DEAR DAWG,

The five superintendents in our county agreed to a solemn pact. On days when the weather was an issue, we would get together on a conference call at 5:00 a.m. and we would make a collective decision. Either we all shut down, or we all go to school—but we all do the same thing. Well! Last week we had our early morning call and we all agreed—we ALL agreed, Dawg—that we would shut it down for the day. The forecast was horrendous. So I put the word out to my schools and expected the others to do the same. Well, it turns out that the supe at Wayabovenormal ISD reneged. They had school that day. And as it turns out, our weather forecast was way off base. The sleet and ice never came, and by noon it was 55 degrees. We could have had school, should have had school, and didn’t need to cancel the track meet.   Bottom line: their superintendent looks like a genius while the other four of us look like the Marx Brothers. We got bombarded with angry phone calls and emails from parents who had to take off work or pay a sitter to watch the kids.

So we are wondering what we can do about our lying, two-faced, hypocritical colleague who went back on his word. We don’t like the guy anyway, Dawg, we never did. He keeps throwing his PhD in our face, like this makes him superior to us. It doesn’t help that his school outperforms all of us in athletics and academics. We know that’s true, but we think it has a whole lot more to do with the income level in that district rather than his so-called “leadership.” What can we do? We went to the media with this, but that didn’t turn out so well. Mr. “I Have a PhD. and You Don’t” released a statement in response: “In Wayabovenormal ISD we rely on the latest and most accurate weather forecasts so that we can ensure student safety and cancel classes only when necessary. We are aware of the hardship last minute cancellations can cause and we care too much about our parents and students to impose any unnecessary hardships. If the other districts in the county had followed our lead, as they do in all other matters, we would not be having this conversation. Unfortunately, my colleagues in the other districts relied on groupthink and fear, rather than science.” So what other recourse do we have here?
--NOT TOO HAPPY WITH THE WEATHER MAN EITHER.

DEAR NOT TOO HAPPY: Well, you can kick the guy out of your group. You can organize a guerrilla campaign of PIA requests that will tie up his staff’s time. But your best option is to get a better football coach and beat them next year—there’s nothing like a smackdown on the gridiron to cause a superintendent’s leadership skills to be called into question. Best of luck, and let’s hope for good weather the rest of the year.

DAWG BONES: SOME PEOPLE JUST CAN’T BE TRUSTED.

 HEY READERS! MOST OF YOU ARE ON SPRING BREAK NEXT WEEK, BUT THE DAWG WILL STILL BE AT WORK. CHECK IN WITH US, AND OTHER THAN THAT—ENJOY YOUR BREAK!