It’s unfortunate and outrageous that students at Brownell Middle
School didn’t have textbooks to start the year for more than a
school week.
And to hear the reason why
– short staffing problems – only makes it worse. Who doesn’t
have staffing problems these days?
1. Short staffing does not warrant such a delay in handing out books
It’s unfortunate and outrageous that students at Brownell Middle School didn’t have textbooks to start the year for more than a school week.
And to hear the reason why – short staffing problems – only makes it worse. Who doesn’t have staffing problems these days?
Textbooks are, well, a rather basic educational component, and last time we checked Brownell was a three-time listed Program Improvement School. There should be a sense of urgency about improving everything – and setting an organized and purposeful tone at the outset of the school year is a key component when a cultural change is necessary.
2. Unfortunate incident taints the perception of public education
Not having textbooks for so long sends the opposite message not only to students, but to staff and to parents. After all, who should really care about getting down to business if the school can’t find a way to get books distributed?
It’s unfortunate, to boot, in that it’s the type of perfectly embarrassing scenario that leads so many to paint public education with an unfairly broad brush of ineptitude.
Superintendent Debbie Flores responded to the newspaper’s inquiries after parent complaints diplomatically by saying that perhaps the new command team at Brownell just didn’t know to ask for help.
3. Such a start warrants that a close watch be kept on Brownell
Yikes … parent volunteers, janitorial staff, administrators, teachers … have the students line up for god’s sake and get the books in the their hands so that the school year can officially commence. There shouldn’t be an hour of class time to waste, and there certainly should not be a week gone by without textbooks.
Hopefully, the new team at Brownell will do better – much better. Leadership is an absolutely essential ingredient in any drive to change and improve.
It’s the little things, done consistently well, that end up making a big difference. So, if a leadership team drops the ball on such a big thing like handing out books, the concern has to be that plenty of little things will fall through the cracks.
Let’s hope that’s not the case, but in the meantime a close watch should be kept on Brownell to make sure that the students are coming first.
