Stumbling Through Work
Working in education is to stumble through your everyday! We love what we do, but staff, families, policies, regulations and sometimes even the children make us quit everyday then come back the next day. Just remember, you are not in this alone.
Stumbling Through Work
Exploitation, Fraud, Weed, and Late Pickups
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Welcome to Stumbling Through Work, where educators figure shit out. I'm your host, jarek Huff, and I'm here to explore and share the complexities of our work and let you know you are not alone. Before we start, though, please follow this podcast and share episodes with others. You can find me on my website, wwwjarekhuffcom, where you can find links to my social media and where I share information and tips for educators. Now let's jump into today's episode. Hey team, welcome to another episode of Stumbling Through Work where educators figure shit out In our news corner. Today, I'm actually going to share an article with you that actually has a news story attached to it from the previous week, and so I'm going to share that first, to catch you up on the second story.
Speaker 2:Oregon State auditors are raising serious red flags about how money is being spent in a major preschool program. A new report reveals significant waste and calls for urgent changes. The audit reveals more than 1.4 million dollars in potentially wasteful payments tied to Oregon's preschool promise program. The money was meant to help low-income families access early childhood education. Auditors say that some providers received grants for classrooms that had little to no students. One site funded for 36 slots only enrolled one child. Investigators also found $150,000 went to sites that weren't even open and another $1.5 million in improper payments because of missing or late expense reports. The audit, prompted by a tip to the Government Accountability Hotline, includes 13 recommendations for fixing oversight gaps. The Department of Early Learning and Care has already begun reforms, but auditors are warning that more changes are needed to prevent future waste.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I had to give you that back story to get to the story today, which is crazy that people are just wasting millions of dollars. So the story goes as you know, this happened in Oregon. Leslie Barnes, now the former director of preschool and early learning at Mahogany County because I can't even say that learning at Mahogany County resigned July 31st. Her resignation came less than two days after a story revealed Barnes' preschool had collected $833,494 from the state to serve just nine children and then, as of July 30th, no children to serve just nine children and then, as of July 30th, no children.
Speaker 1:Barnes owns North Portland Preschool, village Child Care Enterprise LLC, which was funded by the state preschool promise program through the 2022-2023 school year to serve low-income children. It reported that the Oregon Secretary of State's office had flagged her preschool in an investigation of wasteful preschool promise spending. The revelation raised questions about the conflict of interest and her management of public dollars. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It goes on and on, and on and on and on. Okay, let's break this down, as we usually do. Okay, let's break this down as we usually do. First, leslie Barnes, they got all your business out here. We know you by government name. We know the name of your LLC, we know what state. We got all your business, leslie, and we're going to talk about you just for a little bit.
Speaker 1:But $833,494 for nine children, I mean that is a lot of money, that is not. That wasn't like whoops, my bad, I didn't know. Like that is a lot of money. Like she got her a good Camry, y'all with that 800,000. She got her a good Camry with the leather seats, camry, y'all with that 800,000. She got her a good Camry with the leather seats, the GPS. She said give me the moon roof. I don't want the sunroof, I want the moon roof. She got the entire Camry package for $800,000. Like that is an insane amount of money. And then at the end you just had no kids. You just said just give me the coins.
Speaker 1:But the thing is, what people don't realize is they for some reason think that they're and I mean I understand why they think that there's a lot of money in child care and it is and it's not. And I'm gonna go more with this. Not because if you are exploiting the children, then yes, you can get a lot of money if you're just taking them and not giving anything back, but if you're actually putting things back the way that's supposed to be. If you're using a research based curricula, if you I mean I hope you are. If you're not, you're just making up shit I highly recommend against that. I highly recommend against that. But if you are, I mean the materials, everything that comes along with that. You know the center based activities that you may actually, you know, live off of not giving them the 13 an hour, which is really sad. But you know, if you've been doing this for 20 years and you're making 14 an hour, there's something wrong with that. Those things actually require money and if you're putting that money back into the business, it's not as fruitful as people think that it is. It really isn't.
Speaker 1:And hearing that this money was there to serve low-income children, it just hurts when you think about it, because you're taking from the community, taking from the community. These low-end communities suffer because everyone is exploiting them. Everyone is taking from them. They're taking this from them, they're taking that, they're taking this and, as you're taking from the community, nobody is putting anything back into the community. So all you're doing is taking and taking, and taking and taking. No one's putting anything back. And then you wonder why it is a low income area because no one is trying to revitalize it's. It's really disheartening how this happens. And you are here with the honda, with the armor, all on the tire, shining, yet where you work, at the people that you're supposed to be given back to, you're just taking from.
