Why was the school system scrambling at the last minute to get things in line when they’ve been out of school for right at five months? See Tucker McClendon’s Facebook post looking for 90 employees to sanitize schools.
I’ve seen these poor teachers scrambling this week with last minute preparations all over Facebook. Some were complaining that the school system was 35 school bus drivers, at approximately 135 routes short. Now that they’re done being political activists for the election, maybe they can get some work done. In District 1 and 2, there were approximately five teachers at every polling location. The administration just didn’t do a good job in preparation, which also explains the last minute notice about the split scheduling as well. Got an email from the outgoing admin, Hensley, the night before school starts at 8:50 p.m. that if you didn’t receive a phone call, you didn’t have child care. No we shouldn’t rely on HCDE for child care, but in reality for most working families it’s a fact of life. Emailing somebody at 8:50 at night the day before school is insanity. Again, they’ve had five months to prepare.
If Hamilton United and most of the Central Office admin weren’t so preoccupied with the August election, this could have been handled much better. It’s no secret that they went all out working the election, anyone that says any different is a bold faced liar. Where’s my, as well as 45,000 parents’ tax refund for the three days per week this month we have to hire educators, not babysitters, educators?
We put a man on the moon 50+ years ago, and we couldn’t figure out a solution in five months? Why you might ask, because half of the Central Office, aka the the “C Suite” and Hamilton United, were too busy focusing on the school board races. How do we have any faith in current HCDE leadership when they’ve had so much time to create plans and strategies to only fall short?
It’s time for Dr. Johnson to evaluate and replace several members of his command staff. Or the school board should do the same for him.
James Berry
Husband, father, and multiple hat wearer