“Lift up the hem of verbiage, peek below its frillies – what’s exposed? the hairy truth?”

― Joshua Cohen, Book of Numbers

According to WordPress, I’ve produced a thousand pieces since starting this blog nearly a decade ago.

I’m not saying I’ve  created a thousand good pieces; some were better than others. That said, I do think I’ve produced a body of work that I am proud of claiming.Hopefully, we’ve gotten better as time has gone on. Here’s to the next 1000.

There is a saying I prescribe to – the way you do anything is the way you do everything. Basically how you treat the small things, translates to how you’ll approach the larger. It’s a bit of a twist on the old, how you practice is how you play, trope.

A number of years ago a friend was considering leaving a school district and exploring other options. At the time she didn’t have anything else lined up, but felt that she had to go, despite her deep commitment to the children and the mission. Leadership was poor and she worried about their ineffectiveness affecting her peformance.

My advice was, you gotta go. It was a response that shocked her.

I explained workplace culture influences us. It erodes or cements habits based on the example set by management.

At the time district leaders were never on time for meetings, and rarely showed up prepared. Presentations were frequently canceled, or reduced to quick bulletin points. It was only a matter of time before those traits spread to the lower ranks.

My friend was a hard worker, who always showed up early and was well prepared, but if she remained in her position those traits would erode due to a lack of leadership support. Slowly but surely, she would end up showing up later and become a little less prepared. It would be a quiet and unnoticed devolution, but when she moved to her next job, she would be shocked at the number of bad habits traveled that with her.

My friend left her position and joined an organization whose values are more closely aligned with hers. Today she’s quite successful and continues to show up to meetings early and prepared.

This is something I’ve seen in youth sports over the years. Coaches often preach a certain work ethic, but fail to communicate that through their decisions. Kids who don’t practice still start. Players who treat practice lightly, for whatever reason, are not benched and instead, their habits are picked up by teammates.

The unintended communications matter.

Language and dress code rules are not enforced, and coaches are shocked at the sloppy play displayed by their players.

Again, how you do anything is how you do everything.

Evidence of this idiom was on full display at this week’s Metro Nashville Public School’s Board meeting.

It’s been beaten into my head over the years that a budget is a moral document – you fund what you think is important.

By applying that standard, a meeting agenda is also a moral document – you talk about things in their order of importance.

After the board dispatched with the honors and recognitions it was time for the board to get down to business.

So what would the next order of business be? Would board members take up school safety, or would it talk about fresh student performance data? Data that the district had just received the evening before?

If you’ve been paying attention over the last decade, you already know the answer to this one.

Around midnight, on the night before the board meeting, MNPS received a report produced by groups at Harvard and Stanford called Education Recovery Scorecard. The scorecard was designed to grade districts across the country on their recovery from learning loss caused by the pandemic. How you lose something you never had was not included in the report, but that is a different topic for a different day.

Former district data guru Paul Changas was brought back to brief the board on the earth-shattering news that MNPS was leading the nation in recovering from the pandemic. Changes told the board that since the report came out at midnight that morning, he was just going to provide an overview.

Help me here, data from another bullshit academic report warrants studying after a midnight release to take it up at a board meeting where school safety in the wake of two students losing their lives in a school shooting.

Why the urgency is beyond me. Nothing in this report is guiding instruction, nor will it influence instruction this year.

Let’s weigh the potential outcomes of the two subjects being considered for discussion. Is instruction going to collapse because the board didn’t award themselves a pat on the back based on some test scores?

Does another student potentially lose their life because the board didn’t fully vet and pursue all safety measures?

Which outcome is more likely to come to pass?

So, here we were talking about data and the wonderful job Superintendent Dr Adrienne Battle is doing.Did I mention, we are lucky to have her?

According to the report card, MNPS ranks 9th out of 100 of the largest urban districts for post-pandemic recovery in reading. MNPS recovered a quarter of a grade level between 2022-24. I guess that’s earth-shattering and worth burning the midnight oil for presentation to the board.

The way you do anything is the way you do everything.

After an adequate time devoted to fawning, the board shifted to the school safety conversation and more specifically the deployment of a new security sytem for hish schools.

Battle kicked off the discussion by listing the many things that the district is already doing, assuring board members that this isn’t a new subject, district leaders had been hard at work on it for a while.”

MNPS is considering expanding an existing contract to install a weapons detection system similar to the ones used in entertainment and sporting events across the country.  Subjects go through the detectors, and if an alarm is set off, they are pulled aside for further evaluations.

People walking through the detection system are not required to empty their pockets, like with a traditional metal detector. Still, pace is set aside so students can leave items that have been known to set off the system – umbrellas, eyeglasses, binders, computers – to speed the process.

If you listen to the whole discussion, you’ll discover that speeding up the process is a pretty important concern concern, maybe even higher than getting it right,

Typically, I haven’t been a big fan of student membership on the board, but in this case, they proved the two student board members were rockstars. Contributing much more to the discussion then their adult counterparts.

Student board member Christine Tran, from Lawson High School, opened the conversation by asking what should probably be the most critical question, “Do we know what the accuracy rate is for the AI technology we’ll be using?”

Dr. Battle replied with a stammer and a “let me introduce you to some people” response. Suddenly, the people who loved data couldn’t supply any.

The representatives of the software providers couldn’t give a clear answer either. They could tell you the percentage of students who were stopped and searched additionally—less than 10%—but could not provide a precise accuracy number.

I don’t know what you do with that less than 10% number. Does that mean it’s deterring weapons or just processing people at a rapid rate? It’s like the question of whether fewer arrests equal fewer crimes. Maybe…maybe not.

