To discipline or not to discipline

Now that the problem at Hopwood Junior High School is apparently solved though not over, hopefully we will all have learned a value lesson. The petitioners have done a service to the students, to the principal, and to the community. The lack of management techniques and understanding is what caused the debacle at Hopwood. Another factor was that discipline, unfortunately, became misguided when personal relations interfered.

Ms. Louise Conception should be commended for her exhaustive and objective investigation on a complicated and sensitive matter. Not only was her report fair, but it also pointed out a major deficiency that the PSS is faced with.
The PSS failed to train its principal and viceprincipal in administrative management techniques. Hopefully the PSS will have learned that management is an acquired skill.

One suggestion before the BOE is that all current principals and viceprincipals attend a mandatory crash course this summer before the opening of the new school year. This should be followed up after six months to revisit how the techniques are working in the school campuses. Also no new administrators should be hired unless they have shown proficiency in management elsewhere. It is unfair to place anyone in a position of responsibility and power who has not been trained in personnel management and discipline.

Over the several past months many of us have been mumbling over our coffee and beer how incompetent the PSS is and what a lousy place it must be to work at. But let’s look at other government agencies and see if the “shoe fits.” This what I meant earlier that the recent situation should be a learning lesson for all of us.

The major problem at Hopwood was not lack of a discipline policy that is both clear and inclusive, but the inability or weak desire to implement it. We see this weakness daily in most of our government agencies.

How can a prison system be riddled with so many successful escapee attempts, yet no major discipline is metered out to the persons responsible except to the inmates who escaped? Where is the discipline and the public outcry? The DOLI has numerous cases of personnel taking bribes or falsifying documents for “friends.” Where is the discipline and the public outcry? All other government agencies suffer the same inadequacies. Where is the discipline and the public outcry?

The key point in all of this is that we have discipline policies in place. but we are not willing to implement them! When we do, we make sure that the offender is not a relative of ours. He must be an outsider so that we can still maintain “family” relations. Is it any wonder that morale and low productivity are hallmarks of most government agencies?

Of all the government section heads, directors and cabinet secretaries, how many have attended management, discipline, budgeting, personnel relations, basic law, and other training courses vital to a good administrator? How many understand their responsibilities and power? Or are they simply selected because of “connections”?

To justify this lack of training, we lament that funds prevent us from promoting such vital skills. Everything we do incorrectly or incompetently, or lack the will to do, and all the waste we allow is always blamed on insufficient money. What a cop-out!

For over a year and a half, I have been writing about the need for education, but apparently my messages are falling on deaf ears. Everyone of us regardless of age or position requires continuing education if we are to lead a productive and useful life. Money follows proper education whether in business or in government.