Jamie Vollmer, author of Schools Cannot Do it Alone, is an optimist. He said the “pendulum is swinging” back from support of prescriptive, centralized control of schools to a renewed belief in the power of local school boards.
But Vollmer also is a realist. In order for that pendulum to move, he told the closing general session of NSBA’s Leadership Conference Sunday, school board members and everyone else with a stake in the schools must initiate an unprecedented conversation with their communities.
This conversation should counteract the relentless negativism of what he called the “neo-reformers” as well as the sepia-toned fantasies of the “nostegnia “set, those whose rosy view of their own education is “50 percent nostalgia, 50 percent amnesia.”
“I call it the Great Conversation,” Vollmer said. “The Great Conversation can be held by the state associations and their members, and the members take it to their communities, where the real power resides.”
In short, public school supporters need to speak about the good things happening in education, “the little miracles” that happen every day.
Not spectacular miracles, “but it’s miraculous and nobody out there knows it.”
It’s time for board members to stop counting on that long-desired goal: “community involvement.” Unless it’s a meeting about taxes or school sports, or food is served, the public will not come in large numbers: They’re just too busy.
So school leaders and even better, the teachers, bus drivers, and custodians whom the public trusts more must meet community members where they are, in civic clubs, churches, taverns, wherever.
Vollmer boiled his advice down to “the S’s stop, shift, and share.” Stop the infighting between teachers, administrators, and school board members, which only adds fuel to school antagonists. Shift from the negative message to a positive one. And share those stories of success.
Yet, just because you should tout your successes doesn’t mean that schools don’t have to change. They do. In fact, Vollmer told the audience, they are the first generation of board members who must educate all children for the knowledge-based jobs of the future. And this should be communicated too.
“Until the community understands these challenges, “Vollmer said, “they won’t rally to your aid.”
After Vollmer concluded, with audience members poised to take their message to Congress, NSBA President Earl C. Rickman III reiterated his call: “Teamwork. Dreamwork. Together we can.”