Speaker 1:For me, it's the july 28th, you, an investigation is open and then you resign three days until that, you know, investigation. Now here's the weird part. For me, she's the owner, but she's the director as well, which is very common. A lot of owners are the directors. Usually, if they have one school, they're the director as well. But then if she resigned as director, you, girl, that ain't stopping you. You still own the business. What you think is it's going to disappear because you're not the director. Nah, they're still coming for you, boo. The fbi, the cia, the local law enforcement, the sheriffs, ice, they all coming for you, boo, uh, whether you decide to resign or not as the director, that you still own the company, like. I mean, I guess you could file like a bankruptcy or something, but, girl, they're coming for you. So I don't know, that was just theatrics to try to get yourself out of the heat.
Speaker 1:But, leslie Barnes, we see you and we know what you're doing and I think we all know places that tend to exploit their children, that I kind of wonder why the families are there. And, before people say it, I know plenty of childcare facilities that cater to the underserved community, to low economic areas and do right. So the places that do wrong, that's what I question. Like, why are you taking your kids there when there's a place around the corner that actually gives back? My schools are some of those where we are in low economic areas and we give great quality we put back into our schools. We want to make sure that when our children leave us that they are successful. We're around the corner for some really shithole places and I'm wondering why are y'all there? Why? Why tell me why y'all don't even have toys. Y'all out there in the grass and in the dirt playing with kitchen spoons. Please explain to me and I am not even making that up y'all. Please explain to me why you enroll your children there. Maybe they just don't know better. But you know I'm not above going to and passing out flyers to parents in the parking lots of other places, because you know I do stuff like that. But you know, poor Leslie Barnes. We know you, we see you, girl, and we are not supporting you from taking from your community and not giving back. And on that note, we'll be right back. We all want our schools or programs to be the best and although every school is different, all successful programs have the same fundamentals. Best Practices for High-Quality Preschool, afterschool and Enrichment Programs by Jarek Huff share standards to foster a high-quality program. These tips will help you put your best service forward, focusing on your children, families and communities.
Speaker 1:No-transcript. Hey team, we are back with our director. Questions for today. Question 1. I have a person who has scheduled tours and has had to cancel and reschedule three times. It's tricky because they can only come at a certain time, a time when staff does lunch breaks and I need to readjust schedules so I can accommodate them. I have a waiting list right now and otherwise I will do everything to try to accommodate them.
Speaker 1:This was such a confusing question. My first thought was well, girl, if you stay ready, you ain't got to get ready. It is what it is. If you on, then you on. You shouldn't have times where you can tour at this time and in times I can't do it. No, if you stay ready, get ready. But my next thought was if you have a waiting list, that means you don't need them. So why are you on the internet, wasting all of our time? You don't need these people, so why are you even stressed about it? You need to go and have some real problems. I mean, if they come, they come, they don't, they don't you. You don't really need them. You just wasting all of our eyesight here on the internet. So we're gonna move on to the next question internet bottle question. I say internet because the woman that got me worked up.
Speaker 1:Infant bottle question. Okay, as the title says, we have a three a 10-month-old in our infant room who started two to three weeks ago. His oldest sister was in the infant room three years ago. During this time, dad came in for pickup a few times smelling of weed, but her bottles never did. Now dad and mom haven't smelt of weed at drop-off or pickup. He uses the baby he. He uses breast milk and it is a very strong weed smell now in the bottles. Could it be that his mom is smoking and it's getting into his milk? Our director is on vacation and I'm the assistant director. We let our director know and she said that she'll see what the next steps are. I'm worried that the teacher will get in trouble for knowingly giving giving an infant a bottle that smells like weed. Our director didn't say not to give it to his, but to tell his parents to bring in new milk. Does anyone know what the rules are for this sort of thing? We are in Oregon dang, oregon is popping today. We are in Oregon. My gut is telling me not to give it to him and report it to licensing cps asap.
Speaker 1:First off, I want to know what did you do? Like I need a follow-up, like what did you do? But for me it's really simple. I think people make things super complicated. Just talk to the family. I will say excuse me, dad, whatever his name is, hopefully. I mean, look at his name first. Don't call him dad because he's not your daddy. Another conversation for another time. But I would say you know, if dad name is, you know ron. Uh, hey, ron, let me talk to you for a minute when you drop off. I just want to let you know that the baby that's jeremiah. We'll call him jeremiah. I just want to let you know that jeremiah's bottle smells like weed.
