"Insuracare" comes to Middletown: A Commentary on Bureaucracy and Public Education

One of my favorite movies of all times is Pixar's The Incredibles. I love everything about this movie, from its clever character creation (naming the superhero Mom Elastigirl) to its witty commentary on real life (the villain comments on his plan to sell his inventions so that everyone can be a superhero: "When everyone's super, no one will be.").

One of the most painful scenes in the movie, however, is the exchange between Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible) and his boss at Insuracare: Bob gets called to the office because his boss is unhappy...

Boss: "Your customers make me unhappy."

Bob: "What? You've gotten complaints?"

Boss: "Complaints I can handle. What I can't handle is your customer's inexplicable knowledge of Insuracare's inner workings. They're experts. Experts, Bob! Exploiting every loophole, dodging every obstacle. They're penetrating the bureaucracy!"

Bob: "Did I do something illegal?"

Boss: (begrudgingly) "Noooo..."

Bob: "Are you saying we shouldn't help our customers?"

Boss: "The law requires that I answer no."

Bob: "We're supposed to help people."

Boss: "We're supposed to help OUR people, starting with our shareholders, Bob. Who's helping them out?"

You see, Bob has been secretly helping his customers navigate the corrupt company system, and he's forced to decide between his superhero principles of justice and his job. He sticks with his principles and loses the job (and this isn't the first time it has happened to him).

This scene is painful for me because I know it catches the evils of bureaucracy perfectly, just as it ignores the good that can come from an organized effort to make a difference. As Abraham Lincoln is thought to have said in 1854:

"The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities."

We need government involvement in the education process, unless of course we're all suddenly going to homeschool our children or privatize public education. I don't think my children would survive homeschooling, so I'm going to stick with the "go someplace else for school" model. It's an intriguing thought to consider privatizing public education, but I have no idea how that would work, and I'm not sure it would solve the evils of public education either. So...we need some government, and with it comes a bureaucracy. This does mean, though, that the individuals in government have to be working for the common good, not their own agenda or some other purpose at odds with the reason for any government at all.

Let's consider the following example of how bureaucracy in Public Education occurs in Middletown:

In October, the EYE reported on a dispute between parents and the BOE Transportation Committee over the bus stop at the intersection of Prout Hill Rd and Crystal Lake Rd (read the original post here). Last week, the EYE learned that one of the cases had been appealed to the State Board of Education, and an impartial hearing board remanded the case back to the Middletown BOE Transportation Committee because "The Appellant did not receive reasonable notice of the hearing before the Transportation Sub Committee." (Read the full decision here.)

The heart of the case is that the appellant received notice the day before the hearing was scheduled: while said notice was postmarked November 10th for a November 15th, 8:30am meeting, the appellant didn't get the notice until the 14th. When he called to ask for more time, he was informed that the hearing would go forward because the District's attorney was already on the way and couldn't reschedule. In fact, the appellant wasn't able to be at the meeting at all, and he was, in the words of the hearing board, "denied the opportunity to present a full case, cross exam witnesses or exam documentary evidence." Based on this, the hearing board concluded that:

The Transportation Sub Committee acted in an illegal, arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable manner. C.C.S. 10-186 contemplates a procedure for appeal, which includes a meaningful hearing before the local board of education....The hearing before the Transportation Subcommittee of the Middletown Board of Education was substantive but one-sided. To be meaningful the other party must be heard from and allowed the opportunity to present evidence, call witnesses, cross examine witnesses - in other words to be seen and heard. A notice of one day and denial of a chance for a continuance short-circuited the meaningful hearing before the local board. Email cannot substitute for the physical presence of the parent. The Impartial Hearing Officer finds no fault with the substantive presentation of the Transportation Subcommittee. The Transportation Committee followed the policies of the Board of Education. The procedural issues denying the Appellant an opportunity to participate, however, prevail.

There it is...Insuracare has come to Middletown. Here's where it gets interesting. I emailed BOE Chairman Dr. Nocera to ask how a hearing could proceed if the person the hearing was for couldn't make it. I also couldn't figure out who was on the Transportation Committee because that committee isn't listed on the BOE website. Dr. Nocera forwarded my email to the members of the Transportation Committee (Bill Grady, chair, and Ryan Kennedy) as well as Facilities Director Ken Jackson, Business Manager Nancy Haynes, and Superintendent Michael Frechette for a response.

I first heard from Nancy Haynes, who said the new hearing is set for February 24th. She also commented, "Because this matter involves student records, we are unable to speak about any other details, and the hearings are conducted in Executive Sessions because of student confidentiality laws." When I asked what part of an educational record could possibly be revealed in a bus stop hearing, Haynes replied, "We can't predict in advance what a parent is going to say....sometimes the reason for change request is because of another student, and so we have to protect that student's confidentiality."

