Plan B

Mindful of frogs and boiling water, Mrs ERJ made the decision to move the venue of Belladonna's High School Graduation Open House.  It is being moved down the road to Lockewood Elementary School's "multi-use room", aka, gymnasium.

Severe thunderstorms predicted all afternoon.  Ambient winds of 20 mph (30kph) with gusts of twice that possible.

The Super

The Superintendent of Eaton Rapids Public schools is a man named Dr. William De France.  I cannot speak too highly of this man.

He gives guidance to the people who administer ERPS resources.  He approves policy and procedures.  Then he gets our of their way so they can do their jobs.

That is not to say he is invisible.  He floats around and is a great listener.  He knows many, perhaps even most, of the students in our school district.  But he refuses to be drawn into petty conflicts and used as a blunt instrument.

He follows through on the empowerment of his administrators.

He will not second guess Mr Zeller, the principal of Lockewood.  Mr Zeller knows that we paid ERPS $200 to lease the football stadium.  Due to weather, one can make a credible case that the football stadium is no longer safe.  Empowered by Dr De France, Mr Zeller used his authority to allow us to shift the venue to his building.

One school district.  One budget. One set of priorities.  Serve the students and the community.  Yup, it is in alignment with the district's policies and procedures.  Good-to-go.

Mrs ERJ handled all of this.  It was done with one face-to-face meeting and a handshake.

Small communities

That is one of the big reasons I like living in a small community.  Our governmental units and service organizations are not locked up by "defensive" policies and inflexible "approval" protocols; protocols that are thinly veiled turf battles that treat the taxpayer as an expendable pawn.  Small units still permit people to judge based on demonstrated character.  Sure, mistakes are made every once in a while, but that is a cost of agility.

We will make sure that Mr Zeller does not regret his decision.  I expect that I will be buying the custodians at Lockewood a couple of cases of soda pop.  I just need to find out what kind they like best.