Roy Exum: About Lions & Elephants

  • Saturday, February 13, 2016
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

A family of lions is called a ‘pride’ and rightfully so. The boss of the pride is indeed the ‘King of the Jungle’ and he makes all the big decisions, like when they go hunting, who is going to be ‘boyfriend-girlfriend’ and is quick to settle any family quarrels. But, as with all in nature, there comes a day when the King gets too old to rule.

His teeth are loose, his gait hampered by arthritis, and his once-glittering mane is now dirty and matted. Besides that, he has started smelling bad. So one of the young lions gets an extra dose of courage (not just a lion thing) and beats up the old king pretty badly. He is now the new ruler of the pride. But – wait – the old lion is invited to stay because he has still got one thing the others in the pride do not.

When the male lions hunt, they finally spot a gazelle standing hidden in a thicket. So the young, powerful lions all creep around back. The older lion charges the front of the thicket, screaming and roaring in a rich baritone the young cats haven’t acquired yet. The gazelle, bug-eyed by the roar, does what? It runs out the back of the thicket and doesn’t stand a cut dog’s chance. This is the way the old lion still gets table scraps, don’t you see? Yes, he has to eat after the girl lions but at least he eats.

The moral of the story is one of the greatest lessons in life: Run to the roar. Don’t run from problems, roar right back. Charge headlong into your biggest issue every day and, so help me, you’ll find not only success but great enjoyment slaying the biggest dragons in a time when there are many. Knock down the biggest first.

Now for the elephant. When I read what the Hamilton County School Board discussed at a Thursday afternoon planning session I couldn’t find one of the nine members that wanted to run to the roar. The ‘elephant in the room’ is our lame-duck superintendent. The No. 1 question is not a ‘best practices audit,’ a ‘school climate revue,’ a treatise on bullying, or policy discussion.

Our parents, our teachers, and – most importantly – our children need leadership right now, not sometime we finally begin in April. We know Superintendent Rick Smith is leaving. What we don’t know is what’s next on the “big screen.” Apparently the school board has no plans to address ‘the elephant in the room’ at next Thursday’s monthly meeting. If not, that pushes any discussion back to mid-March. That’s two months after Smith resigned, or whatever he did, and that’s two months of sitting on our hands.

Granted, Monday’s hearing in Juvenile Court will be huge in determining how Smith leaves but in the real world there is no business (small or corporate), no sports team (college or pro), no church (of any denomination) or no government venture that includes a $400 million budget where it takes 60 days to scratch before some type of plan is hatched. This is crazy. Chairman Jonathan Welch or any of the other eight members needs to roar at the gazelle right now and get things going.

Here’s what needs to happen from where I stand:

-- The school board needs to endorse the Chattanooga 2.0 education initiative. It was sponsored in part by the HCDE itself and it needs total approval from the school board because all of us readily recognize we need to start fixing things now. Implementation must start next week – with the public’s ire, we can’t afford to wait.

-- To undertake a “best practices audit” is to put the cart before the horse. The same for a “school climate review” because until you have an interim superintendent to implement either, it is wasted time and motion. Worse, it is needless expense involving thousands of dollars.

Plainly stated, why should the school board (HCDE) pay taxpayer money when both will be fully vetted by businesses and foundations when the Chattanooga 2.0 crowd gets the green light? The school board doesn’t have near the resources – cash, power, networking, and business sense – that 2.0 does. This isn’t to be mean or derogatory; it is realistic fact. Let’s be smart and use all of our assets.

Here’s an example. Nashville people are pretty savvy but when the Metro School Board sputtered and coughed in its preliminary search (and, oh, did it ever), somebody had the good sense to go to the mayor and ask openly for the community’s help. Nashville’s business and civic leaders responded like lightning.

Now every member of the Hamilton County School Board has a copy of the 192-page synopsis that was delivered to the Nashville school leaders last week. I will most assuredly guarantee you neither the school board in Nashville nor in Chattanooga could replicate that report or the expertise it empowers to the Nashville school board. I have seen it. It is a tremendous tool in selecting the right person.

Get this -- you want the cold truth? Chattanooga 2.0 is going to happen, with or without the school board. People are totally stunned at what has been allowed to occur at HCDE and, as board member Rhonda Thurman has had the courage to admit, the school board must very well shoulder some blame. This is a perfect outcome – accept the help that the entire Chattanooga community is eager to give and the result can’t help but be golden.

The school board meets monthly, right. And any action it takes must be through the superintendent. Once Rick Smith's resignation is accepted, there is a 15-day waiting period. Honestly, that should have already happened. To stand still – as the HCDE did following the Ooltewah tragedy – is to go backward with devastating results, remember? Chattanooga 2.0 can seek answers and solutions every day instead of one afternoon a month.

If the school board balks at Chattanooga 2.0, I fear the worst revolution since France in the late 1700s when nappy little Napoleon got things all stirred up. Like it or not, with egos and allegiances and cronyism aside, the Chattanooga 2.0 initiative is being universally accepted in every corner of Hamilton County because the outcry that resulted over what the 2.0 report finally revealed to the public. Parents and grandparents were stunned and are now flat-out furious. Go ahead – don’t feed a mad dog and see what happens.

Look at your calendar. On Monday we have the most colossal hearing ever in Juvenile Court with three educators charged with “failure to report sexual assault on a juvenile” and four more carrying subpoenas. It will not be pleasant and, in complete candor, will throw the harshest glare on the school board and the bumbling HCDE to date.

Follow the dots here. Monday’s court appearance will cruelly rip the bandages off the rawest wounds in our high school history. Since it won’t end on Monday – infernos always take time to build -- who dares to think the public is going to be content with the school board instituting a costly “review” of school climate three days later? Think! Any fool knows that District Attorney General Neal Pinkston is going to give you a “review” free-of-charge the minute his investigation into school bullying is laid bare in the coming weeks. Use some common sense!

Now focus on Chattanooga’s big businesses and what they really want. Volkswagen, Blue CrossBlue Shield, Unum and TVA, for instance, have all totally endorsed 2.0. They could care less about a good-ole-boy network. They instead care about good young men and women who they are each eager to hire right now if the kids can only prove they are qualified to do entry-level work. Any more school board stalling just aggravates their frustrations, particularly among today’s students.

The Benwood Foundation, the McKenzie Foundation, the Community Foundation of Chattanooga and United Way are ready to shovel money into the 2.0 dream the minute the school board gives it the green light. Please – the tail is wagging the lion! Why is it our elected members of our school board can’t see what is unfolding here? Believe this, based on my email inbox, those who voted for the school board have crystal-clear vision.

On Monday a telling hearing will begin. On Thursday the school board better start slaying the biggest dragons first. Our march to the ‘see’ must begin.

royexum@aol.com

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