I also asked a BOE member who sets hearing dates and times, and I learned that the central office does the scheduling. In particular, Nancy Haynes is responsible for scheduling hearings. When I asked Haynes how the scheduling takes place, she replied, "After a request is received to hold a hearing, we review the state statute on time frames with the Committee Chair and BOE counsel and then post the meeting on behalf of the Committee." Haynes also commented that the State Statute requires that a hearing be held within 10 days of the request (not 10 days of notice for the hearing itself). This answer didn't make much sense to me (October 28 request for a November 15 hearing) until I looked at C.G.S. 10-186 (b) (1) to see that it actually indicates the board, subcommittee, or local impartial hearing board shall give the person a hearing within ten days after receipt of the written request. (This means the hearing just has to be scheduled within 10 days of the request.)

The parent in this case emailed Haynes on October 28, 2011, and notification of a hearing was dated November 10th. Technically, this would have been one day late except for the October Blizzard and lack of electricity and the week off school and so on. The other relevant factor in when the hearing was scheduled was the fact that an election had just taken place and the outgoing BOE members' terms expired on November 15th at noon. Ryan Kennedy, one of the Transportation Committee members, told me that the hearing had been scheduled for the morning of the 15th because "the past committee was very familiar with the issue, " and an entire new committee could have been named.

So what's the point? Well, in the movie, Bob Parr's clients paid for their insurance, but the company did whatever it could to not pay out any claims. Here, in Middletown, parents pay more than 1/2 the town's budget to the Board of Education, but there are multiple cases of parents frustrated at the bureaucracy they must navigate. Not only are you ignored (remember that this case first came to light because no one would schedule a Transportation Hearing), but then it also appears that the process is manipulated against you. I asked Nancy Haynes point blank how this case could go so wrong, and she replied, "I really don't know."

Please don't misunderstand. I know there are plenty of times when the front office gets it right. Middletown has seen an amazing change in CMT scores and overall student performance in the last few years. In fact, the parent involved in this case also blogged about why Middletown should care about the "scream rooms" incident, and he had this to say to the EYE about why he did it:

Regarding the contents of my blogpost: There has been no shortage of events in the recent years to tarnish the image of our schools, which directly effects the entire community in a negative manner as I stated in the blog. The public perception of our school system is poor, which is a shame. There are hundreds of teachers, lower level administrators (principals, vice principals, curriculum directors and department heads) and other employees that work hard every day to provide a safe environment for our children to learn in, and do a fantastic job of providing a top notch public education for our children. Unfortunately, the public image of the system is seen by the public from the top down, not the bottom up. It is my hope that the Middletown BOE as a whole will come to this same conclusion, and make the necessary positive changes in leadership required to correct the negative image so we can all move on from these past issues together, as a community, and change the perception of our schools and the city as a whole to what it should be: A great place to live and work.

I couldn't agree more. However, it takes something like 10 positive experiences to undo a negative one, and it's only been negative out of that part of town for some time. Furthermore, I don't think we have a common definition for the word "transparency" in this town. You don't walk up to a window and ask it what's on the other side: you just look through it. The window doesn't do anything different to be transparent, and it doesn't have to tell you specifically what's behind it. You can just see by virtue of how the window is.

No student confidentiality is compromised by a frank discussion of policy and procedure. Transparency is an attitude and an understanding of who your client is and how best to communicate with him or her. It's not enough to argue that "we're making the best decisions for the kids that we can," when, in practice, it's impossible for parents (the very people who know Middletown children the best) to know or to understand how and when decisions are made. For example: about 3 years ago, when the district cancelled a huge number of bus stops to save on fuel costs, the only indication parents got that something had changed was the bus number on the little card from DATTCO that arrived in the mail the week before school started. A huge uproar followed, and it could have been avoided in part if a letter had gone home much earlier in the summer explaining the changes and why they were happening. Since times and stop locations were now much different than before, parents had to make adjustments in work schedules and other care coordination, and who realistically could do this the week before school starts?

I'm not the only Elastigirl in town, and I do wish that the negative attention would go someplace else. Us "super parents" have to be able to trust the process that manages education in our town, but the last couple of years have been really scary. Furthermore, for any change to occur, it has to be organized and efficient to be effective and lasting, and it needs competent leadership and specific goals. So take a moment and consider one or two very specific and concrete things the BOE or the Central Office could do to communicate better or be more transparent. I don't mean for you to say "communicate better" or "be transparent." I mean something like "List the Transportation Committee on the BOE website and provide a link for requesting a transportation hearing."

Post a reply to this article, or email BOE Chairman Dr. Nocera (genenocera@gmail.com) with your specific suggestions. It follows that if parents expect transparency, government should be able to expect specific feedback on how that transparency is working.

On a happier note, I've heard great things about Farm Hill's interim principal, and I'm hoping to share those details in the next week. Rumor has it the mood has completely changed, and that would be some welcome, happy news that this town desperately needs!