School Reorganization
by Stuart Dunn
When the NYS Legislature eliminated the Board of Education and made the school system into a Mayoralty Agency, they handed Mayor Bloomberg a once in a lifetime opportunity to address the long-term failure of the NYC public schools. Yes, there are many factors outside of the schools that contribute to the problem of educating the inner city children. But if we continue to blame these, and wait for them to change rather than fix the school system itself, we are never going to bring about improvement. The schools are the only agency that by law gets the children five days a week, six hours a day, nine months year. (This can, and ought to be extended, but that’s another subject.) So, it is within the school system that the problem must be addressed.
Some people have criticized the Mayor for moving too fast and going to far in reorganizing the schools. I think they are wrong. I think he has not gone far enough. He may already have missed his opportunity. By next year he will be busy running for reelection, and that is a notoriously difficult time to initiate change. More immediate, he is now negotiating a new contract with the UFT. This contract should incorporate the necessary changes to permit sweeping changes in work rules and compensation methodology.
The mayor has been too concerned about maintaining strong centralized control. His biggest mistake was failing to institute school-based management, which would make the principal, the teachers and the parents responsible for the success of their school. Had he done this, the rule changes suggested by UFT President Weingarten would be an excellent starting point in simplifying the contract and introducing the flexibility needed by the schools and their principals. He could then have coupled this with a pay-for-performance plan in which the principals would be responsible for evaluating teacher performance and allocating salary increases to the best performers. The union role would become one of negotiating fringe benefits and a percentage increase package, to be allocated on the basis of merit by the school administration.
Well, maybe it is not too late. The mayor should eliminate the instructional superintendents that stand in between the regional superintendents and the principals. These people water down the role of the principals. He should assign additional assistant principals to the schools that need them to help with administration and supervision. He should delegate the running of the schools to the principals making them responsible for all personnel working within their schools, for their supervision, evaluation, hiring, firing and salary. He should make the principals directly responsible for parent involvement. And then he should hold the principals responsible for the performance of their schools as measured by student performance.
Mayor Bloomberg’s plans have been bold. But, he needs to be even more courageous if he is to bring about a significant change where it counts—in the performance of the schools and the children.#