Words From the Director

Dr. Pam Deering, CCOSA/OASA Executive Director

deering@ccosa.org

Offense or Defense?

Which would you rather play—offense or defense? As a basketball player, I always preferred to play offense. In these times, it seems like schools are continually on the defense due to political divisiveness. School districts are continually trying to respond to criticisms that arise from miscommunication, a lack of knowledge or false/misguided perceptions.

I believe that it is time to take back the narrative and go on the offense. A recent excellent example of doing just that comes from Dr. Angela Grunewald, Superintendent of Edmond Schools. After several school board meetings with public comments that inflamed the community, Dr. Grunewald set the record straight with her response to the comments. Following is a portion of her response to the Edmond Community:

“During public participation at the Edmond Public School Board meeting last night, many claims and accusations were made. At that time, I promised a response to those claims. That is the purpose of this document.

On a personal note, as I listened to the claims and criticism against our district, I was greatly distressed. These negative and sometimes false comments of a few are causing administrators and teachers to feel unsupported by a community that is known for its support of education. I felt it was important for our community to hear the facts.”

We all know that we like someone to listen to us when we have concerns. With her response (read the full text here), she addresses the concerns of her district’s parents in a thoughtful, but direct way. Her responsiveness has eased the tensions that many have felt. Her concern, if these unfounded negative attacks continued, is that Edmond Schools would be portrayed in a negative light, and a community that traditionally has been so supportive of the schools would be divided.

None of us would want this kind of publicity based on false information to continue. As school leaders, we hold a very important role in ensuring that we listen and deal with issues as they arise and remain steadfast in our decision-making that is focused on the betterment of students.

While this is one situation, other districts may be facing similar issues that might not be so public, but could be just as harmful to a school district, its students and community.

In this past legislative session, we learned a valuable lesson when many of our own legislators did not listen to us on legislation that had negative impacts on public education. These are some of the questions legislators are asking around public education.

■ What are specific strategies for helping students with learning loss? How do you get them caught up?

■ Is the learning loss greater in one area? Is there a way to measure the learning loss?

■ How long will it take us to catch back up? How far behind are our kids?

■ How are we addressing social emotional learning?

■ How are districts going to show parents, the state, that they are focused on high quality efforts?

Could you answer these questions on short notice? Let’s be prepared to be on the offense for kids, share positive stories, and help stop the negative narrative.

School leaders should be concerned. We need our parents and our communities to be positive messengers to our legislators in support of public education and the Oklahoma students we serve.

One way we can help is for our members to give to the CCOSA PAC. The 2022 elections will be critical in making your concerns known with your support and vote. Give to the PAC and support candidates who work for our public education students at home AND at the Capitol.

Be aware that the National rhetoric will be heating up around parents’ rights in education. We have to address this head on by taking back the narrative with facts, listening to our parents, helping them understand what the district is doing around the current issues AND what we are doing academically for their children. It is a district-by-district effort, not one that can be resolved just by visiting the Capitol during the session.

We have our work cut out for us. Let’s get ready to take the offense with positivity, showcasing with pride what students are learning.

Sincerely,

Dr. Pam Deering CCOSA/OASA Executive Director