Donna S. McCaw, Carol Webb and John Closen are all on the faculty of the educational leadership department at Western Illinois University in Macomb.
As Illinois enters into the most critical financial period in its history, many unpopular and extremely painful decisions are being made.
Young teachers, bright with the hope of making a difference in the lives of their students, have been told that they won’t have jobs next year. Paraprofessional support is being reduced or eliminated, entire programs are being discontinued, and buildings are being closed.
The cell phones of board members are ringing nonstop. School administrators are threatened with everything from lawsuits to personal injury. And newspapers print information that no one wants to accept but everyone is forced to acknowledge.
The “business” of this article is not the business of the budget, but the business of the people affected by the budget — you, maybe your family, your administrative team, your building staff and your community.
A board member in Western Illinois implied in a newspaper article that, had she known a year ago that she would have had to deal with this amount of stress, she would not have run for the school board. How many more are wondering the same thing?
Nothing can eliminate the emotional exhaustion that many in public education across this country are experiencing, but being informed can help minimize the impact and shorten the duration. Leadership must be mindful that this is not just about right now, getting through this, or about hoping it will all go away. It’s about the reality that all of this can affect your schools and/or community for many years to come.
Given this reality of unavoidable and undesirable changes, several things must be kept in mind:
Working through loss
In 1969, Elizabeth Kübler-Ross determined there were five stages of grief. In the wake of so many types of loss (reduction in force, terminating contracts, collapsing classes, eliminating programs and closing buildings), understanding these stages will be significant. They can help inform actions and reactions, both personal and systemic.
Some individuals, schools, districts and communities may experience a stage for a few minutes, hours, days, months, years. It is also possible to get “stuck” in a stage. Ignorance of the stages can actually prolong the pain. That’s something none of us want.
The five stages are:
Denial: Trying to avoid the inevitable. Initial paralysis at hearing bad news is normal. Last spring, even though you had been telling individuals that pink slips were coming, people were still “surprised.” Denial gives us sufficient time to deal with the shock of an event really happening. We all want to believe that some magical solution will make it all go away. This might explain why the state is in the position it has put us all in the first place.
Anger: Frustrated outpouring of bottled-up emotion. Pent up anger at events that people feel helpless to control can result in quiet, gentle people who suddenly become loud and obnoxious. Unresolved anger can negatively impact relationships, communication and decision-making. Additionally, group think may result in a reaction that is uncharacteristic, unkind and irrational. Understanding that the anger is not necessarily directed at any one person, but needs nonetheless to be expressed, can help decision makers cope emotionally with angry responses. District leadership might need to remind each other that the attacks, although personal, are a normal reaction to loss. It is a natural tendency to avoid or shut down conflict.
Bargaining: Seeking a painless way out. This stage looks for emotional, psychological and financial solutions. People desperately want it to be someone else who is cut, and then they feel guilty because of those feelings. No one wants it; everyone hates it; someone must do it — so they bargain. In some cases, coworkers may feel betrayed, not by the administration, but by fellow coworkers. If bargaining could have included saving jobs by unilateral sacrifices and none were made, anger and distrust may develop.
An example might be found in a district where all teachers were asked to sacrifice two extra paid work days. The sacrifice would have saved numerous positions. A majority of the faculty voted the sacrifice down. The lack of mutual sacrifice by all — bargaining for the few — might be felt as a major betrayal. Residual negatives might be found in the trust factor of those who were outvoted. A significant question might also be: Would these people turn on me if I needed them to sacrifice for me? The bargaining stage can put people through much questioning and, based on the answers, mistrust can grow.
Depression: Final realization of the inevitable. Feeling a tremendous amount of sadness over the losses may result in avoiding those who have been released. In one district, after a teacher was informed by the superintendent that he was riffed, neither the principal, the assistant principal nor the athletic director approached him. Their lack of communication only added to his pain.
The overwhelming nature of sadness causes most of us to avoid it. Similar to the avoidance of conflict, sadness can be infectious, sucking the energy out of an individual and the organization. Some have defined depression as anger turned inward. This is another reason why the healthy expression of anger is vital for the overall health of the organization. Depressed individuals miss more work, feel less passion and contribute to an overall toxic culture. None of these are beneficial outcomes for the mission of the school.
Acceptance: Seeking realistic solutions. Finally finding the way forward is the last stage. The difference between true acceptance and coping can be found in both energy levels and joy. For those coping with the loss or losses, the glass is half empty; for those who have risen to acceptance, the glass is half full. Those who are coping need additional care and the support of those around them.
Taking care of yourself, your board
During the best of times, board members do not always agree and differences of opinions can be voiced, sometimes at mega decibel levels. Times of economic hardship are even more stressful. You need to take time to relax. Board members need to be reminded to take care of themselves and their families.
Actually, it sounds easier to say than to do, but it is something that needs serious thought and purposeful action. In this case, it is not denial but using what you know about stress to make good decisions about “living smart.”
Research lists good behaviors to observe when someone is living under stress: healthy eating, exercising, hobbies, etc. Your best thinking will not occur if you don’t take care of yourself AND your family.
Even though you might be trying to protect your family from the financial stressors you are experiencing as a board member or administrator, you must realize that what affects you affects them — either directly or indirectly. They might feel like they need to explain or defend actions taken. They might receive social admonishment for some of the decisions that you and the board have made.
Preparing for what’s next
While all loss requires purposeful action and care, closing a building mandates recognition of the stages of grief. It is likely that August will find familiar faces absent in many Illinois districts, many people doing more with less, continued anxiety about the state’s ongoing economic woes and new federal initiatives that will require new energies.
Smart districts will plan the start of a new school year carefully, and a new decade with a positive and celebratory focus, yet sensitive to the fact that change has happened.
Attending to details and basic needs can show the district cares. Acknowledging and recognizing individuals’ past contributions in multiple, quiet ways can help set a positive tone for the year … from the bus driver to the fiscal director.
It takes little to impact the culture and climate of an organization negatively and much hard work to rebuild it. Be proactive. Keep conversations focused on the vision and mission — why we’re all here — and the goals you’ve set for the year.
Maintaining focus
Decisions don’t come easily when economics dictate reductions in staff, services and programming. Guilt, frustration and anguish are real feelings that must be dealt with by both the decision makers and those affected by the decisions.
Coping is easier, however, if the board and administration make all decisions based on what is best for the children who attend their schools. Times such as these call for a clear vision, mission and useable set of core values that can help keep the focus on what is important.
When all decisions are tied directly to the direction of the vision, tough, painful decisions can at least be justified. Please note, that deciding for anyone to get raises when others are losing their jobs would not be viewed as manifesting a vision — nor would keeping an extra secretary because her husband is on the board. Preferences such as these cause the wounds to deepen, not heal, and take the focus off of the mission.
The following are some additional things to think about:
Reference
Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, On death and dying, New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1969