The company representative made it clear what was important when she commented on the pilot program at Antioch HS, “90% of students are going through the system without interruption and getting their butts in seats for instruction.” She added, “Like Dr. Battle always says, we are trying to balance the nurturing and supporting environment with the need for student safety.”

Tran’s fellow student board member, Hannah Nguyen, John Overton High School, quickly followed with a request to learn more about the two-week-old pilot program at Antioch HS. Both student inquiries were greeted with body language and curtness familiar to any teen who has ever talked out of turn to an adult. One who wished that they would stop talking and go back to silent mode.

I applaud both of these young ladies for their courage and skill in directing a conversation that seemed centered on adult needs to where it needed to be directed—to students.

I have no desire to dissect the rest of the board’s discussion; you can watch it for yourself and form your own opinions. For my part, I remain continually struck by the district leadership’s lack of familiarity with schools and their day-to-day operations. It’s just appalling, and even more than that, it is depressing.

To add insult to injury, in response to the Antioch HS tragedy, Dr. Battle has announced that recently retired Chief Academic Officer Mason Bellamy would be returning to the district as a Chief of Special Projects. In this role, he would support—not lead—efforts to restore the Antioch community and develop district response plans based on the lessons learned.

MNPS Chiefs are paid an annual salary of over $200K. It’s apparently Dr. Battles opinion that the best candidate available for this work is one who has spent most of his career in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he still lives. Better yet, Bellamy’s entire teaching career was spent at the elementary school level.

Let’s not forget Chris Henson currently holds the title of Chief of Special Projects. He will hold that position until the end of the fiscal year. Still, MNPS has added yet another Chief. Soon the will need to hire a Chief of Chiefs, to oversee the growing number of Chiefs.

The second biggest sin of this whole tragedy – the first being the loss of student life – is that Dr. Battle and her leadership team continue to treat the shooting as an incident that could only happen at Antioch HS. To continue to opperate from that perspective is an insult the dedicated students, teachers, and families of the Antioch community.

I don’t mean to burst anybody’s bubble, but there is no shortage of MNPS schools where this incident could have happened. Treating it as an isolated instance is reactionary and fails to fully protect district students.

Remember, the way you do anything is the way you do everything.

– – –

Good news for some MNPS teachers: The pay bonus promised to those who teach in priority schools has finally arrived in their bank accounts.

The money supplied by the federal government was supposed to be delivered by the second week of December, approximately two months ago.

The delay was never fully explained, and teachers were instructed to be patient.

Of course, the money arrived today without explanation or appreciation for that patience. There was no communication—just the money.

Bonuses are designed as encouragement and reward for doing prescribed work. They are only valuable to employers if they are delivered with a message depicting why they are being offered.

How do you do anything is how you do everything.

– – –

Governor Lee is pushing new legislation to revise current charter school law and allow some potential operators to bypass their local elected school boards and apply directly to a state commission for authorization.

Per ChalkbeatTN:

The legislature’s Republican majority leaders have filed a bill on behalf of Lee’s administration to create three new pathways for charter school operators to seek approval from the state:

• Beginning July 1, any school board whose decision to deny a charter application is overturned by the state three times within three years, the local board could be bypassed, allowing a charter operator to apply directly to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission for authorization during the next five years.
• Public colleges and universities could apply to the state commission to open a charter school for K-12 students.
• An operator with at least one charter school that is authorized by a local school board or the state commission and that has been operational for at least one year could apply either to the local district or state commission to replicate its model to create one or more charter schools.

This proposed legislation shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. Over the last several years, MNPS has routinely denied Charter school applicants. The Charter School Commission has overturned seven of nine rejections. Indeed, they didn’t think everybody would keep doing the same dance steps forever.

My favorite quote in the Chalkbeat article is, “Asked about the proposed changes to the state’s charter school law, a spokesman for Nashville’s school system said district officials do not typically comment publicly on pending legislation.”

– – –

Our old flame, Penny Schwinn, continues to rack up negative news. Some of you might remember that early this summer, she took a gig at the University of Florida as part of school president Ben Sasse’s cabinet. The position allowed her to work remotely and collect a little less than $400K a year.

Unfortunately for her, three months after her hire, Sasse departed, and she was encouraged to leave as well. Equally unfortunate for her, university officials aren’t done talking about Sassee’s spending habits.

Per The Tennessean

A report from Florida’s auditor general found Sasse inappropriately spent exorbitant university funds during his brief tenure, including more than $300,000 in university funds on private charter jet flights with no clear business purposes, and $169,755 on a holiday party. 

Auditors also determined that Sasse hired and awarded allies with salaries that far exceeded the university’s market-rate averages. 

Yes, they are talking about our girl. But it gets. Better.

One position scrutinized in the audit was held by Schwinn – who last month President Donald Trump nominated as deputy education secretary in his administration. The Senate has not yet confirmed Schwinn’s nomination.

According to the audit, Schwinn was not hired through the university’s required competitive process, nor could the university provide a job description for her. Schwinn’s salary was far above the market rate, the audit found.

Imagine that.

BHA Strategy currently employs Schwinn as a COO. The BH stands for Blake Harris, a former advisor to Governor Bill Lee. Two other former Bill Lee cabinet members—Brent Easley and Laine Arnold—serve as principal officers.

Schwinn’s bio on the BHA website lists her as an operating partner at TheVistriaGroup, a private equity group, though I can’t find any mention of her on the website.

Again, how you do anything is how you do everything.

– – –

If you have something you’d like me to highlight and share, send it to Norinrad10@yahoo.com. Wisdom or criticism is always welcome.

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Categories: Education