Decision making opportunities and analysis

Decision Making

Background to the Situation - The situation involves a primarily rural school district, a new Superintendent of the School System and a rather crochety School Board member. Unbeknownst to the rest of the board, Elmer Hobson filed a complaint with the State Athletic Association regarding a student who was living in the district during his senior year even though his parents had moved away. The student and his parents decided that it would be unfair to require him to miss his senior year with his friends and teammates (he is a star football player). According to the State, nothing improper was done - the student decided to remain in the district long before football season, pays rent, and retains a high GPA.

Analysis- It appears that Mr. Hobson may have an additional impetus to his complaint. It seems his grandson also plays on the same football team and is not a starting quarterback this year. The Superintendent, Matthew Karmen, discussed the matter with another board member, John Mosure. Both agree on two salient points: 1) No one in the school system acted improperly or unethically regarding the young man's senior year. It is perfectly legitimate to prefer to graduate with people you have been in school with since grade school, especially team mates and, 2) Mr. Hobson exceeded his authority by going to the State as a Board Member. Further, using his position on the Board as a reason to file a complaint without the knowledge or approval of the Board makes the entire Board look incompetent and petty.

Karmen must decide what to do -- censure Hobson in front of the Board, or get consensus from other Board members. Mosure wonders if Hobson wants to be reprimanded so that he can elevate this as a "cause du jour" and infer that there is a conspiracy where none exists.

Karmen's first step should be to read the by-laws of the Board and find out just exactly how the Board's authority is listed. It is likely that there is a clause in the document stating that a single member of the Board may not represent themselves as a Board member to gain access or get special treatment on any issue surrounding the school system. Once Karmen has this information, it would be prudent to straw poll all other members of the Board so they are prepared for the issue. Regardless of the individual views, Karmen must act in a fair and reasonable manner -- he must exhibit leadership that deals with the issue, not the person, making it quite clear that rules apply to everyone, Hobson included. To let an ethical breach occur and ignore it because the person at fault is vocal and disagreeable allows behavior to exist because it is uncomfortable to remedy it.