by Kathleen Smith
Earlier this month, the special grand jury’s findings in the Circuit Court of Loudoun County were released to the public. The special grand jury had been impaneled by Commonwealth’s Attorney General Jason Miyares to investigate accusations regarding Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) and its handling of a student disciplinary case. After reading the report, it is clear there was a significant lack of leadership and communication at LCPS.
According to its website, Loudoun County Public Schools employs nearly 13,000 people. That large number says a lot about the size of the communication problem evidenced in the report. In comparison, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is the largest sheriff’s office in Virginia and it employs about 800 people at six locations. The Loudoun County Social Services offices employ 2,227 people.
With an organization the size of LCPS, there are going to be barriers to communication. Those barriers exist between every building, every floor, every office, and every department. That is normal. So, what does it take to make communication work within an organization of that size?
Leadership matters. Bridging matters.
Consider that 83,000 students benefit from the services of Loudoun County Public Schools. In addition, realize that many of these same 83,000 students (and their families) may also need social services, court services, and law enforcement services at any given point in time or on an ongoing basis throughout the school year. When that happens, there needs to be communication between LCPS officials and the other services involved.
The report is very clear: that communication did not happen.
Knowledge of the incidents in question were kept compartmentalized and buffered within various departments of Loudoun County government. This is not unlike what the CIA does to keep its secrets from leaking. But, unlike the CIA, in this case young people were hurt because of the secrecy. The Grand Jury report also mentions that communications were further stifled because the Superintendent and the Sheriff were at odds and LCPS employees were afraid to speak out against the Superintendent.
Think of concentric circles where the innermost circle represents the students and the event; the next circle represents the school building staff (school resource officer, principal, assistant principal) and families; the next circle represents the outside-of-the-building staff assigned the problem (director of school administration and probation officer); and the outermost circle represents the top leadership (the Superintendent, the Sheriff, the School Board, and the judge).
Aside from the father of the first victim, there were six people mentioned in the report who clearly recognized that there was a problem and attempted to communicate that problem, either within their own circle of influence or outside of their circle:
1. A classroom aide (red circle);
2. Two students who reported they were being stalked by the assailant—one of whom was later assaulted (red circle);
3. The assailant’s grandmother (blue circle);
4. The probation officer (blue circle); and
5. The Director of School Administration (green circle).
Yet, despite this, nothing was done.
This is the reason leadership matters: Organizations have an automatic impulse to buffer problems with useless solutions under the belief that if they can shield the problem, containment is satisfied. But good leaders don’t let that happen. Instead, they build bridges with others involved in the problem. That lends itself to good communication. Leaders who build bridges commit their organizations to processes that become highways of good communication.
In this case, it appears there were no highways or bridges. The path from the center circle — the core of the problem — to the outermost circle was little more than a metaphorical dirt road that led to a dead end. The only travelers on that dirt road were four adults and two minors.
Given the size of Loudoun County, the problem of communication shortcomings is magnified. Yet, for the people most affected in the inner circle, the size really makes no difference. Three young students and their families will live with the consequences of what happened for a long time. Other adults will blame themselves for doing nothing or accomplishing nothing.
In any organization, for leadership to be effective, officials must constantly monitor the flow of communication and act immediately when there is a breakdown. Sadly, in this case, LCPS leadership did not do that.
Agency leadership in Loudoun County must find a way to build super-highways with clear signs and wide lanes that can accommodate the communication needed to serve the people. Loudoun County should eliminate those dirt roads that lead to dead-ends.
All government agencies, regardless of size or the number of people served, should work to build bridges that better serve constituents. Many thanks to the Special Grand Jury, who by sharing its findings, choose to build a bridge rather than a buffer. It is a start.
Dr. Kathleen M. Smith has been an educator since 1975. She has served as the Regional Director for the Mid-Atlantic States for Advanced l Measured Progress (now Cognia) and the Director of the Office of School Improvement with the Virginia Department of Education. She served as a Board Member At-Large for the Virginia Council of Private Education.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.