Over a decade ago when we were looking at where we were going to send our daughter to school, it is fair to say JCPS wasn't at the top of our mental list. I'd gone to Oldham County Schools, which many considered to be the top in the state at the time. My wife was a graduate of Catholic Schools. Both of us had our biases against JCPS schools. Like many in town, we believed kids were bused all over town, had teachers who were indifferent, and went to schools that were subpar compared to our own experiences.
But we researched. We toured. We busted the myths. We chose JCPS. And despite challenges, we have not regretted it.
There seems to be a belief in our community that JCPS should run like a business. Most businesses take a lot of time to figure out who their primary customer is. As a parent at JCPS, I can tell you that my hope would be that the leadership of JCPS would focus on children and parents as their primary customers. As one consultant put it, "When deciding who is the customer, the focus should always be on the people using the product. They are the ones for whom value is being created and the reason why the market and the product exists."
Seems simple enough, doesn't it? Schools exist to educate kids, and OUR kids are the ones using the product. So shouldn't JCPS families come first?
Like many large businesses, JCPS’ leadership lost sight of who its primary customer was. I say this as an attendee at numerous school board meetings where none of our business community ever seems to be in attendance or request to speak. I've watched as parents, students, teachers, and staff have come before the board of education with concerns for both Donna Hargens and her predecessor, Sheldon Berman. I watched as they reacted passively to issues both big and small that JCPS needed to address. I kept in contact with parents and teachers who felt like the needs of the classroom weren't being addressed and feared retaliation if they spoke up. I watched as board leadership worked to minimize the feedback given in board meetings. I personally experienced signing up to speak at a meeting, sitting for almost four hours, and finding out that in violation of board policy, my right to speak was taken away without a vote of the board. It cannot be denied that the failures of Donna Hargens to focus on her primary customers are what led to the state coming in to audit JCPS. And it’s tough to say that she had a real focus on the issues that impact our least served communities given how unresponsive she was to concerns in schools with the greatest need.
And yet, Dr. Hargens seemed to be beloved by leaders in the community, many of whom were graduates of private schools, had children in private schools, or had deep ties to them. As Dr. Hargens and her Chief Business Officer pushed hard on an erroneous salary study that destroyed morale, our chamber of commerce praised her for ruffling feathers and "taking the harder road". When it was announced she was out, GLI, the mayor, and others praised her for her “leadership”, just as they had years earlier when Sheldon Berman was forced out.
What was it that all of these people saw in Dr. Hargens that the parents, students, teachers, and staff who are an actual part of JCPS did not. That’s an excellent question I don’t have an answer to.
But I do know what I have seen since Hargens' resignation. I've seen an interim Superintendent who is intent on listening. I've watched in board meetings and policy as he reacts to parent, student, and teacher concerns and asks tough questions. I've watched him talk to people to get their insight and feedback. I’ve seen his willingness to take action, not simply to shut up the person complaining. I've watched our own Board of Education make a commitment to hearing community voices by eliminating policies meant to silence comment within the board and by the public. This includes moving the portion of the meeting dedicated to hearing the community to the beginning, rather than to the end of their often lengthy meetings. I've heard from teachers, principals, and fellow parents that they're excited by Dr. Pollio's leadership and presence, and see him as a positive. As leaders of business, certainly you understand the value of improving employee morale and having a leader that internal and external customers believe in. For the first time, it feels like leadership is listening to us, the people who send our kids to JCPS, and who work for the school system. It feels like the good people who work at JCPS are not ashamed or afraid of their leadership and feel inspired to be better.
Know that when you label JCPS a "failure", "disaster", or any other pejorative term, you're making a judgement on over 100,000 community members who are your customers, employees, friends, and neighbors. We are the people who experience the good and the bad at JCPS directly each day, and OURS is the voice that needs to be listened to most closely as the primary external and internal customers of JCPS. Listening to the people you serve directly is what good businesses do, and it’s what, for the first time in over a decade, JCPS leadership is finally doing. If those on the outside wish to truly help JCPS, maybe listening to and including these same voices is where you should start.