Just the Facts

In an earlier blog comment, a correspondent advised that people should "Call and get the facts." We were speaking, at the time, about the building project, but the advice can apply to just about everything that you must make a decision on. It is good advice, yet it will never get all of the facts and will sometimes get "facts" that are in error. Does the person whom you call have all of the facts and did they relay them all to you? The responsibility to make informed decisions rests on the decision-maker, not on the supplier of data.

This is precisely how I became involved with the school corporation. After reading that the school corporation was contemplating investing fifty-three million dollars in our buildings, I asked three simple questions, via e-mail, of the Director of Buildings and Grounds. What are the ages of our buildings, why are we spending so much money on two of them when they can probably be replaced for the same cost or a little more, and why are we planning to invest 4.2 million dollars on a bus shop that should be a large enclosed open floor with an office, typical of any vehicle maintenance facility were my questions. My query did not result in my receiving facts that answered my questions; instead, I was told that I could come by and pick up a copy of the proposal. That showed what was planned, yet did not contain the facts that supported taking action and still did not answer the original questions. It did, however, raise many more questions about why and how the plan came to be. I sat down and started writing out questions that the plan did not answer. When I discovered that the reference used to "sell" the plan to the public was available on the web, I looked it up and found that the proposal did not even agree with that source document on many of the items being recommended, but the source document itself was suspect as it was a couple of magazine articles melded into a "report". Somewhere in this process of discovery, I came to the conclusion that while we had a proposal, we did not have a plan. As of this writing, we have a project under consideration, but we still do not have a plan.

I am former military, a former Marine. Almost from the first day of Boot Camp, every action has been governed by a plan and no action is taken without forming one. LOL………I carry a roll of toilet tissue in my vehicles and carry it into rest areas on the freeway in case of emergency situations.

Planning can be very simple, yet the more time spent on it, the more detailed the plan will become and the more you will take into consideration. Possibly, the more that you plan, the more you can accomplish.

The basic form of planning that I am used to is the Marine's five paragraph order as described below:

Orientation The purpose of Orientation is to simply orient subordinates prior to the issuing of the order. Be thorough but concise.

I. Situation

A. Enemy Forces

1. Enemy Situation (SALUTE) Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time (observed), Equipment

2. Enemy's Capabilities/Limitations (DRAW-D) Defend, Reinforce, Attack, Withdraw, Delay

3. Enemy's Most Probable Course Of Action (EMPCOA)

B. Friendly Forces

1. Higher command's Mission & Intent

2. Adjacent Units

§ North/South/East/West

§ Same Echelon

3. Supporting

C. Attachments/Detachments

II. Mission?Who, What, Where, When, and (most importantly) Why?

III. Execution

A. Commander's Intent

1. Center of Gravity

2. Critical Vulnerability

3. Exploitation Plan

4. Desired End state

B. Concept of the Operation

1. Scheme of Maneuver

2. Fire Support Plan

C. Tasks

D. Coordinating Instructions

IV. Administration/Logistics (Service Support in the Army version)

A. Administration - "Bad Guys & Bandages": EPW & Casevac Plans

B. Logistics - "Beans, Bullets, & Batteries": Chow, Ammo, Supply, Comms, Pyro, etc.

V. Command/Signal

A. Location of Key Leaders

B. Succession of Command

Now, I realize that many people may not be familiar with the terminology used within that form or see the correlation with school planning, yet the form can be adapted to "read" more easily for any situation that will occur in any boardroom or even setting a table for a meal. For example, under "situation", "enemy situation" can be changed "obstacles to succeeding" and, under "friendly forces", "higher command's mission and intent" becomes your goals.

This lack of planning, within the school corporation, appears to be wide-spread. We seem to have no idea that everything that we do affects everything else, but the bottom line is that everything affects educating our students, who later become adults and shoulder what are now are responsibilities. Yet, because we have no plan to improve, or even look at situations in detail, we are not teaching them to plan, either. We are simply existing and repeating the same mistakes that we learned from the previous generation.

We, the public, need to change and with that, we need to change the school corporation. We need to start planning, not only for next week and next year; we also need to plan for the next decade and the next century, also. First, though, we need to know where we are right now. That takes asking a lot of questions and getting answers that are based on fact, not opinion. When someone gives you what you think is information, unless it is based on fact, it is not information, it is disinformation. It is easier to accept disinformation than to put forth the effort to find the facts and that happens far too often. What really bothers me is that people are so willing to accept what is put out by individuals because of the individual's position without bothering to do the most basic check to see if it is a fact. In medical practice, if you got an opinion that sounded odd, wouldn't you go and get a second opinion?

We are on the crux of a decision that will affect our school corporation and our community for decades. Let's get the facts, all the facts, and only the facts before we decide. Let's weigh those facts carefully and let them indicate what we can do to best affect education within our community, leaving opinion that cannot be supported by fact to die. It is our responsibility to the future.