The Shadow
Welcome back, Shadowers! I have a confession to make—I have a bad case of Spring Fever. It’s been so beautiful outside that I’ve done everything other than what’s on my “Honey-do” list. And in celebration of the Spring equinox last Tuesday, I took the lawn mower to my machine whisperer in great anticipation of the forthcoming “Greening.” The good news is, he didn’t charge me a dime. The bad news is, I need a new lawn mower.
Now there’s an old saying, “If you ever find yourself riding a dead lawn mower, dismount!
Here’s where I’m going to need some advice from you, dear Shadower. What should I do? Ignore the problem and continue with fixing that extremely uncomfortable seat, putting on new tires, and changing the oil?
Shadow, you’re an idiot! Don’t forget to put some racing stripes on it, that always makes it mow faster!
Seriously, folks, how long should I sit here denying my lawn mower is dead?
Last week, Governor Youngkin told Alleghany Highlands Public Schools to stop messing around and get off their dead horse. For almost two months now, we’ve been fighting over whether the oven or rangehood was the culprit. Whoopsies, we ordered the wrong new oven… shhh! Don’t tell the parents! Should we, or shouldn’t we, get Carbon Monoxide detectors? Should we, or shouldn’t we ignore the Fire Marshal’s order to clear our junk from blocking the fire exits? What about the annual inspections of fire extinguishers and fire doors? Nah, we’ve never needed them. Or the never-ending debate over which school is better, the one CMS is now inhabiting or the one in Low Moor?
And just to make sure we don’t smell our dead horse, we’ve paraded just about every local, state, and federal agency through CMS’s doors to poke and prod the building for defects. We even went up and looked at the repaired fresh air exchange unit and kicked it a couple of times just to make sure. “Yep, it’s ready to be turned on.”
Last week, after all the extensive activities that I’m sure cost us taxpayers dearly, we apparently have a “safe” school with our children back in class. Hooray! But something’s still not sitting with me right, and it reminds me of the haunting phrase from the 1999 movie The Green Mile: “Dead man walking!” Could that be a metaphor for our schools being patched together just enough to function and distract while we’ve not addressed the real root of the matter? The building just didn’t fall apart by itself…
Did we just simply transfer our bridle and saddle to a new “Dead Horse Walking?”
Come on, folks, let’s be real. Let’s finally ask the tough, uncomfortable questions and get off this dead horse once and for all.
Who dropped the ball and decided that the legally required CO detectors didn’t need to be installed back in 2020? Who was accountable for ensuring the fire extinguishers and fire doors are inspected annually and up to date in our schools? Who was responsible for immediately actioning the 28 Fire Marshal violations at CMS over just one year alone?
Hello? Is anyone awake at our schools and paying attention to the Law? Or are we just going to quietly clean up the dead horse and ignore the underlying problem of HOW we found ourselves on a dead horse in the first place? If you don’t fix the “HOW” then the “What” will just repeat all over again at some point.
In a recent interview with WDBJ, previous AHPS Board member Jacob Wright finally stated the magical words, “…they’re all trying to piece together how exactly this happened.”
Thank you, Mr. Wright. Now we’re getting somewhere.
Maybe I’ve missed it, but as of yet, not one board member or administrator has taken full responsibility and accepted they are “accountable” for the “HOW” this happened. Kudos to board members Arritt and Scruggs-Duncan for at least attempting to move in this direction. Mr. Umstead talked tough at the beginning of his tenure but hasn’t weighed in yet. He says he is keeping his powder dry until April, which is sort of odd, seeing how this situation is probably the most egregious situation in AHPS history, yet he continues to claim a hall pass.
Consider this: The Superintendent answers directly to the school board and is ultimately responsible for our entire school system’s operations. And I’d wager a paycheck that every board member would agree that “educate our children safely and effectively” ranks pretty high on the Superintendent’s to-do list. In short, the board makes the policies; the Superintendent is accountable for making it happen with her team of principals and staff.
So, if responsibility and accountability start with the superintendent, where was Halterman’s proactive leadership in all this? Her resume shows she’s super smart: “…A Master of Education degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from Virginia Tech as well as graduate credentials in Human Resources Leadership and Health Care Administration from the University of Virginia.”
So I’m going to repeat the question from many, many parents that still remains unanswered: How can our top administrator, who is highly educated in leadership and policy and was awarded the 2024 “Regional Superintendent of the Year for her accomplishments and leadership,” allow this to happen on her watch? Perhaps she was spending too much time focusing on filling out her Curriculum Vitae with fancy awards instead of “walking the halls?” If we were her teacher grading her performance, would we even give her a “C” for her approach to fixing the CMS issues? Would her performance even rise to an “F” for apparently failing to lead her principals and staff to follow this thing called… The Law? And because of that failure, is Halterman ultimately accountable for putting every single child, teacher, and staff at CMS directly in harm’s way? And what about the rest of the approximately 2,700 students she is also responsible for? You decide.
AHPS Board member Arritt stated in a recent interview with WFXR, “We’re going to use this as a teaching moment going forward.”
Great suggestion, Mr. Arritt. May I suggest starting with Life Safety 101, First Lesson: “Don’t ignore The Law.”
I’m out of time, and out of coffee, but will leave you with this quote, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
