In sports, there’s something called “the dreaded vote of confidence”. When a team is struggling and has been for some time, the coach will usually find himself on the hot seat. With speculation in the media about whether he is about to be fired, his ability to do his job or be trusted by his team or the fans erodes. What comes next, and is almost always a precursor to his firing, is the general manager or owner going to the press and issuing a statement referred to as the “dreaded vote of confidence”. Here are a few examples:
November 2019, Will Muschamp receives the vote of confidence. November 2020, Will Muschamp is fired.
October 2016, Charlie Strong is given the vote of confidence as head football coach of the Texas Longhorns. One month later, Charlie Strong is fired from Texas.
On a more local level, I give you Brady Hoke at the University of Michigan. Given the vote of confidence in October of 2014, he was fired by December of the same year.
Two more just for fun: Dan Quinn was given the vote of confidence by the Atlanta Falcons organization in October of 2019. By October of 2020, a coach who led his team to a 28-3 second half super bowl lead less than three years prior, was fired.
And locally, in the summer of 2017, Brad Ausmus was given the vote of confidence from the Tigers organization. By September, he was gone.
In many of these scenarios, it wasn’t the general manager or athletic director firing the coach. Often times the one hiring the coach lets pride get in the way and goes down with the coach. In those cases, it takes the owner to make the change. Sometimes the “organizational rot” is just so pervasive it takes a “cleaning house” type of solution. The “organization” that is Grand Haven Area Public Schools (GHAPS) may be at that point.
You may wonder why this site seemingly focuses so much on library books. Is that the biggest issue facing GHAPS? I would argue the answer is no. Make no mistake, it is a huge issue. Pornographic material being put in front of minors is criminal. But it is a symptom of a larger problem.
Take the process of getting books into the school libraries. A few select “credentialed” national organizations (see Show Me Your Credentials and Inappropriate Book List) produce a list of thousands of books they have deemed suitable for school children. From there, two or three GHAPS librarians do the best they can, relying on the reviews of those “credentialed” organizations, selecting books from the list of thousands, spread out over all the genres until they have the hundreds they need. That is the entire process. No oversight from the board or Superintendent or anyone else. No screening of the books (remember, they rely on the “credentialed experts”), no ratings on them or anything. Does that strike you as a well managed organization? With these two or three employees ordering hundreds of books with zero oversight, is it any wonder why pornographic, damaging, subversive books find their way into children's hands?
What the topic of library books shows, beyond the potential for one or two ideological individuals to determine what your child is exposed to, is a complete “cultural rot” that has infested the school. It is not the sole fault of the librarians. Nor is it just the fault of the curriculum director or Superintendent or school board. But this level of mismanagement throughout multiple levels can’t be ignored.
If we can’t even trust the school to keep pornography away from minors, how are we supposed to trust them with educating our children? Or making sound decisions on health issues like mask wearing or school shutdowns? Or who they pay and hire to train our teachers on professional development days? How can we trust them to be proper stewards of our tax dollars? (Tragic and sad recent news on this, but where has Brian Wheeler been?)
The lack of oversight from the board or Superintendent or attention to detail throughout the organization is the larger issue. The pornographic books are just a vivid representation of that. How can an entire school district have such little oversight? Why do so many topics end with being referred to one person? On top of all that, even when issues are brought to their attention or offers of help are given by concerned parents, the lack of action on behalf of parental concerns and excuse making is inexcusable.
Maybe it is time to give some board members, the Superintendent and curriculum director, among others, the “dreaded vote of confidence”. Each taxpayer has a stake in the school and a vested interest in their performance. Elections are coming up in November. Three school board members are up for re-election. Lastly, at a recent school board meeting, the Superintendent expressed his confidence and trust in the job the curriculum director has done. Change will have to come with a “cleaning of the house” at the owner (ie: taxpayer/voter level).