Strategies for the School Administrator: Isolate the Issue. Predict and Prevent.

Our guests, Sue Alexander and Dr. Sarah Jerome, share strategies, Isolate the Issue and Predict and Prevent, which efficiently and effectively address problems that arise for the school administrator. This episode will be helpful to new and experienced school administrators.

Sue Alexander served on administrative teams in three different public-school districts holding the positions of 

• Superintendent
• High School Principal
• Assistant Principal
• Prior to education, worked 10 years in business finance and held the positions of Secretary of the Board of Directors of a no-load mutual fund and as Vice President of an Investment Advisory Company.

 "In diversity lies stability." 
Dr. Sarah Jerome has 

• 46 years in education
• 23 of those years as a superintendent: 15 years in Kettle Moraine, WI and 8 years in Arlington Heights, IL
• Principal at Nicolet High School and Assistant Superintendent in Rockford Illinois.  
• Served in 9 school districts in 5 states. 
• Served as President of AASA-American Association of School Administrators. 
• Currently working for HYA Consulting which does superintendent searches and strategic planning for school districts.

 My mantra and motto: Public Education is the Backbone of Democracy!

Thanks for listening. If you would like to share your thoughts or topic ideas, or would like to be a guest, you can find Educational Relevance on Facebook, YouTube or email us at oliviaw1201@educationalrelevance.org, brwright44@gmail,com or mark@educationalrelevance.org.

Transcript

Track 1: 0:02

Hello. Welcome to Educational Relevance, a platform for experienced educators to share proven successful strategies to educate today's students. My name is Brian Wright. I'm here at my co-host Mark Macbeth, and we have two wonderful guests. Today we're talking about leadership. We got Sue Alexander and Dr. Sarah Jerome. Both of these ladies are experienced principals, superintendents. Dr. Jerome is the one that got me in education in first place. Sue Alexander, I just refer her as partner. She's been my partner for several years, We worked together in school as well as working alongside each other at Concordia university. Mark, why don't you go ahead and take this over as school administrators. it seems like 90% of your job's gonna be. Problem solving. As school administrators deal with daily problems, what kind of processes do you think that they should be going through when somebody walks in the door and boom, or it's something that data is showing them.

squadcaster-a93g_1_02-22-2024_091005: 1:03

Well, as Sarah and I have talked about this, I. Problems are just a part of the job. And if you don't like solving problems, there's probably a better career choice than education. the fun of it is figuring out what you bring to the issues that you're dealing with, then having kind of a, an overview that helps you look at problems and decide, is this one I can tackle myself very quickly, very efficiently, or is it one where I need to bring in. People on my team. It could be guidance counselors, it could be teachers, could be support staff, could be members of the school board. Or is it something that needs a bigger approach? It might need to bring a community perspective in as well as an internal perspective within the district. So that's kind of the framework that we're looking at, and it's important to think in those terms if you solve every problem as if it were a simple problem that you could solve, you will irritate the dickens out of your faculty. They, they want to be involved if it affects them. they want to know that you're listening. with that, I'm kind of gonna throw this to Sarah for a second to talk a little about some of the simple problems that as a school leader, you should be comfortable in, making a command decision, moving on with whatever the next issue is you're dealing with. Hello. I think before we even get started on the problem solving one of the things that both teachers and administrators need to pay attention to is what are the policies that exist in the district? That you can rely on and that can help you know what at least previously has been established to give you guidance, and that is often very helpful. So some simple problems that might, come your way on a daily basis. Could be anything from the equipment that lines the football field, and did it break down and can you get that fixed right away because the game is tonight? Yes, you can do that, and you don't have to have a committee to help you do that. or if you've got a snow day, here's a simple problem. Too much snow. You can't get the kids to school safely or back home safely. It seems like a simple problem, but it is disguised because it affects everybody in the school community, and if you treat it. As an independent decision making, may run into some bigger problems, like 600 phone calls on your telephone by the end of the day. True. So many superintendents and principals have decided that on something like closing a school, it is really very much in their favor to. Have a committee process so that before they close the school, call and hear what each of the contiguous schools are doing. So, that's a good example of how something starts out small, your own little area, and she's speaking from a superintendent perspective at that time. Usually principals don't make those decisions, but principals can live in different parts of the district. I. And depending upon the size of the district, if you're a rural administrator, it can be 6, 7, 8 times the size of a city school district. Then bringing in those voices so that you know what it looks like in your community is extremely important. When I get a particularly angry parent about a closing decision, I'd thank'em for calling and tell'em I would love to put you on my call list at four in the morning because I don't have anybody in your area. Would you be willing to serve in that fashion? And you'd be amazed. Some people do, and I just bring them right along with me. So those are, ways to think about what are the. Simple natures of the issue that you're being presented with. And do I need to bring this along a little further? of the ones that principals and superintendents deal with that can be simple or complex, depending on the issue, is an angry parent storms in and wants your immediate attention right at that point. And you can be involved in something else. you may have to decide, is this something that I have to bring them in and I have to actually be involved in the diffusing process, or is this something that my secretary could get the person a cup of coffee, let'em sit out in the office area for a bit until they move from a 10 down to a two or three, where you can solve problems on a 10 point scale? You can't solve problems with people who are at a 10. Can I interject to that? Please do, When angry parents come and we all have angry parents sitting in our office from time to time, it is a decision that you make as to whether you see that person immediately or you wait a while. And I respect Sue Alexander's approach to. Letting an opportunity for cool down period. On the other hand, I have witnessed and experienced very personally the cool down period hasn't happened after a few minutes, and it seems to be steaming up. so I do think that sometimes intervening early on and letting the person feel. Heard and addressed another approach to it. Yeah. I think the other thing is, and this for the secretary or whoever might see that person first. The question is, have you met with the teacher first? Is this a problem that you've jumped several levels to have solved? you meet with the person who actually is personally involved in the interaction, sometimes those are interventions I think that can also help.

