When you are a part of the leadership team for a pair of organizations for over thirty years, you have the opportunity to meet and hire a lot of people. Some work out and others don’t. If you do a good job during screening most of your moves are positive.
I met Stacie and her husband, Doug, about a year before I hired her. They were attending an open house to learn more about the school that their girls would attend. I like them right away, but never dreamed that she would work for me one day. I’ve always said that the best hire I ever made was Stacie.
When I met her she was working at Lazy Boy in Monroe, Michigan. As a mother of two young girls, she wanted a job that would align with their school schedule and she was willing to take a pay cut to accomplish her goal. She lived in Britton a few blocks away from the school, so when we posted a new clerical position she applied.
I never interviewed people by myself. I always included staff members who would be working with the new employee. Teachers helped hire teachers, office employees helped with office interviews, coaches with coaches, etc. During my tenure as both a principal and superintendent, I always listened to others, but exercised my right to overrule potential hires that I didn’t see becoming a “good fit”.
I remember rejecting one teacher candidate during my time in Addison. She spoke negatively regarding the teacher’s union during her interview with me. I thought that she was trying to impress me by negating the union. She said, “I’ll pay the required dues, but I won’t be an active member.” She ended up being the number one choice of the teachers who took part in the interview process, but I exercised my veto power because she never expressed her aversion to the union to her potential teaching colleagues. It didn’t seem to be a “good fit”.
When we hired Stacie in Britton, we used a similar process. There were others who applied with prior school experience, but Stacie’s position with Lazy Boy required her to do everything that she would be asked to do in Britton. She had all of the skills required for the job, lived in town, had two girls who would be coming to school in Britton, was everyone on the interview team’s first choice, and she was the best looking candidate. She was a “perfect fit”.
Her position was a new one. Our special education population was increasing, and we added a regional room which accepted students from other districts. This population required additional documentation and we were failing as an institution to document everything as required. We were in danger of losing State funding because we were “out of compliance”, and I didn’t want that to happen. I presented the need to the Board of Education, and they followed my recommendation.
My initial directive to Stacie was straight forward. “We are in a bad place. We need to get out of it and never return. We need to get this fixed. And when I say we , I mean you.” She did it. She studied what needed to be done, developed a corrective action plan, and got us out of trouble. She saved our bacon.
A couple of years into her tenure we placed a bond issue before the community. I asked Doug to head the committee that would work to help get the bond issue passed. He accepted. He had a great presence in the community. Stacie and Doug were active in their church, had two young girls attending the school, and Doug was a Washtenaw County Deputy. He worked hard and the bond issue passed.
One day, near the end of my time in Britton, Stacie came to me with a problem. She didn’t come often, so when she spoke, I gave her my undivided attention. The only times she came to me was when she had a conflict with a fellow employee. She didn’t want me to do anything. She just wanted my approval before taking on the problem herself. Most people want you to do something for them. Stacie didn’t need my help, but she did seek my permission in case there was fallout after the fact. I always said, “Ok”, and there was never any fallout. I appreciated her initiative and the “heads up” that she provided. She did her job and dealt with potentially explosive issues on her own. I appreciated that.
This time was different. She did indeed need some help. We had a foreign exchange student from Brazil who was unhappy with her placement. The host family wasn’t treating her appropriately, and Stacie wanted to know if I could help.
I brought the young lady into my office and asked her several questions. Stacie sat and listened. I knew the family that she had been placed with and wondered silently how such a placement could have been made. Stacie had the contact information for the agency overseeing the placement, and I promised to look into it.
I spent several hours that day making calls and bringing my concerns to the attention to anyone who would listen. Each call brought me closer to a conclusion that I believed would be best for the student. The agency agreed to remove her from the host home but needed to identify another, more suitable, placement.
I shared my success and new dilemma with Stacie, and that’s when she said, “She can live with us. I need to give Doug a call, but I’m sure it will be alright.”
And so it was. The family of four started their day together just as they had started thousands of days before, and by the time their day ended, they were a family of five. She had a great experience in Britton. She arrived thirteen years ago as a single teenager and she has two families now, one in Britton and one in Brazil. Everyone’s lives are enriched because Stacie and her loving family took her in.