, your good judgment enables you to identify those hot spots that are likely to get hotter. Eventually, hot spots start combusting. The first sign of smoke is your reward for being an alert observer. It is the moment before fire erupts. It is your opportunity to act. And the first act that makes all others possible is to inform others.

WHEN YOUR SCHOOL IS BUILT OF UNREINFORCED BRICKS

If you think you face tough news, and are hesitant to share it, consider this hopeful story of candor and courage in the face of a tough decision.

In May of 2000, ex-Superintendent Tom Mohr of San Mateo Union High School District got news from his facilities director that a routine inspection of his flagship high school had turned up bad news. The building—built of brick in 1927—was supposed to have been built with steel rebar threaded through the bricks. In the course of a routine safety inspection, his facilities team had drilled inspection holes in walls and found no sign of rebar. They were preparing to confirm the bad news, and told Supt. Mohr pronto what they had found.

The supe immediately summoned his cabinet, the high school's principal, and his board to an emergency meeting. He quickly let them all know that he had just learned of the problem. He shared his thoughts on the decision they might soon face together. He provided time for discussion. And he told them what his next steps would be if the bad news were confirmed: immediate closing of the school.

The next day, the bad news was confirmed. No rebar in the building at all. The school was susceptible to collapse in an earthquake. Supt. Mohr closed San Mateo High that day. If he could not guarantee the structural integrity of the building in the event of an earthquake, he could not let students or staff in the door. The following days were chaotic. Classes had to meet outdoors. Portables were ordered. Other sites absorbed the overflow. But Supt. Mohr's quick sharing of the bad news, both up and down the chain of command, helped make the best of it.

Read about the re-opening of San Mateo High in July, 2005, in this San Francisco Examiner article.

Your district may face more than one of the following challenges right now. Do you see them? Does your cabinet see them? Your board? Do you see them with eyes wide open? Or, because the next steps would be painful, are you trying not to notice, hoping these problems will fix themselves?

FINANCIAL SMOKE SIGNALS

Just over half of California's school districts face painful adjustments to their financials. No longer can public agencies avoid seeing the impact of retiree health and pension benefits. Concessions made by management in prior years will now hit the books. The impact of this change in accounting laws (Government Accounting Standards Board Ruling #45) will be as dramatic as the change has been in the private sector. There will be insolvencies. See this fact sheet from CSBA for the gory details.

Tom Henry, who heads the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), had this to say via email about districts that may be approaching the edge of the cliff of financial solvency:

"Many districts are experiencing declining enrollment, encroachment in the general fund, and deficit spending. These trends, coupled with the unfunded liability in retiree health benefits present a formidable task for our school districts. Districts need to use the qualified certification process as a preventative and proactive measure. All too often, there is a reluctance to self certify qualified or negative because of the fiscal health connotation. This, of course, is the exact opposite direction districts should take."

Over a year ago, this owl heard FCMAT leaders Joel Montero and Tom Henry offer an extraordinary precaution at the CSBA's conference. They believed that qualified budgets should be issued by at least one-fourth of California school districts. This institutional form of warning signal is being issued far less frequently than it should be, they said. If a district knows it cannot meet its obligations in two years, it should say so. To help districts figure it out, they have published a financial Health Risk Analysis and Predictors of School Agencies Needing Intervention. See this smoke detector.

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING SMOKE SIGNALS

When your union want double-digit salary increases in years when you are managing strained budgets in the fifth year of this austerity era, you should smell smoke. (San Francisco's union started their talks asking for 12 percent raises.) When the union wants to defend lifetime health benefits for retirees, and you know that rising health costs and expected longevity would bankrupt the district in ten years, you should smell smoke.

ACADEMIC SMOKE SIGNALS

When you see that the passing rate on the exit exam for this year's high school sophomores is eight percentage points lower than the prior years, you should smell smoke. When you see that only 25 percent of your eighth graders are taking algebra, and that this number has not increased in three years, you should smell smoke. And when you look at the CST results for ninth graders taking algebra, and note that only 15 percent are scoring advanced or proficient, you know that waiting a year doesn't help most students. Smell smoke again?

ARE YOU REWARDING THOSE WHO SPOT SMOKE?

Yelling "fire" is not what this owl is suggesting. Rather, I am suggesting that education leaders appoint fire scouts who are rewarded when they spot smoke, and that you encourage them to communicate. Sadly, the all-too-common practice inside K-12 management is to ignore smoke signals, penalize those who report seeing smoke, and not publicize the warnings.

For the sake of argument, let us assume that most of those leading school districts notice the smoke signals. Why, then, do so few communicate their alerts? This owl has three hunches.

Hunch #1: Leaders who are alert learn to keep quiet because in the past they have been punished for bringing bad news forward. I have listened to superintendents tell me of their fear of pro-union board members if they directed teachers' professional development where it was needed most. And I have met with school board members who have told me that they incurred the teachers union's wrath for flagging the danger of lifetime health benefits for retirees. It is the classic fear of being treated by the board as the messenger who comes bearing bad news.

Hunch #2: Leadership keeps quiet because they have lost faith in their team's power to put out the fire. Example: A director of curriculum and development confides that her district's poor results in eighth grade algebra are due to weak math expertise among their teaching staff, starting in fifth grade. But when she tried to bring up the problem at cabinet meetings, the HR director and supe told her to forget about it, that they were lucky to find teachers with single-subject authorizations in math who could fog a mirror. Example: Middle school teachers have been telling leadership for years that one-fifth of the incoming sixth graders are reading far below grade level. The director of elementary education shrugs and says her instructional teams are delivering the curriculum with credentialed teachers. What can she do? Faith (and professionalism) have disappeared.

Hunch #3: While acutely alert to smoke signals, leadership has little faith that the public will shoulder its responsibility to bring resources to the district. By predicting the public's failure to pony up, leadership justifies keeping its knowledge a closely held secret. This itself ensures failure. How often have you wondered if your voters would approve a bond measure if you showed them how crowded your schools were? Have you wondered if the voters would reject your parcel tax appeal even if you showed them the value of the library they'd keep open, or the afterschool program they'd preserve? But if you don't communicate that need, not just at election time, but all the time, how can you expect your public to support and trust you when you ask them to do so?

This trust rests on faith: your faith in the public that they'll care and open their wallets, and their faith in you that you'll steward those funds with great care. Indeed, building trust is a faith-based initiative.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Communicate when you smell smoke, both up and down the chain of command. If you do, good things are likely to happen. If you don't, only bad things can ensue.

2. Identify the smoke youre looking for. Lead by letting your organization know what warning signs matter most. Each department will have its own signs to watch for. Tell the departments what to look for. And show them the difference between minor friction and real smoke.

3. Give your signal-spotters incentives to communicate. You will need to reward behavior that you want to encourage. People in large organizations are skeptical that theyll be rewarded for bringing bad news upstairs. Tha'ts why there are laws protecting whistle-blowers.

4. If you spot smoke, call for the fire department. This means FCMAT. They are there to help. They are on your side. They are expert diagnosticians, and excellent doctors.

5. Create an open information culture with every opportunity. You can do it in the superintendent's and principals' newsletters. You can do it by improving your school accountability report cards (SARCs). You can do it at board meetings. Set the standard for candor and clarity at the top, and watch the effects ripple through your district.

REFERENCE

You can find a terrific article aboute public engagement from "The School Administrator," which is the membership magazine of the American Association of School Administrators. It stresses the challenging dimensions of the communication connection.

The resources from FCMAT are available from the well-crafted FCMAT Web site.

To see more about San Mateo High School's closure and reopening, you can go to the district's Web site.

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