Track 1: 7:16

how do you diffuse the situation, once the parent gets to where they're gonna be, that you get the resolution you seek. Okay.

squadcaster-a93g_1_02-22-2024_091005: 7:21

If you need to take an angry parent quickly. One of the things that a school leader taught me years ago was to keep a stack of kinds of things in your office with a nice supply of pencils. a person who's quite volatile, so they're up at the 6, 7, 8, 9 level on a 10 point scale you invite'em in, you sit'em down, you grab that pad of paper and a pencil, and you listen. Help me to understand. What your concern is, and then just be quiet and let'em talk. But you will be involved in that deescalating situation if you pull that very angry parent in. and it's okay to do, especially if you think they're gonna sit out in the office and create a problem for everybody else who comes in. that, that business of grabbing that pad of paper being quiet. Is a very helpful settling kind of thing, and it allows you, number one to draw a circle on that pad where I would put my finger listening for the key points. Mm-Hmm. I was trained as a biologist, so I called behavior of angry parents. They are very prone to using what we call kill deer behavior. That is, they will bring you all around that egg. And your job is to try and figure out what's the heart of this? And then deciding is it a parent problem, is it a student problem, is it a school problem? And we need to take ownership for it. So if that kind of helps you to think about a way to deal with that, where you are in the information gathering stage. the diffusing stage at the same time. Sue, I think one of the things that you mentioned that is a key to successful administrators is the listening skill. That seems to be maybe one of the best techniques of helping a broach any problem, either the small, simple ones or the huge monumental ones, is the ability to listen carefully to what people are saying. I had a principal once who taught me isolate the issue and assign the ownership. And sometimes I write that in the top, isolate the issue. What is it? What is it? who owns that particular problem? Sometimes it's a school problem and it's something we need to deal with. And when you figure out what the problem is, you can. Make some decisions about whether this is a top down, a very simple problem. You can solve it or you need to bring in other people to take a look at it, or you can pass it on to other people because it is in their I'm a very firm believer that you hire strong people get out of their way. Let them handle problems that are theirs. You don't need to take on problems that are best solved right at the level of the problem itself. So that's again, part of identifying what you're dealing with then either making a command decision or moving it out to the people who can help you deal

squadcaster-28d0_1_02-22-2024_091006: 10:36

thinking through that. So the reason this ever came about was people like yourself educating me, and I'm like, why didn't I know that long time ago? You know, I wish I would've

squadcaster-a93g_1_02-22-2024_091005: 10:44

Isn't that a great thing, the issue and assign the

squadcaster-28d0_1_02-22-2024_091006: 10:47

it's, it's great. One of the things that jumps to mind is where I still think the parent's completely in the wrong. might be a board policy that I'm enforcing and my hand's kind of tied by that I can be human and I can try to say, yeah, I understand where you're coming from, but what do you do when problem solving and you got people that you just know still aren't getting it or can't get a grasp of it, of where you're coming from.

squadcaster-a93g_1_02-22-2024_091005: 11:16

Are you talking about your faculty or people on your staff that

squadcaster-28d0_1_02-22-2024_091006: 11:19

adults, because I always say,

squadcaster-a93g_1_02-22-2024_091005: 11:21

does.

squadcaster-28d0_1_02-22-2024_091006: 11:21

the biggest issues in education is adult issues. if the parent comes in and you've narrowed it down and you've Isolated the issue. Do you assign ownership back to them or, is it really is your issue, your problem solving I can't change what I'm doing here. Do I assign that back? And if I do, how do I do that?

