Steve Matthews, superintendent of Novi Community School District, uses just 400 words to tell teens why school opened on a frigid Thursday when many Southeast Michigan districts shut.
His relatively short explanation at 2 p.m. two days ago echoes beyond the Oakland suburb because Matthews talks about hot tempers as well as icy temperatures. He reacts to harsh -- sometimes nasty -- critics of his call.
"In the social media world that we live in, it is easy and somewhat comfortable to . . . vent," says the educator. "But it could get you in trouble."
That reminder and another lesson he says is "important to remember" earned coverage by the Free Press (news article and column) and WXYZ ("a brilliant letter"). The superintendent's letter also sparks a Reddit thread at a Detroit discussion area.
The superintendent, hired in May 2011, embraces open, frequent communication. The letter became his 337th blog post since taking office, and he tweeted a link to 2,262 followers. (Matthews tweets an average of nearly twice every weekday.)
Thursday's blog post, headlined "A letter to the students of Novi High School," has 110 comments. Here's the full text so you can see why it draws attention:
You, my friends, are an awesome group of people.
You are funny, talented, thoughtful, and intelligent. You are, most of the time, friendly, polite, caring, and honest.
But you were not happy with me this morning.
A parent in the district received this [text] message from her Novi High School daughter this morning:
Steve Matthews woke up this morning and said "I'm gonna be an asshole" and that's why we have school on this LOVELY day.
momma I actually cried years for 20 minutes.
(I assume the frozen fingers accounted for the spelling error -- years instead of tears. But there certainly was no mistaking her earlier sentiment of how she felt about me this morning.)
Many of you, as evidenced by this text, were not happy with me this morning.
If you think this was an isolated occurrence you would be wrong:
@docsmatthews I mean no offense in this but 370 other schools are closed, do you really know better than 370 superintendents?
— spooky d (@deanna_martynen) January 8, 2015I chuckled at your comments, enjoyed the banter between us, and appreciated that you were paying attention.
But there are at least two lessons that are important to remember here:
First, each of us will be called to make difficult decisions in our life. Difficult decisions should be made with care. You should collect information, weigh potential outcomes, examine alternatives and then make the best choice you can.
I did that today.
Did I make the right call on having school when there was a wind chill approaching -20 DEGREES?
I think I did.
Obviously some of you had a different opinion.
When others disagree with a decision that you make, it is important to listen, reflect and see what can be learned.
Which brings me to the second lesson that I remembered today.
In your life there will be people who make decisions that impact you with which you completely disagree. In the social media world that we live in, it is easy and somewhat comfortable to take to Twitter or Facebook or Snapchat or whatever other application there is that I don't know about and vent.
It feels good. It makes people laugh.
But it could get you in trouble. Some bosses, colleagues, employees, or employers may not be as understanding as I am about comments that are vulgar, disparaging or mean.
I would urge you to use caution and to think while you Tweet, post and communicate via social media.
I was in your school today during "A" lunch. I visited tables saying hello, smiling and laughing with your classmates. It appeared that you were enjoying being in school. I hope that was true.
Novi High School is a good place to be - even on cold days like today.
Sincerely,
Dr. Matthews
This is the superintendent's first tweet to the community last Thursday morning.
