School Crisis Cries Out for Powerful Leadership

¶ … School Scenario

What are the major leadership issues facing Superintendent Wallace -- were productive relationships with the community built? In the first place, it was not enough for Superintendent Wallace to make a big showing in her new job by going out to all the schools and mingling with parents and school officials. Town hall meetings are good public relations, but when the real problems arrive the leadership needs to dig in and solve those problems. Leadership is truly shown during crises, and Wallace did not show leadership; productive relationships depend on leaders following through, and clearly Wallace did not follow through with the development of productive working relationships.. Why wouldn't she invite participation of the principals? That is a big error on her part.

What was flawed in the statement the superintendent made to the board and community? What statement would you have made? Holding "several meetings" with parents to simply assure them that "a solution was being sought" was a nice touch, but she should have had their state legislators immediately in on this crisis. Public relations with parents can only go so far. An experienced superintendent would have city council members, county supervisors, and state legislators working the problem with her. Even the a U.S. congress member that represents her district should have been summoned. Saying "We are working on getting additional buses and we will have them by opening day…" is simply a way to avoid criticism. I would have said, "We have city council members, county supervisors, and our state senator and state assemblyman working side-by-side to get this resolved."

What were the leadership issues that pertain to Wallace's involvement in the day-to-day operations of the district? Instead of announcing to the Arrowhead Board of Education that the bus contract had been cancelled and that she would take care of it, she should have enlisted the board's help. Other stakeholders (principals, community people) along with elected officials should have been part of the push to get busses ready for school. She should have considered a court injunction against the bus company -- why cancel the contract 3 weeks before school? That is unconscionably outrageous in terms of the timing.

What are some of the emerging issues that could potentially impact the entire school community? Provide a rationale for your response. For one thing, if a student was delivered near his or her home after dark and something untoward happened to that student, it would be a huge public relations disaster for Wallace and the district. Secondly, the newspaper might do an investigative article that detailed Wallace's seeming incompetence at getting proper bussing for the school -- including an interview with the bus company that could expose that the district was notified earlier in the year that the bus company was demanding more compensation but their demands were ignored. Thirdly, if parents wind up having to drive their kids to school from rural areas, that could impact traffic, it could greatly impact parents (at $4.00 a gallon for gas, especially), and it would show that the school leaders are incapable of handling a crisis

How important are community relations strategies and practices in a situation like this? Explain your response. These issues cry out for a community-wide response, which Wallace failed to coordinate. In every town and city there are "heavyweight" business, political, and religious leaders that can be tapped to apply the pressure to get things done. A working strategy could have been developed by bringing in principals, local political leaders, the faith community, state-wide elected officials, parents who carry weight in the town -- all in private, unofficial sessions in the superintendents' office. Public meetings where the superintendent keeps assuring that everything will be fine is wasted energy.