squadcaster-a93g_1_02-22-2024_091005: 11:40

Yeah, Grace for sure. ahead, Sarah. Well, I. do think that going back to the listening and making the the parent feel heard is an important part of moving forward in whatever is the issue. If it's a student who's acting out in school and the parent has come to the school to talk to you about this doesn't see what you see in the student, I think there are a variety of ways of helping get the parent. To see what you are seeing or the teacher is seeing the child or helping you see what the parent is seeing. I think that Mutual communication about getting to a consensus on the problem is a real important step in resolving the problem. Helping both parties feel a joint ownership toward moving forward. And really, there's an implied statement in what Sarah just said, that sometimes you don't have all the facts when you sit initially with a parent. And it's okay to say, I need to take a little time here and bring in a few people. We need to look at this and then. I'll get back in touch with you. What would be a good time for us to meet? Here's a business technique. Could I call you tomorrow or would next Tuesday be better? Give them a couple of opportunities here. That's what salespeople do all the time, and it's a one that I learned when I worked in that field that you don't have to solve things right away. Sometimes you have to take that your time to make certain you truly understand what the problem is, and then get back to the parent. And the other advantage to that is they're not usually quite so riled up. I. next day or three days later, which allows you to arrive at solutions a little more easily. It's almost a, an approach of an intervention. So they see what the school is seeing. That's hard. But you do have to put the pieces out there. They, can't make a decision in the best interest of their child without information and without The school's perspective on that, helping them to understand, here's what the school brings to this solution, and these are the pieces that we're asking you to hold. Some parents will step right into it and just go, I get it. Mm-Hmm. And others will continue to fight. Be reluctant. Yep. Sometimes in dealing especially where a student doesn't take ownership for a decision that they've made. And the parent wants to back them up. I've seen that with parents. Who don't have a particularly strong relationship with the child, but this is one way they could say to them, I love you, so I'm gonna back you here. Even if it's unreasonable, I'm gonna back you. Then you sometimes have to say to a parent. If you don't work to understand what the school is seeing, your child will repeat this again. They will never understand that they played a role in this. And again, that's, that has to be said with grace. But sometimes it has to be said that we're gonna be back here again. Yeah. In another three months if, if. If we don't help a child own this. And then yeah. The, I think the ownership, where does the ownership belong and Right. That's the isolation issue. Often our work is to help those who don't believe that the child should own it, to help them yeah. Or their portion. Or understand that and accept it. That's right.

squadcaster-28d0_1_02-22-2024_091006: 15:18

Look at some of the stuff we talked about is when you're confronted with a problem to issue is that you're screening trying to really determine what am I dealing with? What type of issue do I reassign this to my committee, I also found interesting a preassigned committee. so you know that if this problem arises, I have a group that I'm already calling on to help solve this, problem.

squadcaster-a93g_1_02-22-2024_091005: 15:46

Mark. The important part of that is before you lose that point, that's such a good point that as you think about planning your day, your week, your month, in those planning times, you're doing what's called predict and prevent. I know at some point I may have a parent come in with a concern about a piece of literature that they're reading. So I can predict that ahead of time before it happens, and I can put together that subgroup that you're talking about that would just be available. Obviously my school librarian, your department chair in English, if you're at the middle school, it might be someone from the high school who comes down and helps, and maybe there's people in the community. just have a real interest in this kind of thing that are willing to be part. And those kinds of resources that you can establish ahead of time allows you to be much more comfortable with a situation than if you were looking at and thinking, oh my gosh, I've gotta solve this. Right. You've already given thought to how you wanna work with it. Yeah. The, the pre-planning Yeah.

squadcaster-28d0_1_02-22-2024_091006: 16:49

Predict and, and Prevent,

Track 1: 16:52

I got two things here. I got predict and prevent as one strategy. I also got the second one. Isolate the issue.

squadcaster-28d0_1_02-22-2024_091006: 16:58

seriously. This is why this exists because as a school administrator, you can be in an administrator for 15 years. And then all of a sudden you're going, man, I'm just struggling from day to day. And it's like somebody like you says, Hey, if you predict and prevent, life can be better.

squadcaster-a93g_1_02-22-2024_091005: 17:16

That predict and prevent actually comes from an administrator outta Washington state. the one who did the isolate the issue and assign the ownership. That's an elementary principal named Perry Breman. was principal of a small Lutheran school here in the community where I live, and my son was in his school he called One afternoon. We were talking about a child issue. But I said to him, well, I gotta go. I'm dealing with this issue. And he said, what are you dealing with? And I told him, and he said, oh, grab a piece of paper again. Keep that paper right near you. And he said isolate the issue and assign the ownership. It will take you a long way in this business. Isn't that interesting to come out of a a gentleman who was working with elementary children, but over the years, that's what he as a very helpful way. To work with situations that you might not know how to tackle it. The

squadcaster-28d0_1_02-22-2024_091006: 18:14

I.

squadcaster-a93g_1_02-22-2024_091005: 18:15

behavior one. I will tell you, I used that one with principals when I was training them, them because they can get so caught up in a story. That comes in and their minds are off of the issue tangential. So drawing that. Yeah, tangential Sarah said. And you know, deflecting, we watch people who do that quite well. If you know anything about the mother kil dare, she'll lay that egg in gravel along the side of the road, stays right with it until you approach, and now she'll move and flap 10, 15, 20 feet away from that egg. It's a universal way of dealing with. Problems that involve your offspring, and you have to remind yourself to keep your eye on that egg.

Track 1: 19:02

Well, mark, and the other questions. I think we have two sound strategies from these fine ladies this morning,

squadcaster-28d0_1_02-22-2024_091006: 19:08

I think they summarized what I was gonna summarize

Track 1: 19:12

All right. With that being said, I want say thank you for joining us today. We look forward to talking to these ladies again in the future. Thank you very much.

squadcaster-a93g_1_02-22-2024_091005: 19:19

Thank you.