Brainerd (Minn.) Independent School District Superintendent Steve Razidlo has never met California entrepreneur Glenn Llopsis, but the two couldn’t be closer when it comes to solving a problem.
Llopsis, a business consultant who writes for Forbes magazine about leadership and workplace innovation, once opined that the four most effective ways leaders solve problems are through transparent communications, breaking down silos, being open-minded and having a solid foundational strategy.
That’s exactly what Razidlo has done in preparing for the various transportation challenges that come when northern Minnesota has brutal winter conditions and temperatures plummet below minus-30 degrees.
“We don’t start talking about canceling school or delaying the start until it looks like we’re going to have six inches of snow or temperatures of 25-below,” said Kala Henkensiefken, the district’s transportation director.
But the district, which operates 93 routes over more than 500 square miles, does start talking very early in the year with a wide range of entities about winter before the first snowflake falls.
“This is one of the first events we look at for school safety when we open the doors in August,” Razidlo said. “It’s one of those 90-days-out things we start to plan on and prepare (for) right away.”
The first meeting in 2007, prompted by a late-spring snowstorm the previous school year, took place that October. It was a meeting of the minds between Razidlo, Henkensiefken and L.C. “Curt” Reichert, general manager of the district’s bus contractor Reichert Bus Service in Baxter.
“Whether or not it started as a reaction to a challenging storm, (meeting) has still been a great investment and it makes people more comfortable going into the winter,” Razidlo explained.
The planning group has grown considerably since. Members include the superintendent, dispatchers, transportation directors and superintendents from smaller nearby districts, the Crow Wing County Sheriff ’s Department, area police chiefs, city engineering department representatives, county maintenance leadership, township officials, district technology and media directors, a Minnesota Department of Transportation official and a National Weather Service representative.
How does the district assemble such a large and diverse group?
“A free lunch does a lot,” Razidlo laughed. “In all seriousness, we extended invitations in hopes of creating a stronger region.”
Henkensiefken added that the group is representative of neighborly “Minnesota nice” teamwork.
“We want to make sure if we’re taking their time over the lunch hour, that we’re giving them something to eat. It’s a relaxed atmosphere because we want the conversation to be very open,” she said.
Razidlo led previous meetings but departed for a new job in Austria over the summer. He left a strong system in place for his successor.
Now led by Henkensiefken, this year’s meeting was held as a powerful storm rocked the district just three days into the new school year, dropping three inches of rain, downing trees and knocking out power.
Participants talk through the process and identified contacts for each entity. New leaders are welcomed. Contact email addresses and phone numbers are updated. Plowing schedules are reviewed. Any changing traffic patterns, the district’s prerecorded-message process and new bus schedules are discussed. The day-of-a-storm communication process is spelled out and tweaked.
“Putting a name with a face is very helpful. We have an open line of communication all the way around. If we see a roadway with issues later on, we have a direct contact. We know who to call. They know us and we
know them,” Henkensiefken said.
Razidlo said working closely with the National Weather Service “tightened the loop,” while expanding the number of people on the ground to gauge road conditions around the district increased the amount of information available to make the right decision about closing or delaying start times.
“The consultation we’re now getting from the county plow drivers has been crucial,” he added.
When bus drivers expressed concerns a few years ago about snow accumulation on specific routes, the Crow Wing Highway Department changed its plowing schedule to improve safety.
Reichert lauded the clear decision-making protocol and the “constant line of communication 24/7” between various agencies, school officials and the contractor in the face of inclement weather.
“We’re all focused on a single goal. We have an idea exactly what we’re going to be facing and what we’re going to do if it happens,” Reichert said.
MORE THAN SNOW
Tim Ammon of School Bus Consultants, LLC of Annapolis, Md., praised the Brainerd approach as a “terrific model,” particularly for its level of collaboration and the amount of information that goes into the “go or no-go” decision.
He noted, however, that there’s a distinct nationwide bias of considering weather preparedness as mainly an issue about winter snow. “The fact that we’re talking about it this time of the year underscores that point,” he said. “We need to make sure we’re looking at the bigger picture.”
In fact, in August he had just returned from Hawaii, where two hurricanes had put schools’ emergency preparedness plans to the test. He said he believes districts should have plans for a wide range of potential weather and weather-related issues, which could involve anything from a chemical leak exacerbated by shifting winds to flooding in normally parched areas due to wildfires.
Citing another Hawaii example, Ammon said the company’s staff found itself working with local school officials in September to adapt to issues created by a volcano flow. “It may not exactly be weather, but it is Mother Nature,” he added.
Ammon said School Bus Consultants works with clients on a wide range of issues, including helping districts design their approach to making weather decisions. He noted that districts with a public transit component typically face the greatest challenges when adapting to weather events. In-day cancellations pose the most difficult problems because of the comparative inflexibility of routes, he said.
“This makes it imperative to make the right decision at the start of the day. It’s more incumbent on the transportation decision-making group to really know what they’re looking at because the worst thing in the world is to have kids stranded and no way to get home,” Ammon said.
Regardless, he added that leaders can expect to be “50 percent wrong 100 percent of the time” because people will always question why classes were cancelled or not.
“We try to design policy around measurable criteria so there is a rationale to the decision and it doesn’t appear arbitrary. Parents care about consistency,” Ammon explained.
YEAR-ROUND BENEFITS
Meanwhile, Henkensiefken noted that the improved communication has, indeed, produced year-round benefits. “The relationship carries over to our construction season. City and county entities will contact my office about any construction and how it will impact routes or summer school. They give us plenty of notice so we can notify parents or reroute buses,” she explained.
She and Razidlo agreed that relationships between various entities have been strengthened to the point where the groups have even supported each other on proposed legislation, such as their opposition to a biodiesel mandate that was impractical because of the area’s frigid temperatures.
Like Ammon, Razidlo said it’s not just districts in harsh winter states that can benefit from “a similar group of committed entities talking together.” He cited the deadly mudslide that devastated Oso, Washington in March and ice storms that paralyzed the Deep South.
“Seeing the tragedy in Washington and the roads covered with mud and debris, I wondered what those folks do to take precautions in mudslide season. I had a conversation with a mother who spent 12 hours trying to get home with her two children in Atlanta, where they didn’t get sand down on the roads,” Razidlo said. “Different weather and different places engender different conversations and different players around the table but it’s still under the guise of what do we want to do, what can we do better, what are we looking out for, and what good can come from talking back and forth.”
Razildo acknowledged that superintendents also must cope with political constituencies.
“It can be lonely being the superintendent, and this is helpful with the school board, too. Elected officials often field a lot of calls,” he said. “When we can say we consulted with all these entities before coming to a decision, parents and drivers feel more comfortable with it. (Area superintendents) don’t always mirror each other’s decisions, but having a seat at the table has promoted greater similarity and it takes some of the heat out of any decision we do make.”
He noted that the creation of a weather- preparation group doesn’t need to be a top-down proposition.
“Wherever the germ can come from to say ‘let’s sit around and talk’ lays the foundation for the times you have hastier or pressured conversations,” he said. “Any leader can call people together if there’s a perceived benefit to doing it.”
