Schools need leaders right now

As it becomes more and more evident that there were things going on in our school district that just weren’t kosher with regard to finances and spending, we are still searching in vain for strong leadership.

And that search is coming up empty.

Of course, we don’t expect School Superintendent Randy Acevedo to supply the leadership needed at this time. His focus should be on supporting his wife who is accused of stealing or defrauding the school system of more than $300,000.

But that’s not why we don’t expect his leadership. We don’t expect it because it was his general lack of leadership that allowed the system to get into the quandary it finds itself in at the moment.

And he has proven again that leadership isn’t his strong suit as he’s decided not to cooperate with the state attorney investigating the issues unless he’s given a subpoena, which may give him some immunity in case what he has to answer incriminates him in the actions of his wife or any other district employee.

Taking responsibility is one of the hallmarks of a great leader. The responsible thing to do is jump in and give everyone involved as much information as possible in the shortest time possible. That’s an unrealistic hope.

We find it harder and harder to believe that Acevedo knew nothing of what was going on. If that’s indeed true, he is both extremely out of touch with an organization we elected him to lead and incompetent as to the execution of the job we elected him to hold.

Neither of those bode well for future leadership possibilities.

Acevedo should voluntarily step aside. He won’t. He should voluntarily come forward and speak to the state attorney from a position of leadership. He won’t. He should be the one in the forefront trying to discover the breadth of the problem. He isn’t, and won’t be.

But the school board has its own leadership issues to deal with, none of which leads us to bestow the mantle of accountability on that body.

We have heard School Board Chairman Andy Griffith proclaim that he is amazed that the district has these problems and no one has yet been fired.

Asking someone else to do what we will not do ourselves is not exactly a lesson in responsibility.

If the board feels as though the culture of corruption is too prevalent for its tastes, it has many ways to attack the problem.

Every contract employee needs board approval for the renewal of the contract. If that employee was part of the monumental breakdown in controls that led to this fiasco, the contract should be rejected immediately by the school board. And the votes should be unanimous.

There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the board stands united to deal with this situation quickly, efficiently, and sad to say, ruthlessly.

We hear the board say that 23 classroom teachers need to be cut next year for the sake of the budget. And they do that before the first person has been held to task for the breakdown in financial controls that allowed this situation to occur.

Find the supervisors responsible to keep a reign on the school’s finances and cut their contracts from the budget. Find the front-office employees getting over on the system or taking advantage of the system and cut their contracts. If there are no contracts to cut, cut the positions from the budget.

That is the kind of leadership many of us seek in these troubled times, and have yet to find.

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