“It’s the Communication, Stupid.”

… A Bubba inspired moment… 

I’ve been watching and reading all of the issues happening within and throughout APS. As I sit and watch and read, I shake my head and wonder when someone, anyone, is going to finally get it that communication is the single most important factor in cleaning up the management, operational, policy, procedure, and political problems within this organization.

Beth Everitt, once again, said it herself in this article. She’s said it to me several times. She’s said it to the board and they’ve even attempted to address communication goals. (Subscription required.)  She’s said it to her underlings, the media, and to parents about:  grade policies, admitted pedophiles substitute teaching in our schools; inappropriate actions from teachers such as drinking three shots of tequila before 8:00 AM in the morning, driving with her toddler and getting a DWI; problems with the transportation department bus contractors, bus drivers such as a five year old kindergartener being dropped off in the wrong neighborhood and being lost for hours; school safety and guns; APSPD; APSPD dispatchers following God knows what kind of protocol when telling a new principal to give the substitute teacher videotaping an 8 year old girl’s legs, feet, and panties BACK TO HIM because they’d violated HIS RIGHTS; a teacher is caught with a video camera on his shoes, videotaping little kids at an amusement park, current shuffling of employees for suspect reasons; summer school registration; school registration; potentially illegal background checks; a substitute teacher taping a child’s mouth closed; (Subscription required) Over 9,000 paychecks being signed by a long-gone administrator; that same administrator being busted for a DWI (and hence the reason for him being long-gone); legislation to break-up the district and a last minute reaction; the clarification of PE status due to mid-year curriculum changes; unsupervised middle school vandals at the Aquarium; policies about student newspapers, freedom of speech, and hookah’s; the SchoolMax system repeatedly calling the wrong number and harassing a member of the community because of lack of phone number updates; emails and paperwork that disappeared and then suddenly reappeared during GradeGate; tutoring companies being owed more than $200,000 because of a slow process; substitute teacher processes that allowed a male substitute, found in the girl’s bathroom at Madison, to continue to teach for days after the incident; (Subscription required) slow to react snow removal resulting in having to take additional snow days; adding ten minutes to the school day to make up for additional snow days; going through a lawsuit with a Mariachi group which needlessly enflamed parents because they don’t know the specifics; allegations of teachers using drugs during a party which causes a principal to pull school sponsorship of a science/math club fieldtrip during which, several teachers are drinking beers, have to call the police, and kids get their hands on some of the beer and one of the teachers is quoted as saying, “Our children need to see people can drink responsibly and have a couple of beers and that drinking isn’t necessarily something you do to get wasted.”; a middle school teacher allegedly pouring coffee on a student during an argument, and so much more. That’s quite a lot, isn’t it?  Unfortunately, it’s always after the fact that communication is brought up in these situations.

“Every Behavior is a Function of Communication.”

That’s been my motto for some time. I’ve been keeping track of all of the stuff that’s happened and how it’s been communicated and how communication, or lack of it, has affected everyone in our community but most especially, our kids, our educators, the board of education, administrators, parents, business leaders, and Beth Everitt.

There are so many great things that have happened within APS. Does anyone remember any of them? I bet not. We’ve all been so busy sighing and drumming our fingers and tilting our heads in confusion and disbelief while screaming inside… each time yet another bad thing happens in our schools. It’s been a banner year for awful communication and, as a result, a banner year for opportunists to take their moments and attempt to run with them. Whether through downright deceit, or ineptness, or lack of follow-through, or lack of training, or lack of planning; the truth of it is that bad communication is the root cause of every single action that has happened this year. This all falls into the “shoulda, coulda, woulda” category within the “vacuum of leadership” in Albuquerque Public Schools.

There are so many hard-working, bright, dedicated educators and administrators out there and all of this shoulda, woulda, coulda stuff demeans and undermines all of them. What a travesty in the face of what shoulda, woulda, coulda been something wonderful.

I use the term “Loss Prevention” a lot in my line of business. Loss prevention is the action of having strong policies and procedures in place that limit or stop opportunities of “loss”, pilferage, or theft. The best deterrents are awareness, organization, and strong communication. Think about all of the losses we’ve endured this past year.  Think about the pilferage of the minds and souls of our kids.  Think about the respect,dignity, and common sense that has been stolen from our entire community because of poor communication.

You know, I got involved with APS, went to my first board meeting, in January of 2007. Yeah, that’s right; it was not even a year ago that I began this journey. Some have told me that it’s incredible that I’m so involved in such a very short time. Let me tell you… it feels like eons! Actually, I learn very quickly and what I’ve learned this year is that you can lead a jackalope to water but you can’t get the stubborn thing to drink even for its own good.

Is anyone listening out there? It’s about the communication! If there are strong policies and procedures and they are constantly being taught, reviewed, emulated, and practiced, you don’t have these kinds of things happening. If everyone hears the same message, and it’s clear and concise, then the message is carried and those that don’t follow are usually ostracized by the amoeba of believers. If plans are made and carried out through careful planning, communicating the goals, and the processes of “what”, “how”, and “why”; they are usually successful. If the leader at the helm is telling the truth in a matter of fact manner, holds people accountable, is above reproach, presents a strong, positive example, and creates attainable goals; leadership is then established and the amoeba follows, not because they are being told to, but because they care and believe in the direction of the team.

I kind of feel like Bill Clinton in my efforts to get someone to freakin’ pay attention:

“It’s the COMMUNICATION, stupid.”

It just took me 1218 words (WordPress has a word count function; I’m not that crazy!) to get to that little four word phrase.  Well, I couldn’t help it.  I even left a bunch of stuff out and stopped linking after a while.  The things that have happened and keep happening are a direct result of bad communication.

For APS to improve, they need to consider “communication” to be an action word.  And get on it.