Well, that didn’t take long. Three days back from Winter Break and MNPS is already embroiled in a fresh controversy. Interestingly enough, if leadership team members stayed home in Maryland they’d probably be facing equally mad parents. Much like lead in the water, the challenges are not unique to Nashville, yet the district’s response feels like they are building the plane while they are flying it.

For those of you who don’t have children, or just haven’t been paying attention, kids reported back to school on Wednesday, and what they were greeted by in many of our district schools were cold classrooms and in some cases, water issues. When I say cold classrooms, I’m not talking 65 degrees. More like 55 degrees and in some cases even lower.

Temperatures on Thursday and today were in the low teens in the morning which raised concerns about kids with inadequate winter clothing having to wait at bus stops in dangerously cold weather. A chorus to close schools began to rise. The district’s response was to institute a two-hour delay in start times for all schools. Something that hadn’t been done in decades.

There were those who applauded the move as a sign that the district was at least trying something different. I don’t fall into that camp because I don’t award accolades merely for being willing to try something new. To me, you earn accolades for planning and execution. It has always frustrated me when people try new things without researching why they weren’t tried in the past and if they were, why they weren’t successful. You know, that critical thinking thing.

In all fairness to the district, things went off without any major catastrophes. But don’t think for one minute that is evidence of a quality plan. Because if you think that there really is a plan… I’ve got an archeological structure out in the desert I’d like to discuss with you. The fact that things went as smoothly as they did is more a testimony to the flexibility and ingenuity of individual schools’ staff members than it is to a well thought out plan of action.

A plan has assigned responsibilities and tasks. Responsibilities and tasks that are clear to everybody impacted. Those of us of a certain age will remember the old telephone trees. Let me explain for those of you who are not familiar with the concept.

A telephone tree is a plan, pyramid-shaped, where in the event of an emergency, everybody on the tree would have people they were dedicated to contact and inform. Everybody had a copy of the tree and with a glance could tell who was responsible for what and who would notify whom. If something didn’t happen, you could pinpoint right where the breakdown was and take immediate action. Technology has made the telephone tree obsolete, but the underlying theory behind it is still sound.

On Wednesday night at 8:40 PM, the district made the decision to institute the 2-hour delay for the following morning. A robocall was put out and the announcement was posted on social media. And then communication stopped. The initial information concerning the time teachers needed to report to work was incorrect. They were told to report an hour early, when they were actually supposed to report at the usual time, just two hours later. Teachers get to school 20 minutes before students. There was a scramble to verify reporting time, with some teachers never receiving confirmation.

I have heard various reports indicating that leadership was unaware that teachers didn’t report normally an hour before students. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it wouldn’t surprise me as I’ve written repeatedly about the disconnect between central office and what transpires in the classroom. In the spirit of fairness, the error was corrected for Friday morning’s delay, but there was no acknowledgement of the error nor an apology for possible inconvenience. As I tell my kids, a “my bad” goes a long way.

The timing of the decision created a challenge for parents, leaving many to make work arrangements at a late hour for the following morning. As Metro Council member Freddy O’Connell tweeted out, “Show of hands of @MetroSchools parents who can just push a button and have a backup plan that just works when the delayed start announcement comes in at 8:40pm the night before.” I think that’s a pretty fair question.

My big concern was for our immigrant families and poorer families who don’t have working phones or access to social media. How were they notified at 8:40 at night? How many kids showed up underdressed to the bus stop at the normal time? How many parents dropped their kids off and headed to work under the assumption that the bus would be along shortly? How many showed up and when the bus didn’t show up, just went home and spent the day unsupervised?

Now if you have an actual plan, you could get answers to those questions. Take our telephone tree. I could look at who was responsible for notifying and informing a certain group of people, and with a phone call I could follow up and verify that they were informed. I talked to several people throughout the district yesterday and couldn’t confirm with anybody who was responsible for informing our immigrant and poorer families of the delay. I have no doubt that there were teachers out knocking on doors Wednesday night to try to inform families, but the assumption that teachers will act out of a sense of personal responsibility does not make a plan. Fortunately, the district announced Friday’s delay before school was out on Thursday so that kids could be informed before leaving school.

I really don’t believe district leadership deserves harsh criticism or lavish praise for implementing a delay. Truth is, I’m not even sure what problem was addressed by the solution. As has been pointed out by many, the difference in temperature between 8 and 10 AM was 3 degrees. A late start did not make those classrooms without inadequate heat any warmer. All the teachers and students enjoyed a shorter day and an extra two hours to sleep, but in the end, what real difference did the delay make?

It feels like the real purpose was just to check another box off the list. Instituted 2-hour delay… check

ABOUT THAT LIST

Those with any familiarity to construction work know the term “punch list.” A punch list is a document prepared near the end of a construction project listing work not conforming to contract specifications that the contractor must complete prior to final payment. In watching MNPS leadership operate over the past year, it often feels to me like they are working a punch list. Community meetings, check. Talk to teachers, check. And so the list goes. Things get checked off, but there is little follow through or concern about quality.

At next Tuesday’s MNPS board meeting, Dr. Joseph will present his punch list, aka the Transition Team report update, to the board, and there are a lot of things checked off. If you look at the agenda, and scroll to the bottom, you will see the list and that 90 out of 121 items are considered complete or ongoing. That’s a number worthy of praise.

I wonder, though, if anybody on the board will take a look at that punch list and actually question it. For example, the Transition Team recommended that the district have every child read and practice with complex, grade-level text every day to begin strengthening language skills of all students. Under the status update, the district lists the following items:

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