Department of Frustration

It can happen anywhere, in the grocery store line, at your doctor’s, and even at home. Someone with a label, such as, “assistant,” doesn’t do what the label says. It looks like the person is doing his or her best to perform a job, but it simply is not the job that is described. In our example, this “assistant” may create more difficulties and obstacles than were there at first. So it is with our Department of Education. I am going to call it by its real name here, the Department of Frustration, just so we don’t get confused. Within the DOF is a spelled-out hierarchy of who gets to do what. (It’s also within the prerogative of that person not to do what they are labeled to do, so this thing has layers, like ogres and onions. Gosh, lots of similarities come to mind.)
Our DOF brings teachers from the mainland (mightily reluctantly, it appears), and has them live and work here for a several months before they will pay them. I’ll bet that none of us established islanders could do that comfortably, and that’s without having the added concerns of moving expenses and all that. If you have friends or relatives thinking about teaching in Hawaii, you would do well to warn them so that they can plan accordingly. A pay delay of at least two months is almost guaranteed to happen. Mind you, this isn’t a deliberate or planned thing. It’s just part of the frustration. And we really, really need teachers.
Purchasing and contracting are so labyrinthine and spelled out as to mock the most retentive of us. Janitor’s shoes must be purchased through a series of steps, developed by the Union with the DOF: 1. Janitor puts in a written request to shop for shoes. 2. Janitor finds DOF approved shoe distributor. 3. Janitor goes to distributor and writes down the model number of the desired shoes. 4. Janitor puts in a written request to purchase the shoes. 5. Janitor waits for the DOF to get his shoes for him. 6. If Janitor’s shoes cost more than $75.00, a new procedure must be followed by which she pays the difference.
When I purchased reimbursable items for the schools with my debit card and provided receipts, I was paid back after two months. Except for the third time, when the DOF sent notice that they needed my personal credit card statement to show that I had actually paid for this purchase. Nevermind that they had reimbursed twice before. Nevermind that a debit card is like a check which immediately deducts funds from the account. After explaining these things over five conversations, I got my back up on that one and decided to donate the stinking supplies. Apparently, however, the DOF cannot have unresolved paperwork. After half a year of requests from the school offices for my credit card statement, I found a reimbursement check squeezed into my mail.
Our DOF brings administrators from the mainland (profoundly reluctantly), and has them go through a two year training program called Administrators Certification for Excellence to become administrators. Not training for excellence, mind you, certification. Experienced Superintendents and Vice Principals, along with the promoted ranks, are put in sub-zero refrigerated classes that have been thrown together for the initiate. For random local meetings, monthly weekends eighteen times over two years, and two solid weeks in the summer, our school administrators get to wear winter parkas through a windowless gauntlet of intellectual hazing and initiation routines similar to those banned on college campuses.
A Principal (“trainer”) pulls up next to a Vice Principal (“ACE”, mainland superintendent) in the summer school parking lot, raps on the window, and advises, “The ACE’s are to park in the dirt in the back.”
The rules for the two week training are written, including, “Family visits are not allowed.” In America! As taxpayers, we are funding plenty of electricity and travel expenses. Our tax dollars may be pretty safe, however. For the employee to receive per diem reimbursement requires presentation to the DOF of a completed flight coupon – you know, the thing you have to hand over to the airlines to be allowed to board the aircraft. The reason stated for this procedure is to be sure that the person really attended. Why not just catch the flight and never bother to show up for the aggravation? Two weeks of training administrators in school procedures, and nobody thinks to take attendance? They figured out that one mid-training this year and revised the rules, so we’re still out the money. The ACE training is a deliberate and planned event. We have 142 vacancies listed in the islands for administrators.
Where does all this leave us when each August rolls around? Our kids do their best to follow the instructions, the teachers do their best to instruct, the administrators to administer, and the DOF to… well. All concerned parties at the bottom of the DOF hill: students, parents, teachers, a chorus of support personnel and volunteers, and school administrators, are to be commended for their perseverance and dedication to learning in spite of the Department’s actions or nonactions designed to make learning stop (all verbal intentions to the contrary.) The system is broken, and yet the brave souls in the schools are still managing to do education.
A proverb reads, “They grind up my people like bread.” This obscure phrase clarifies how people get used up by the system. Employees are like a grain of wheat that can either be planted and nurtured for a greater future harvest, or ground up and eaten to satisfy an impatient appetite. Those at the school level of the education system get run through the mill every time.
A current Hawaii school administrator says that I’m putting things too mildly and have hit only a few high points in the stupidity. If you ever wonder why we have trouble keeping people in the schools, consider that the kids are the best part of a job in education. Everything behind the scenes has completely forgotten the students. When we expect Education to come out of a Department so well oiled in Frustration, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. “The system is NOT broken.” DOE advocates (board members) assert. The system is so deeply entrenched that it now is attempting to perpetuate itself through dominance-based pecking order routines established to keep the workers in line. In one way it is true that the system is not broken. It is highly effective and is excellent at what it does: Frustrate.