What A Waste

I spend a lot of my day in meetings with people who talk a lot on "planning" and "collaboration" and "fostering relationships". Honestly, a 3 hour meeting could shrink to 15 minutes if people cut to the chase. It's an incredible waste of time and energy.

A week ago, I was called into a "mandatory emergency" meeting. These are the ones that waste the most time, and are the most unnecessary. How does one create a "mandatory emergency" meeting? Well, someone from above (Board of  Ed., Superintendent's Office, State Dept. of Ed., etc.) makes a decision, usually misinformed and lacking in judgment and foresight. Someone below them feels the need to tell us, so the decide to give us the information in the most inconvenient and inefficient way possible.

This latest "crisis" was over the proposed school closure list. For context, Oakland has 101 schools for around 38000 students. Other comparable districts have 60-70 schools for the same amount of students. I figure the superintendent got a budget spreadsheet, said "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" at the impending deficit, and decided to shut some schools down to save a few dollars. Makes sense.

However, the way the district is going about this is, like I said above, misinformed and lacking in judgment and foresight. This was evident in this "mandatory emergency" meeting. The process to shut down schools (or "retire" them, as is the new language) is based on a formula that even NASA engineers would have trouble deciphering. It factors in projected enrollment, number of students living in the school's surrounding neighborhood, and the overall cost to operate the school. Sounds logical, but leave it up to the district to find a way to fuck up a logical process. Here are some things that came up in the meeting that have led me to this conclusion:

1. Trying to follow the decision process on paper couldn't be any more difficult. Reading instructions to build a kit airplane is simple compared to this. I got a 30 page document filled with arrows, colored boxes, and symbols (*, ^, #) denoting exceptions to the already complex process.
2. None of the schools that are on the closure list are in West Oakland. Why? We're going to spend money on a special STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) area, so they're exempt from this process. I've been to many of these schools, and they are vastly under performing, and probably deserve to be closed anyways. We've already tried the "it's not working, let's change the name and focus of the school and hope something happens" route. 
3. Most of the schools on the list are in impoverished areas in North and East Oakland. The only school that is on the list that doesn't fit this description is in a nice area of North Oakland, with plenty of involved parents (and most importantly, money). If I could, I'd run to a betting book in Vegas and put my salary on that school staying open strictly on the political pressure those parents will put on the policy makers. Note: that school won't be closing. Shoulda went to Vegas. 
4. Overall school test scores were not a determining factor. Most of the schools on the bottom of the list are "neighborhood" schools, but their test scores are atrocious. Some of the schools on the list? Excellent scores. 
5. Some of the schools on the closure list just went major renovations. One school just had a $750,000 overhaul of their playground areas, and now it's closing.

During this meeting, I had to laugh to keep from crying. Just earlier in the year, we were talking about making the schools a hub for the community, with health centers, parenting classes, mental health counseling, and gardens for healthy eating. Now, we're talking about closing the very places that families look to for support. In all this, the district is trying to take emotion out of the decision making process. If you look at the budget figures, you'll see that we need to close this school, point blank. Families don't hear that...they hear that their child is going to a new school across town in a neighborhood they might not feel comfortable. Tell that to the well to do parents in the Oakland Hills. My child is going to a school with black and brown kids? I'm going to call my council member and let them know how I feel about this! 

What sucks about this? We've spent too much time, energy, and money on this process, and nobody I've talked to trust this process. People will complain, go to meetings, write their board members, and the pressure will make people cave. We might close a school, maybe two, but the problem will remain. And we will have wasted our time. 

I'm so tired of this place wasting my time. You could have just sent me a fucking e-mail with this mess.