Lisa Belzberg: Principal Mover of Principal For a Day
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.

Looking back over an extraordinarily successful eight-year program - Public Education Needs Civic Involvement In Learning – better known as PENCIL – founder and passionate devotee Lisa Belzburg says she prefers to lookto “tomorrow” and keep her gaze on deeper, not wider involvement. “Big” is not as important as “effective,” she says, meaning that those already volunteering in the PENCIL program will return (not necessarily to the same school) and spread the word that community involvement in the public schools can improve the quality of education in the city and promote respect for teachers, parental presence, and significant volunteerism from business executives.

Though Principal for a Day (PFAD), part of the PENCIL program, now has a cadre of close to 1200 individual and corporate leaders who visit schools – from the bodega owner on the corner to the corporation head – Lisa Belzberg says that the one-shot event is hardly what PFAD is about. That one “day,” she says, makes a “real difference” when the subsequent 364 days realize new ideas, resources, and connections. And that’s all levels she’s talking about – elementary, middle school, high school. The common theme is, “it’s cool to be involved,” it’s “hip” to care. She speaks with an enthusiasm that almost belies her crisp and focused administrative manner. She’s got it all together – from outreach to follow-up seminars and company feedback, all tracked on a huge and growing database. She talk sof further “franchises” – the program already has been exported to Australia, New Zealand, and Canada as well as eight American cities with large urban public school systems.

A Barnard grad (`82), who went on to study at the London School of Economics, she is now studying for her Ed.D. at Teachers College, Columbia University, enrolled in its fast-track Inquiry program. She says the “simple” idea of “targeting civic involvement” – anything from individual initiative to a system-wide project – came to her almost in a flash. She had been working for the political consultant David Garth and noticed that no one was discussing education issues. Later, she met Ray Cortines, then Chancellor, and proposed that such a program run outside the Board of Education and not costing anything could be successful. He, “never merely chatty,” said “go for it.” And so she did, delighting in the “incredibly supportive” response from every Schools Chancellor since.#

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