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The case for involving vs. informing
Superintendent Doe knew that something had to change. As he studied the budget late one Sunday evening at home, he realized that the current rate of enrollment decline, combined with limited new money and increased costs would mean closing buildings and cutting staff if something wasn't done soon. The next day at the district administrative meeting, he presented the facts to the team, including a detailed chart that showed the situation the district would be in within three years if strategies and solutions weren’t found. Rather than present the dilemma as his or "the district's" problem, he made it clear that everyone would be responsible for coming up with solutions.
For the next four weekly administrative team meetings, Superintendent Doe facilitated focused discussions about how money could be saved so that educational programs could be preserved. He laid out a goal of saving $500,000 over the coming year and challenged the team to look for ways each week to make it happen and report their ideas at the weekly team meeting. All ideas were considered.
Within the same time period, Superintendent Doe called a meeting with the staff. He presented the same information to them, including the projection chart that showed where the district would be within three years if solutions weren't found. His presentation was delivered in a way that didn't sugar coat the complexity of the situation, but also avoided an "alarmist" tone. Staff from the local AEA were on hand to facilitate small group processing following the presentation where ideas were generated regarding how money could be saved. All ideas—big and small—were documented on newsprint for consideration. At the end of the meeting, Superintendent Doe vowed to share the compiled ideas back out with the staff and keep them updated through monthly email. He made a private commitment to himself to be more visible and available to staff informally over the coming weeks so that they would have opportunities to visit with him. The last thing he wanted was distracted and anxious teachers in the classroom. His job would be to ensure that rumors were kept at bay and teachers with questions could ask them.
At the board meeting that month, Superintendent Doe presented the issue to the board using the same information and projection chart. He also shared the preliminary ideas that the administrative team had come up with, along with themes from the staff meeting. He proposed to the board that a community meeting be held so that factual information could be shared with parents and community and additional ideas could be generated for saving money. He asked the board president to take a visible role at the meeting. The board agreed and a date for the community meeting was set. The next day following the board meeting, Superintendent Doe made visits to the editor of the local paper and also to the local radio station to sit down over coffee to share some facts about what was happening as well as answer questions. He asked for support from the news media in promoting the upcoming town meeting.
At the town meeting three weeks later, a crowd of 200 showed. Staff from the AEA were on hand to facilitate small feedback sessions, much like what had been done with the district staff, following Superintendent Doe and the board president's presentation. All of the ideas from the meeting were compiled by the AEA and presented back to the district. Superintendent Doe made another trip back to the local newspaper and radio station to visit informally about some of the ideas generated at the meeting. A summary appeared in the district newsletter later that month.
An administrative team retreat was scheduled for the following month. At the retreat, the data from both the staff and community meetings were made available to the group. Through a facilitated discussion and review of the ideas presented at the two meetings, the team was able to choose from several good solutions for meeting the budget goal without cutting staff or programming. |
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