We Wonder What Day Our School District Died......

Danville has always been a place that has resisted change. The feeling has been that "home-grown" is the way to go. This is not always a good thing. Sometimes "new ideas" and the dreaded word "change" will help elevate a city above the common belief that the old way is the best way.
This is exactly what has happened to the Danville Public Schools. After several years of outsiders running the district the thought process evolved to a point that an insider, regardless of who it was, could run the district the "Danville way". Unfortunately the pickings were mighty thin at that point in the city's group of candidates and a decision was made to install a person that had been swimming in the shallow end of the intellectual pool.
That was the day the district began to die.
Danville was already suffering from the pains and muscle spasms of a city that had already experienced a Katrina-like economic hurricane. A long term employer, Dan River, was removed from life support and allowed to gasp for breath and slowly sink out of sight. Tobacco, the areas other economic lifeline, has succumbed to a barrage of public health attacks and competition from foreign suppliers. There was a huge "sucking sound" as jobs were vacuumed up and shipped overseas. The city intelligentsia scrambled to rebuild the economy with words such as "nanotechnology" and "information based economy". The wheels churned, the whistles blew, the great new Danville started its chug up the long hill slowly repeating "I know I can. I know I can.....".
Laying silent like a dormant volcano was Danville Public Schools. Down but not out. Enrollment had dropped like a rock, free lunch rates inched upward as the district made its painful transition to an urban district. After several years of rocky leadership a partially new school board (the seven dwarfs......you can guess who Grumpy and Dopey are.....) stood on the bow of the good ship DPS and proudly announced "we're king of the world...." with a new leader. Danville Public Schools were saved! Unknown at that time, but widely suspected, the emperor had no clothes.
Despite all the hoopla and fanfare the district employees soon realized homegrown was for tomatoes and not school leaders. Morale started a deep nose dive as the district became more and more confused as to what kind of animal it was. The spin doctors worked hard and long to put on a face of "Everything is ok. Just don't drink the water!" The central office became the palace of the queen and all subjects were to swear allegiance and walk in step or be banished to the outside of the walls of the castle. The inner circle had spoken. The queen brought more and more clones in until the central office resembled a form of the Matrix. And the school board, like the band on the Titanic, kept playing the same tune assuring everyone that all was well.
The district' heart began to miss beats.......
As the months passed the schools became more and more confused as the walls slowly crumbled. Edicts were passed down from the ivory tower without thought or reason. Money was hemorrhaging out of central office as the leaders in training tried to put fingers in the holes in the dike. Test scores were massaged, manipulated, and spun to create a sense that all was ok. But high in the tower all was not well. "Drown them with policies! That should keep their mind off the test scores", rattled the queen. And so like a perverted Harry Potter movie the walls of the palace grew and changed, doors shrinking so only the select few could enter.
And the district developed a clot.......
The Merlin's of the district came up with a new idea. "Let's combine schools that are failing, change their names, and restart the clock for accreditation ". The leaders sat back and smiled, the kingdom will survive. Unknown to them however was the fact that the subjects were not as dimwitted as they thought. Teachers, students, and the last few effective leaders abandoned the district and jumped over the moat to Pittsylvania County and retirement. Some simply gave up, some ran to escape the flames, some just wanted a queen or a king who cared about them.
The district was put on life support..........
Again the seven dwarfs simply whistled "Hi Ho Hi Ho Its off to oblivion we go......." The queen and her court gathered in their new palace and wrung their hands. How can we blame all the problems on the past when our reign has become over two years old! "I know", said the queen, "Throw more money at it!" And so it moves on, the queen scrambling, the seven dwarfs burying themselves in policies, and the children suffering.
And the district gasped its last breath..................

Where it may seem like a bad fairy tale it is true. Only a reincarnation can save the schools. But the Grimm brothers are dead and there doesn't seem to be anyone to write a new chapter. Is there a J. K. Rowling out there?

Next: How can they operate the district this way?