If I had any doubts from the job interview, the first day on the job was confirmation. The next few months underscored it. If I could summarize it one word, my job as Director of Communications for St. Louis Public Schools was all about chaos.
Every day was chaotic. Little if anything could be anticipated or planned for. I often looked at the office telephone (and my Blackberry; that was the phone we used) as the enemy. You answered a call, and your day instantly changed.
I learned that I wasn’t the only one dealing with chaos. The man brought in to take over the district’s finances (which were a train wreck; the district was not only technically but actually bankrupt) was a former corporate CFO. He dealt with impossible tasks every day. His wife later told me that she worried most about public meetings – Board of Education meetings, town halls, outreach meetings – because anything could and often did happen. She would look for me making a statement on TV news, and then she knew her husband was okay.
The district had all the problems of an urban school system – money problems, crime, declining educational standards and test scores, dropping enrollments, school consolidations. An outside management firm had been brought in to try to transform the district; school closures, budget reductions (the communications budget was reduced from $1 million to $20,000, and that had been spent by the time I arrived).
To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.
Photograph by Wayee Tan via Unsplash. Used with permission.
Some Wednesday Readings
Beyond the Modern Myths of Ancient Athens – Arlene Saxonhouse at Church Life Journal.
Winston Churchill, American Patriot – Michael Lucchese at Acton Institute.
“Malefactors of Great Wealth” – Burton Folsom at The Coolidge Review.
Writing My Novel on My Phone (and Through Grief) – Ros Hill at Writer’s Digest.
The Road Vanished Before We Reached Dinner – Riyanka Paul.
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