October 3 Independent

Last week I was driving home from a meeting and the battery light flashed on my dashboard.  I reached over and opened the glove box to find the owner’s manual.  I looked up battery light in the manual to see if I could figure out what might be going on.

The manual said that if the battery light appeared while driving you should take it to the dealer to have the car examined.  It warned that you should not stop the car because it might not start again.

I was one hundred and twenty-nine miles from home.  I thought of my local dealership and thought to myself that I hoped that the car would get me that far.

It didn’t.

Shortly after the battery light appeared, the tachometer and the speedometer stopped working.  Then the radio quit.  I was several miles from an exit, but I had the sense that my ride home was not going to end well.

It didn’t.

A short time later I was coasting to a stop on the side of the road because the car had completely lost power.

As I sat by the side of the road waiting for the tow truck to arrive I had time to think.  I thought about my car and the time we had spent making sure that it was in good shape. 

I change the oil on a regular basis.  I get tires and shocks.  We had a problem with the electronics and had to replace one of the computer modules.  I thought we had done the right things.  Yet, here I sat waiting for a tow truck – one hundred and twenty-nine miles from home.

It turns out that the alternator had broken.  After I discovered that I asked myself if there was something that I could have done to check the alternator.  Maybe I could have prepared for this.

After it was repaired and I was back on the road I started thinking about our schools.  Were there things that are not easily seen to which we need to pay more attention?  Are there things like “alternators” that are critical to a school or a district’s performance that I need to make sure we take the time to inspect.

A district of over five thousand students has lots of parts that no one pays much attention to until they break down.  The new school year is a month old.  During the course of this first month I have seen some things not work as well as they could and should have. 

Most of the time these things work well and I pay no attention to them.  This first month has reinforced to me that I cannot afford to ignore any part of our organization.  Every part of our organization is important and I need to make sure that every one of our employees understands the critical part they play in making us an organization that students, parents, and our community can trust.

One of our district goals is for every employee to work to create and maintain a high performing organization.  Every piece of our organization is important.  The parts that are hidden, or at least less visible, contribute value and stability to the overall mission of ensuring that students learn.

Just as I learned an important lesson about cars this month, I also remembered an important lesson about our school district.  I need to work to help us maintain our focus and help everyone in our district remember that we all contribute to creating an organization that students, parents, and our community can believe in.