Speaker 1:I didn't want to say it in front of everybody. So I just wanted to pull you to the side, but we did not give it to him. Or can you come back and bring? Can mom bring some more? Just because it does smell like weed? And we definitely can't do that. See how easy and simple that was.
Speaker 1:People make shit complicated. Oh, do I need? I don't know what to do. No, just have a conversation one-on-one. They will respect you and you are telling them your boundaries and your expectations. To basically say don't come in here and do that shit again. Be aware, because people that smoke don't realize that they, that other people that don't smoke can smell it because they're kind of like inoculated to it. They smell it. They don't smell it themselves. So to have that conversation is definitely needed. So just have that conversation, girl, and just keep it going, okay, and here's our third pickup. I mean, here's our third question.
Speaker 1:Hi, all just wanted your advice on how to deal with a parent who is constantly picking up their child at 5.55 every day when we close at 6. It's been three weeks now and her excuse is I'm moving into a new apartment. Mind you, she is pregnant and not working. It's my week to close all of next week and my son attends the center with me. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Crying emoji, red heart emoji.
Speaker 1:Why is this woman on the internet with this question? If you close at 555 I mean if she picks up at 555 and y'all don't close at six, I'm trying to see what the problem is. It doesn't make sense to me. And then why do you need to throw in? Oh, she's pregnant and not working. And if she's paying for it and y'all close at six? I'm trying to figure out what the issue is. This sounds like you just trying to cut work early. If your closing time is six, your closing time is six. That's your business hours. Your business hours don't change based off of how you feel for that day. That's how you start giving out terrible quality of business.
Speaker 1:And then my thing is even if you say you know what she's picking up late and actually got a fun story for that, what happens when somebody calls that wants to enroll at five, fifty, seven, they're just out of luck because you said I'm just done for the day. No, no, get that shit out of here, because I actually had something like that happen before and I went off Like I was pissed off because they were calling someone to say hey, just so you know we're closing in about 15 minutes. Who does that? They know what time they close and they always there on time. Don't do that. That is so tacky. I try to remember the exact conversation, but I know me. So it went something like this Don't do that, that's tacky.
Speaker 1:If we close at this time, that's the time that we close. If they're late, then you will call them to say hey, you are late, and then we're going to add on that late fee charge. Don't ever call someone before it, before we are closed, to say that we're about to close. Ever call someone before it, before we are closed, to say that we're about to close. That is unacceptable and it's not going to happen again. I'm pretty sure that's how the conversation went with me. Because don't don't do that, dear lady. Lady, whoever you are, go, and if you in that big of a hurry, then you need to leave. When that last kid leaves, that means everything needs to be clean. You be ready to go. So when they pick up at six o'clock, when she picked up at five, 55, when that clock hits six, you ready to walk out immediately at six o'clock. Be ready, but don't be trying to leave the business early. Don't, don't. Don't do that. If you know somebody that does the same thing, send this to them so that they can hear me. Cuss them out as well, and we'll be right back.
Speaker 1:I love sharing information with educators and program administrators. I have had so many successes, but also so many failures, in my education tenure. I want leaders to know what not to do, but better than that, what to do, so I decided to write a helpful guide Best Practices for Center and Activity Directors. It's short and to the point. It's a compass to guide education leaders. These best practices will give you a foundation to lead your school program or organization. You can find Best Practices for Center, program and Activity Directors by Jared Clough on Amazon or Amazon Kindle.
Speaker 1:Okay, here is our interview corner for the day. You ask the question, describe your work style, and then they respond with well, you know I wing it until shit hits the fan and then I'll put it out. I'm like somewhere between procrastination and panic, but I always meet my deadlines. Do not hire this person, but you know what Some of y'all will, because you always hire out of desperation. But what the question you're asking is. Question you're asking is do you like to work alone? Do you like to work as part of a team? Sometimes someone may prefer one or the other, but it helps you gauge in exactly what you want from this person. You're asking are you comfortable with minimum direction? You're asking do you need lots of direction before completing a task? These are all the things that you want to know when you're asking the question describe your work style.
