The Blueberry Story, or Why Public Schools aren’t a Business

THE BLUEBERRY STORY
A Businessman Learns a Lesson by Jamie Robert Vollmer
“If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn’t be in business very long!” I stood before an auditorium filled with outraged teachers who were becoming angrier by the minute. My speech had entirely consumed their precious 90 minutes of in-service. Their initial icy glares had turned to restless agitation. You could cut the hostility with a knife.
I represented a group of business people dedicated to improving public schools. I was an executive at an ice cream company that became famous in the middle 1980s when People Magazine chose our blueberry as the “Best Ice Cream in America .”
I was convinced of two things. First, public schools needed to change; they were archaic selecting and sorting mechanisms designed for the industrial age and out of step with the needs of our emerging “knowledge society.” Second, educators were a major part of the problem: they resisted change, hunkered down in their feathered nests, protected by tenure and shielded by a bureaucratic monopoly.
They needed to look to business. We knew how to produce quality. Zero defects! TQM! Continuous improvement! In retrospect, the speech was perfectly balanced — equal parts ignorance and arrogance.
As soon as I finished, a woman’s hand shot up. She appeared polite, pleasant — she was, in fact, a razor-edged, veteran, high school English teacher who had been waiting to unload.
She began quietly, “We are told, sir, that you manage a company that makes good ice cream.” I smugly replied , “Best ice cream in America , Ma’am.”
“How nice,” she said. “Is it rich and smooth?”
“Sixteen percent butterfat,” I crowed.
“Premium ingredients?” she inquired.
“Super-premium! Nothing but triple A.” I was on a roll. I never saw the next line coming.
“Mr. Vollmer,” she said, leaning forward with a wicked eyebrow raised to the sky, “when you are standing on your receiving dock and you see an inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?”
In the silence of that room, I could hear the trap snap. I was dead meat, but I wasn’t going to lie. “I send them back.”
“That’s right!” she barked, “and we can never send back our blueberries. We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant.
We take them all: GT, ADHD, ADD, SLD, EI, MMR, OHI, TBI, DD, Autistic, junior rheumatoid arthritis, English as their second language, etc. We take them all! Everyone! And that, Mr. Vollmer, is why it’s not a business. It’s school!”
In an explosion, all 290 teachers, principals, bus drivers, aides, custodians and secretaries jumped to their feet and yelled, “Yeah! Blueberries! Blueberries!”
And so began my long transformation. Since then, I have visited hundreds of schools. I have learned that a school is not a business. Schools are unable to control the quality of their raw material, they are dependent upon the vagaries of politics for a reliable revenue stream, and they are constantly mauled by a howling horde of disparate, competing customer groups that would send the best CEO screaming into the night.
None of this negates the need for change. We must change what, when, and how we teach to give all children maximum opportunity to thrive in a postindustrial society. But educators cannot do this alone; these changes can occur only with the understanding, trust, permission and active support of the surrounding community. For the most important thing I have learned is that schools reflect the attitudes, beliefs and health of the communities they serve, and therefore, to improve public education means more than changing our schools, it means changing America .
Please forward THE BLUEBERRY STORY to teachers, parents, politicians and everyone interested in education.
Have a great day!

“Go Public! Great Schools Are Everybody’s Business”

After planning, strategizing, talking and listening to school leaders, parents and concerned community members, a new group founded in Cleveland Heights is ready to act.  Newly named, “Go Public! Great Schools are Everybody’s Business,” will hit the ground running this month with a book and magazine drive for grades K-5 held from April 15 – May 15 throughout the community. “We thought a book and magazine drive would be a perfect vehicle to involve the community in helping our schools,” said Joan Spoerl, who has brought many people together with the idea of more community involvement in our public schools.

For the past several months Spoerl has gained support and momentum from the community using the book that inspired her, How to Walk to School: Blueprint for a Neighborhood School Renaissance, by Jacqueline Edelberg and Susan Kurland. “This model extends an outline for thinking big and doing better, for more effectively mobilizing and organizing our community to support our schools and the students who attend them,” said Spoerl.

