Meetings

Subtitle: too many cooks spoil the broth

We are preparing for the entire scheduling process for next school year (it's an enormously complex undertaking). Almost every school finds themselves behind the eight-ball in late August and vows to start earlier next year. Our high school secretary, Tech-assistant, and myself planned a meeting this morning to get the ball rolling. We invited several others who we felt had a great deal of experience/knowledge to contribute to the planning. Our guidance counselor, middle and high school principals, and the Tech-head all showed up. Our plan had been to lay out a timeframe, and gather some basic information to start the process.

Last year, we used our new computer system to schedule the entire district. It was a massive learning experience. And when I say we, I mean the high school secretary, tech-assist and I did it all. I volunteered about 50 hours during June to learn the computer system and begin the build process. None of the other invested parties bothered to learn anything about how it worked. Head-tech implemented a system change over in July before the new master schedule was built which instantly disabled many of the built in computer tools. Principals 'forgot' to inform us about minor things like teacher changes, class requirements, new electives, other pieces that added up to about another 70 hours of work. Counselor was too computer phobic to tackle the entire process (he has since come around and is much better).

Even with these hurdles, which are completely typical of any school, our trio managed to make some initial mistakes that only became apparent much later. There was a great deal of sweating by all involved with less than two days to go in August but we pulled it off.

Having learned massive amounts of useful skills and some key things to avoid, the trio went into this morning's meeting with huge expectations. What we got were the usual suspects once again not understanding the process and what we could actually do. They spent the entire meeting rehashing old arguments that are irrelevant or beyond our control. Instead of gather the information we needed from the individuals who are supposed to have it, we spent the meeting defending our ability to complete the task. We were the ones who pulled it off last year while learning the system and yet the sentiment seemed to be that it wouldn't work this year. The really frustrating thing was that the doubters didn't seem to realize that we weren't discussing an optional task. It has to be done and it has to be done with the computer system! Why not contribute what we need now and save the rhetoric for later?

Color me bemused with a tint of frustration.