Glassboards For The Classroom - Teaching The Principal A Lesson
Our principal is NOT a popular person at our school.
She has a variety of not very complimentary nicknames – I’ll let you know the ones I can actually put in print…
Queen of Cheapskates (The Queen for short), Triple P (Parsimonious Penny-pincher) and my personal favourite – Scrooge McDunkley (her family name is, as you’ve probably guessed, Dunkley).
How did she get this raft of highly descriptive monikers you ask? Well, let me put it this way – she has a highly annoying habit of buying the cheapest possible resources and equipment for the school.
No matter what anyone says, what complaints are made, if carefully worded written requests from her key staff are made – nothing will budge her from her ‘mission’ of ‘spending economically’.
You’d think she was spending her own money. Seriously, she makes the cartoon character Scrooge McDuck look positively magnanimous by comparison.
The main complaint
Out of all the rubbish our principal has bought over the years, the purchases that have had the biggest negative impact on the school are her choice of whiteboards.
You know how you talk about four letter swear words – well, in ou school, we have five letter words – STAIN and GHOST.
Every whiteboard in every classroom had staining and ghosting, to the point that they were becoming unusable. Teachers were deliberately avoiding using them and finding alternative ways to present their lesson materials.
Everyone agreed that something had to be done. But what?
The staff meeting from hell
Well, everything finally came to a head two weeks ago at our monthly staff meeting. A group of teachers had banded together to, to put it in their words, to instigate immediate change.
Well, as you can imagine, their proposal went down like a lead balloon with Scrooge McDunkley. She immediately went on the defensive, outlining all the reasons why she thought being ‘cautious’ and ‘prudent’ were the preferred options.
Then all hell broke loose. Staff that were normally placid and reserved started raising their voices, asking why their concerns weren’t being addressed?
The group that presented the proposal were encouraged by this and became even more aggressive. Decorum went out the window. Things became more and more heated. That’s when I stepped in.
The petition
I had anticipated this donnybrook occurring, and had prepared accordingly.
We have quite a lot of well-to-do alumni who send their children to our school and who also attend the same church I do. Well, I had had some heart-to-heart discussions with these parents after church one Sunday.
I told them about how the principal bought cheap resources as a matter of policy. I also told them about my personal bugbear – the state of the class whiteboards. We decided that the best plan was for me to write a petition and for them to sign it.
The petition called for a change in the purchasing policy of the school, with a focus on quality rather than price. The first action item in the petition was, of course, to purchase and install glassboards in every classroom – no more staining, no more ghosting.
Included in the text was the parents’ concern about the education of their children being compromised, along with the implication that if things didn’t change, they’d have to seriously consider removing their children from the school.
I got some of our most important parents to sign, including members of the school board and leaders of the P&C.
The coup de grâce
When I produced the petition at the staff meeting, the principal’s jaw dropped. If her position was weak before, it was now untenable.
She knew that one of her key KPIs was to ensure high enrolment numbers – so, ignoring this petition would be career suicide.
The principal, after a few seconds of deliberation, agreed to all the demands in the petition, including the immediate purchase and quick installation of glass whiteboards for all classrooms.
No more staining, no more ghosting.
We got our glassboards from JustBoards and I can’t rate them highly enough for price, service and speed of delivery and installation – just outstanding. Now everyone’s happy – teachers, students, parents – and me. I’ve never been so popular – smiles, pats on the back, offers of free beers… Life is good…
Everyone is happy – except for perhaps our principal.
Why choose a JustBoards whiteboard?
JustBoards will help you find the best solutions. We offer Australia wide delivery to your door. Contact us today on 1800 654 917 or at info@justboards.com.au