VIDEO CLIP: Frailey Heaps Praise On Center of Truth’s School Board But Applause Line Falls Flat; ‘Let’s Give Them A Hand’; Can ‘Truth’ Training On Applause Lines Be Far Behind?
September 3, 2010 by George
Filed under Video Clips
During Katy I.S.D. Superintendent Alton Frailey’s convocation address to employees August 17 from the “Center of Truth,” he heaped tremendous praise upon the Center’s board of trustees, several of whom were present and had been previously introduced to classroom teachers and other employees.
With Katy Mayor Don Elder listening, Frailey told district employees that Katy’s school board was unlike typical city councils that test the waters to see what people are thinking at any given time. Katy I.S.D.’s board members operating from the ’Center of Truth’, he said really “get it”. They understand, they ask the critical questions, Frailey said. After his warm praise with decisive hand gestures, there was silence from the gathered employees. Frailey got a few words into the next part of his remarks beforing stopping. “Let’s give them a hand.” The employees responded.
What’s the lesson from all of this? Perhaps during the course of this year or during next year’s in-service training for employees including classroom teachers, the curriculum department will develop a training session for the behavior of employees in the presence of ‘Center of Truth’s commander in chief. I can see the course description now:
“Applause Lines From The Center of Truth: When Enthusiasm Should Be Demonstrable In Frailey’s Truth North World.” Attendance at this training is mandatory. If offered during the academic year, we’ll get a substitute for your class.
PURPOSE OF TRAINING: Employees working in the ‘Center of Truth’ should immediately recognize when the Commander in Chief of the Center of Truth delivers an applause line in your presence.
MINIMUM MEASURABLE GOAL: The next time the Commander in Chief of the ‘Center of Truth’ praises the school board, there should be an immediate and overwhelming spontaneous eruption of applause that should last at least 15 seconds.
EXEMPLARY RESULTS: Standing ovation.
CONSEQUENCES FOR FAILURE TO PERFORM: We will be forced to cancel the next convocation because we simply cannot show cracks in the foundation of the internal support for our Commander in Chief in front of his board members from the ‘Center of Truth.’ That’s humilating, and the commander in chief does NOT like to be humiliated. Fortunately, in this instance, the board members present were the least talented and very controllable, and they likely did not ‘pick up’ on the incident. However, we cannot take chances in the future. It would be dangerous for the Center of Truth board members to see cracks in the facade of the overwhelming respect that we tell these board members that you have for us in the administration. WARNING: The Center of Truth cannot tolerate disrespect. And, not recognizing when employees are supposed to erupt in warm, genuine, and spontaneous applause is dangerously close to contempt and disrespect. No ‘Center of Truth’ can tolerate that. We tell these people how smart they are. We tell them that we are so fortunate to work for such brilliant people. We can’t tolerate any action that makes them start questioning the ‘Center of Truth.’
For access to the complete tape of Frailey’s remarks, you can visit The Center of Truth.
Contrary to the Mr. Frailey’s inaccurate disclaimer that the Katy ISD Trustees are not like other politicians they are Politicians. The run their political campaigns on a set of value and ideas that they tell the voters will guide there decisions. Like minded Taxpayers put them in office based on this contract. Trustees must stay true to those values and ideas since they are the Taxpayers representatives in a representative form of government. I totally concur that Trustees should not look at polls, follow the wishes of lobbyists or special interest groups, or see which way the wind is blowing to make decisions. If they are to be the “Center of Truth” their credibility rests solely on the promises that they made to the voters during the electoral process.
The Superintendent is NOT AN ELECTED OFFICIAL and is appointed by the Board to carry out THEIR will. His responsibility is to craft his best informed recommendation on issues, present them to the board and then Impelment Their Decision even if it is different than his “recommendations.” The Katy District Board of Trustees represent YOU board and the Superintendent is THEIR EMPLOYEE.
I worked directly with State Level education boards for twenty years. I always gave them my best recommendation on issues. Sometimes they agreed unanimously, sometimes they had split decisions, and on one occasion the voted 9-0 against my recommendation. It was my duty and responsibility to carry out their decisions. We had an excellent working relationship and even on the issue that the unanimously rejected my recommendation it was professional and they just had a different take on the issue. That vote did not cause any tension between the board and me. We proceeded dealing with many issues for numerous years after that happened.
I always corrected Superintendents, Community College and University Presidents when they said “my board” and stated to them that you mean “the board that you work for and gave you a contract.” Educational CEOs have a habit of trying to take Ownership of things that are held in the Public Trust by elected or appointed Boards of Trustees.
Mr. Frailey is happy to have a board that doesn’t mess in his business–he is, in fact, grateful, and his instructive tone to the employees is that they too should be grateful that they are governed by a group that knows their place.
I’m reminded of a story Larry Moore, former KISD school board memer, used to tell. He heard this story at a school board convention. The speaker, and he was a superintendent, suggested, while looking for a laugh, that school board members were like mushrooms: they need to be kept in a box and in the dark, and every once in a while the caretaker (superintendent) has to open the box a tad and throw some poop (not his exact word) on them to keep them happy.
Just wanted you to know what that part of the speech was all about–Mr. Frailey was just tossing some poop on his board members.