@SinclairLewis @NE_Purple_Mom I’ve been taking cues from my spouse. She’s seeing the effects on the front lines as a substitute teacher and active member of our PTA. Even she’s beginning to doubt. Some things I’ve seen aren’t necessarily a money problem, in my view. In some cases it feels like a talent problem. More money to attract better talent, perhaps, but within administration positions, rather than the teacher ranks—my honest experience is that they’re all super committed and professional. This comms issue with the “encryption event” is an example, but comms were an issue during the various George Floyd-period sit ins, walk-outs, and protests too. My spouse’s experience with HR felt similarly unprofessional too. While that could be a symptom of overload, none of that helps in recruiting good talent.

Having been in the middle of a breach response effort before, I’m confident IT is struggling to keep up with the 100x load. They should be able count on their PR people not to make that situation worse. Recent evidence leads me to question whether the talent, leadership and professionalism is there to make that true though.

As a public institution, this is where elections matter too. School board hires the superintendent. Superintendent sets the org structure and mission for it that makes our schools capable of creating an environment ready to teach and fertile for learning. MPS isn’t succeeding there. This new opportunity to hire a superintendent is the community’s opportunity to influence the Board and maybe change that.