Speaker 1:When someone's responding, I want to hear are they organized within there? I want to hear if they work quickly or not. I would love to hear that they're a multitasker, but that's something also that you may want to hear Do they enjoy taking on extra projects? And also that you may want to hear Do they enjoy taking on extra projects? Now, I feel like everybody say that shit, but nobody wants extra work. But you know it's nice to hear somebody lie to you in your face when they say that. But are they a great planner? Are they, you know, consistently trying to increase their abilities to do their jobs? That's what I want to hear whenever I ask someone about their work style. But, like I said, if someone responds and says they just let shit hit the fan and well, it is what it is and at least I beat my deadline to do not hire them. Do not hire them, but you will and we'll be right back and we'll be right back. If you're trying to tour and enroll new families or create a foundation for a high quality program or just be a better leader, the best practice series books by Jarek Huff found on Amazon can help you in your program. Okay, we're back.
Speaker 1:Last week I was telling you all about a parent problem and I said that I would follow up. So here's the follow up. If you remember, the parent came in on the Friday afternoon, was waiting for an hour and a half, tried to have an impromptu meeting when there was no meeting and then complained about her husband being late to work because she wanted to have an impromptu meeting. Ok, caught you all the way up. How are rest of the meeting went? Because I know you want to know. Well, they had the meeting Monday and it was a waste of everyone's time.
Speaker 1:Basically, director, the parent doesn't like the director. There's nothing that she's going to do. She, just she's miserable. She's going through through a divorce. She. She let everybody know her business. She's going through a divorce with the husband. That was there as well, or the soon-to-be ex-husband. The soon-to-be ex-husband actually fell asleep during the meeting that he didn't want to be at. Then the district manager asked the question hey, you need any water, anything? No'm fine, you have anything you want to add? And he goes no, and that summed up the rest of that meeting. It was a waste of time and it served no one's purpose other than, I guess, that mom.
Speaker 1:So that's what we do. We have to cater to our family sometimes so that we can hear about nothing. Now it is policy time. Hear about nothing. Now it is policy time. Remember, something becomes a policy because someone messed the shit up for all of us Absences, attendance and punctuality. Why is this a policy? Well, it's a policy because Brenda ain't been to work in three weeks and then she shows up today for the tasteless cheese party. Meanwhile sharon sharon's been covering, uh, brenda's shift and she wants to bop brenda upside the head because she felt like she didn't earn the plastic pizza party. And now they have a whole melee happening. Definitely not a real story, just putting that out there. But that's one of the things why attendance is definitely something that is everyone's policy, because it's about the routine for everyone, the routine for the children, so the children understand who's going to be there for that day. All of us in the field know how important routine is who's going to be there at drop off, who's going to be there at pickup, who's going to be there for the families when they come. All of these things are important. It's important for your shift to be covered so that you're not running around. Come to work Along with coming to work.
Speaker 1:The other part is about being on time. Please be on time, because what people don't realize sometimes because they're so selfish, is that when you are not on time, I started to you mess up the break schedule for someone else. Here's an example Last week I'm at a school, I'm looking at their schedule and someone was supposed to be in at 2 o'clock. It's 2.09, and this person gets here because I had them scheduled to do a break for someone at 2.10. She walks in at 2.09 and my first response was hey, just so you know you're late and she's like. I know I was running behind. I really don't care.
Speaker 1:The reason why I said okay, after 2.05, you are considered late. So we're going to actually put that down in our point system. So definitely late, but now my breaks are five minutes behind because it's going to take you time to get situated and put yourself down. Now my breaks are running behind, so everyone is not going to be behind five minutes, and so I don't like my breaks getting behind and I don't like when you know people got to do things on their break, people got to pee, get out the classroom. So this is why those things are policies because they benefit the building, they benefit the school to run efficiently, to make sure your operations are running the way that's supposed to. So when people are calling out or people are late.
Speaker 1:And then when Brenda got an attitude because she's like you know what, I ain't been here, but I'm gonna come eat this cheese pizza. And Sharon's in here staring at her all in her face and got an attitude pizza. And Sharon's in here staring at her all in her face and got an attitude it's all because of attendance, because why? Someone did something and messed the shit up for all of us and now we all have to suffer. Well, that's all that I have for you.
Speaker 1:I want you all to have an amazing week. I want you all to be not out there stealing money and buying cameras with the spoilers on them. Don't be giving wee bottles to babies, and be the best educators. You can be Talk to y'all later. Bye, that's it for today. If you like this episode, it would mean so much to me if you left a rating review and subscribe to the show. I'd love to hear from you. You can visit my website, which is in the show notes, to contact me, and I hope you have a great rest of your week and speak to you all soon.
