EDLD 5342, Week 5, Part 1

Week 5, Part 1 I unfortunately have seen some good people (and good administrators) make some really poor choices that have caused themselves and their districts serious problems. One of the worst examples was when a superintendent for a district in which I was employed misappropriated school funds and when caught was fired, convicted of theft by a public servant, and had his teaching certificate revoked. Seldom will a case go to the full extent of the law as this one did, but there was already bad blood and the superintendent played into the hands of his detractors by committing a serious error in judgement. Standard 1.2 clearly states that misappropriating school funds is not tolerated. I have also seen a situation in which a superintendent used school personnel on school time to work on his property. Once again, Standard 1.2 specifically names the use of personnel for personal gain. This superintendent was reprimanded, but evidently didn't get the message as he later was caught committing an even more serious crime. The use of school vehicles for personal travel has been done at several districts where I worked. One was even so blatant as to allow his wife to drive the school's suburban (with the school's name on the side) to a non-school event. This resulted in the superintendent losing the use of the school vehicles except for very specific events. The use of the vehicle was bad enough, but the superintendent filled out the fuel request stating school business for the reason. Standard 1.3 covers fraudulent requests for reimbursements. Standard 2 covers ethical conduct towards professional colleagues and is sometimes more difficult to prove than financial improprieties because their is usually not a paper trail to follow. I've seen supervisors speak to coaches about playing their children or on one occassion pressuring the One Act Play director to cast their child in the lead and when it didn't happen speaking ill of the director.This violated Standard 2.2 by making false statements about a colleague. The case mentioned above concerning the superintendent's misappropriation of funds also led to a violation of Standard 2.7 when he retaliated against the person who discovered his misconduct. As I mentioned in the first case, serious issues with money can and should lead to the loss of a job, criminal charges being filed, or even the loss of the teacher certification. Less serious issues will mean at least the loss of credibility, difficulty in finding other employment and damage to the reputation of the district. I think all of the violations above could have been avoided. Each of the superintendents or supervisors mentioned above created a isolated environment for themselves that lead them to believe that they were not doing anything wrong or that they were owed something. The best way to avoid such a situation would be to surround yourself with people to whom you are accountable. Also, set up a system of checks and balances that will make it more difficult to make wrong decisions in secret. Always be transparent in everything, especially when dealing with money. Never be in a situation in which you are the sole person in charge of counting or accounting for money such as gate receipts, fund raisers, etc.