One of my favorite annual events is my “fun day” with my nieces. In place of birthday gifts, they choose activities that we do together for a day. I am fortunate that even as 3rd and 5th graders, they still find me kind of cool (or cool enough to hangout with for a couple hours). Although it is not to the extreme of what happens in the movie “Yes Day”, for those of you that may have seen it, the options of activities are vast.
A couple of weeks ago, my nieces cashed in on their fun day. The main event was going to a trampoline and obstacle park. When we arrived in the early afternoon, I estimated about 250-300 people playing in an area about ⅔ the size of Columbus High School. It was a natural instinct for me to analyze how the park operated. It was interesting to see how each play area was organized and the different “rules”. By no means did the place feel understaffed; however, it was far from overstaffed. Additionally, there were general park rules but not an extensive list of them (note: a possible suggested new rule might be a wait period of 30 minutes before going on the zipline after consuming pizza and slushies—that story is for a different day).
As the day progressed, I was amazed as I watched all the kids at play. There was an interaction that really caught my attention. My nieces were playing on a trampoline into a “crash mat” with about 10 other children. It appeared that no more than 2 children knew each other prior to playing in that area together. Out of the 12 children, there were three main activities that the kids wanted to do when it was their turn. The kids wanted to either a) do a tumbling flip into the mat; b) make a diving catch on the mat as a ball was thrown to them; or c) do a long jump. Comparatively speaking, it was taking a long amount of time for the next person to be able to start their turn. What happened next was interesting. Without any adult intervention, the children collaborated to form a system. They made processes and procedures to become more efficient. They discussed the appropriate exit to use which allowed the next person to go sooner. Additionally, the kids made an agreement that the entire line would do the same activity until they were all through. After everyone got a chance at an activity, each child did one round of the next activity and so on. Interestingly, the kids adapted several times to make it more efficient and all were having fun.
In the Columbus School District, we are motivated to build and maintain a healthy organization. Last month in the newsletter, I wrote about mission, vision, and beliefs. Mission, vision, and beliefs provide the foundational component of purpose and clarity for a healthy organization. My story about our trip to the trampoline park resembles the second component to a healthy school district. School districts must work hard to have alignment while providing autonomy. The way we do that in Columbus is through policy, procedures, and practices. Sometimes those three words come with a negative connotation because they are the “rules''. Our goal is to use policy, procedures, and practices to clarify the boundaries that our stakeholders work within. Within those fences, we hope to provide a chance for students and staff to have autonomy.
We know that in order to be an exceptional place for students to learn and staff to teach, there must be both alignment and autonomy. Just as I learned from the kids at the trampoline park, sometimes the best systems come from authentic experiences.
Mr. Jake Flood
Superintendent
Columbus School District
