Times of Uncertainty

There are days when I get up in the morning and I wonder what happened to the tranquility and stability that I was expecting to experience when I became a teacher back in 1975.  I entered the profession expecting to have a career similar to the teachers and principals that had nurtured me.  Some of you remember those wonderful days.  The stress that I saw on my teacher's faces was a lot less than those of my contemporaries. I was expecting to teach children from families that were intact and produced well behaving children who acquiesced to adult authority.  I was expecting parent support similar to the support that my parents gave to school officials.  If I misbehaved at school, my parent would ask the teacher, "What did he do?" rather than the current, "What did you do to my child?"  I was also expecting to work during a time of prosperity like the 50's, 60's and early 70's.  Money would be available to fund schools. Teacher and administrator pay would increase over the course of my career and I would look forward to a secure retirement. With my eyes wide open and filled with hope, I would peer through my rose colored glasses and find well funded programs and new buildings in my future. Along the way, someone came along and kidnapped the future that I envisioned!
In stark contrast to my expected future, I look at the landscape of public education and have apprehension.  I too have anxiety about the future.  I look at the financing of public education and its reliance on local property tax dollars and the overall financing of education and wonder where we are headed.  Families have changed and the parental support for school officials has erroded. School facilities are aging with little new construction going on. 
Despite all of these negative circumstances, I believe that there are two ways to react to the future.  The first is to become depressed about the present and think nostalgically about the past, with longings for bygone days.  This only leads to dread and a reactive posture towards the future.  There are many who are fearful about the future.  This fear paralyzes them and immobilizes their ability to envision and make plans toward the future.  I choose the second response to the future; that is to take courage and figure out how to proactively build the future. When I became Superintendent of Beloit, I knew that there would be challenges.  Student achievement and school financing would be among them. However, I also knew that there were strong human resources in this district.  The public listed the staff as an asset to the Superintendent Search firm, a fact that didn't escape my notice when I interviewed. For several years, I have felt that the state school financing system was about to fold like a house of cards and that districts would have to change their strategy on how to respond. Overreliance on local property taxes has run its course and is leading to an unwillingness by taxpayers to foot the bill for education. There are communities where the primary strategy is to cut and cut until there is nothing left to commend anyone to chose their school district. When I arrived, I was hoping that this would not be the response of the School District of Beloit.
These are tough times to be sure. I want us to look at what is most important to us as a school system and then figure out how to keep our priorities intact and our goals in front of us. Our goal is to create a model school system that is of the highest quality and competitive with any other district. When we make decisions about the future, we do not look at the finances and then make decisions governed only by dollars and cents.  If that is the only factor taken into consideration, it leads to a willingness to cut people and do whatever it takes to make the budget work.  Our focus is the children and the future of this community. Long after this present crisis, there will still be a district and a city.  The decisions that are made currently will determine the quality of life of the children and citizens going forward. I want us to weather this storm and come out on the other side with a district that is ready to create children who, according to our Mission Statement, can "compete, contribute and thrive as an admirable citizen in a rapidly changing world...". This means that we have to maintain a high quality staff, doing great instruction, as a priority as well.  It means that the momentum we are building of increased student achievement at all levels cannot stop.  The initiatives that were started the last two years must move forward. This must occur with a certain amount of uncertainty. There are things that we do not know from the state level, as the governor has not released his budget with information on what our anticipated aid is. Until that happens, we are not waiting helplessly, delaying to determine what our plan of action will be.  Instead, we have put forth a plan that, though it will cause discomfort to many families and staff, will chart a more desirable course than the one that would result by more staff cuts and reductions.  I know that all of us like stability and security and hate change.  I hate thinking of continual change, but the truth is that all of us are going to have to learn to move forward during times of instability and insecurity.  The future is going to be hard to handle for people who can only sail when the seas are completely calm, void of contrary winds and waves.  Though you may not always agree with decisions that have to be made going forward, please know that they are being made with the lives of the children and the staff taken to heart.  I hope that we can get through this with our priorities and our future intact.