I worked for a public charter school in California. My position was a Garden Educator, where I
worked in an office with five colleagues. During the holiday breaks, the school would have regular
professional development (PD) opportunities for their teachers, and often our department would
join the PDs that would benefit us. If the PDs were applicable, the principal communicated it to our
department, along with arrival time or when we could step out to work on garden & kitchen
instructions/chores. a During one of these approaching breaks, we waited to hear from her and
receive instructions on where we should report. No instructions arrived, and the principal was not
responding to our emails.
We decided it would be best to show up on what was supposed to be PD morning, but we didn’t
know when we should arrive. We arrived earlier than everyone else (the rest of the staff arrived an
hour later) and found out on the day that we were indeed required to attend. The principal
primarily communicated through our weekly all-staff meetings, but the week leading to the break
was so busy that there was no meeting. Additionally, she forgot to include our department in the
all-teacher email. We often felt like our department was forgotten since we were not certified
teachers but educators in the garden and kitchen classes. This was a regular occurrence.
I worked for a organization that was growing in size. With changes happening it was evident that
employees were not put in the loop. Decisions were made without including feedback from staff.
And although most of them were decisions that needed to be made for the sake of the organization
since employees were not included and said decisions it felt more of an impulse decision and
dictatorship. This resulted in most employees becoming disengaged from management and their co-
workers. Instructions simply came through emails and we are not clear. Employee retention became
a problem and job satisfaction was apparent upon exit interviews.
Most of the exit interviews I was a part of, the main complaint that employees had was
communication. Most felt that leadership was talking at them instead of to them. This made them
reluctant to ask questions or raise concerns and, in the end, showed how disappointed they were in
the company and decided to part ways. Towards the end of the fiscal year I observed poor
workplace morale, stressful work environment, several misunderstandings, and conflicts (even with
in management). In order to determine how well employees, understand important information
and objectives, two-way communication is required. My recommendations were as follows:
Regular staff meetings to update on matters and welcome feed
Training for both Management and staff on active listening
Team building exercises to promote emotional intelligence (this promoted the open-door policy –
that was in the employee manual but was not being implemented)
When we were able to implement some of this it became easier to create more operational
policies and procedures for the entire organization. After a few months I sent out a survey and
employees we’re grateful that expectations were clear for them to meet their professional goals
and allow them to find balance. We were able to establish clear operating procedures, internal
documents and a simple but clear Communication policy that was and forced all across-the-board
to all departments.
After two years of implementation a high number of employees received enough training and
support to either receive promotions, salary increase and or simply move on to other projects with
other organizations yet continuing their support and networking for the company.
I live in the city of Frisco, Texas. a Our city has grown extremely fast and I have been here for most of
it. a I moved here for the same reason most have, which is the school district. Rick Reedy was the
superintendent for the decades of growth. a He wanted to do something different than the rest of
Texas. a Texas is known for high school football and the town loyalty that comes with it. a Some of
the stadiums that dot the state are larger than smaller college stadiums. a To fill those stadiums with
a competitive team and fans, you need a large high school population which translates to one large
high school for the entire city or town. a Mr. Reedy did not want that for Frisco. a He wanted the kids
to have more opportunities within the schools to excel in whatever they chose. Instead of having
one 6A powerhouse high school, he promoted smaller 5A schools that are limited to 2,100
students.
To keep the small school district model, the district had to build the schools as the population grew.
In 1993 Frisco ISD had four schools. Today they have 70 schools “On a percentage basis, no school
district in the country grew faster than FISD from 1987-88 to 2014-2015” (Friscoisd.org, n.d.). In
June of 2016, the school district passed the next school year budget. a Suddenly at the beginning of
August the city residents began hearing about a special election to happen on Aug 27th for a new
bond to increase property taxes for the maintenance and operations of the school district. a We had
a new Superintendent and I think he believed that because all the previous bonds had passed, the
residents would just vote yes to this one.
The first communications issue was there was not much communication at all on why the bond
needed to be passed and needed to be passed quickly. a I remember being confused as to why they
needed a new bond. a We had just passed one in 2014. With a background in accounting and
knowing a bit about government accounting, I knew that when idle funds are earmarked for certain
expenses, they cannot just be moved. a Majority of residents are not aware of how it works. The ISD
was losing a large amount of state funding so the bond was to cover the loss of those funds.
The second issue was there was not enough time to convey the reasons and get feedback from the
community to gage how accepting they would be. a The bond was going to raise taxes by $.13 for
every $100 value of property. a This would raise the property taxes about $400 per year based on
the medium house values (Luna, 2016). a It would take time to ramp up a marketing package for the
bond vote and launch it to all the residents. a Then there should have been a period of time to
collect feedback from the residents. a No one wants to make a rush decision. There was only one
month to promote the bond vote. a
To say it was bad timing is an understatement. a Frisco ISD is great at making partnerships. a There is
one district owned stadium. a When there were plans to build the fourth high school, they realized
that varsity sports would struggle to have venues. a In 2005 Frisco ISD had contributed to the
construction of FC Dallas soccer stadium in return to use the facilities for sporting and other ISD
events such as graduation. a They did it again with the Dallas Cowboys when the team announced
they were moving their headquarters and indoor practice facilities. a The grand opening for The Star
was in August of 2016. a Residents knew the ISD paid $36 million for the use of The Star facility. a So,
because of the timing, residents saw the hype for the Star opening the same time the ISD was
asking for more money.
The bond failed. a Frisco ISD had to cut costs quickly. a I thought it was a good exercise in due
diligence after the bond failure. a Every company and organization should periodically look at their
expenses to make sure they are not frivolous. a The ISD learned their lack of communication lesson
and made sure they communicated with the community. a They invited the community to give
feedback on what was more important for the ISD to deliver to the students. a They created a
committee and was very transparent on what topics were discussed. a They rolled out the plan on
what areas of the school district were affected by the cuts and received feedback from residents on
the results.
References:
Friscoisd.com. (n.d.). District Overview – Destination District.
https://www.friscoisd.org/about/district-overview/fast-growth
Luna, N. (2016, August 10). Frisco ISD to Hold Election Aug 27. Communityimpact.com.
https://communityimpact.com/dallas-fort-worth/education/2016/08/10/frisco-isd-hold-election-
aug-27/