Go Public! will work with teachers, reading specialists, PTA and families at every elementary school to collect and distribute books and magazines to students who will benefit most. Just in time for spring cleaning, gently used books and magazines will be collected in marked boxes placed in CH-UH schools, local coffee houses, grocery stores, and the Cleveland Heights Library on Lee Road. If your business, church or temple would like to host a collection bin, contact the number below.

If you don’t have gently used books to donate but would still like to participate, you can donate books through an Usborne Books & More online book fair at www.ubah.com/BF45673. All proceeds will go to the school district to promote summer reading. Whether buying books for yourself, as gifts, or for the district, all purchases will contribute towards additional free books for the district.

For book fair donations to be sent directly to the district, use the following mailing address when ordering: CH-UH City School District, Attn: Kelly Stukus, 2155 Miramar Boulevard, University Heights, OH 44118-3397.

And if you haven’t already seen the “Volunteer Match” column in this issue, Go Public! is partnering with Reaching Heights and the Heights Observer to pair schools and other organizations with volunteers from the community.

Kim Bischof, the science coach at Fairfax Elementary, would like help with gardening projects at the school. If interested, please call the school at 216-371-7480 or k_bischof@chuh.org

Fairfax Elementary also needs 2 tutors per day from 3:30-4:00 pm to help students with homework in the after school program. Contact Mrs. Stringer 216-371-7480 or j_stringer@chuh.org

“These are just the first steps on our journey to involve the community in supporting and improving our schools,” said Spoerl. Go Public! will focus on five different areas of support: improving physical environments; curriculum review; outreach and communications; family support; and building bridges between school and community.

Volunteers are needed for the book drive! If you are interested in volunteering for the book drive, would like a bin for your business or want to find out other ways you can get involved in Go Public! Great Schools are Everybody’s Business, call 371-3753 or e-mail: joanspoerl@sbcglobal.net.

The CH-UH summer reading lists are a great place to find a list of approrpiate books.

The list for grades K-2 is here, and the list for grades 3-5 is here.

Congratulations 2011 Spelling Bee Champs OOPSALA!

2011 Reaching Heights Spelling Bee Champions Beth Woodside, Kathleen Collins, and Lisa Boyko

2011 Reaching Heights Spelling Bee emcee Steve Presser, owner of Big Fun, and pronouncer Nancy Levin, director of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library

2011 Friend of Public Education Awardee Susie Kaeser with Reaching Heights executive director Patrick Mullen.

Thank you. I am pleased to receive the Friend of Public Education award.
It’s great to be honored for something I really like about my life: I like being a friend of public education and the CH-UH public schools. Who wouldn’t want to be friends with an institution that is inclusive, that gathers its strength and moral purpose from being for everyone?
Who wouldn’t want to be friends with a community of teachers, administrators and families that are joined together to help with the development of young people?
Who wouldn’t want to be friends with the people who are collaborating and using their best impulses to prepare each of their students to become citizens who make our communities strong and our democracy work?
If you haven’t already found a way to be friends with public education, I encourage you to get started. It’s easy to do. First, just by being here and enjoying the spelling bee you are showing support for our schools.
A good way to start is to go inside a school and check it out. It’s easy to help, and even easier just to enjoy the children. You can also speak out about why schools are valuable and need our support. By the way, THE STATE LEGISLATURE needs to hear from you right now about their misguided attack on EDUCATORS. You can always support Reaching Heights too.
I think the easiest and most direct way to be a good public education friend is to let the people who work with our children- teachers, counselors, coaches, administrators, bus drivers, custodians – let them know that you have high expectations for what they can achieve, that you value their work, that you appreciate the complexity of meeting every child where they are, and that you want them to be proud of their profession.
If you do any of these things, you will experience what I have experienced, a lot of good will, many new friends, and an enriched life.
Thank you.