CSA: Same Old: 'Empowerment' Not Thrilling to Unions

CSA: Same Old

'Empowerment' Not Thrilling to Unions

By HOWARD MEGDAL

The unions representing both Teachers and Principals expressed skepticism June 12 about Mayor Bloomberg's plan to make 331 city schools into "Empowerment Schools," which provide Principals with additional funding and greater discretion on hiring and budget issues in exchange for pledging to meet certain performance goals.

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Devil is in the details. The Council of School Supervisors and Administrators said that the new program may violate the law, while the United Federation of Teachers is "taking a wait-and-see approach" to the reforms.

'Major Legal Question'

"The question of removing community school district schools from their districts and dismissing the legal role of Community School Superintendents is a major legal question that this union will take up with the court," CSA President Jill S. Levy said in a June 12 statement. "There are implications for parents and concerned community members that must be addressed."

The plan will involve 283 additions to the 48 schools that participated in the "autonomy zone" pilot program over the past two years. Schools that take part will receive additional funding and choose how to spend that money. The additional funds will come from the elimination of 250 administrative jobs made expendable by the redistribution of power.

UFT President Randi Weingarten said that the number of Principals who volunteered for the program, which the Mayor said was higher than expected, indicated that the current organizational structure was too restrictive.

"The number of Principals wanting out of the regional structure speaks volumes about the micromanagement they were feeling - and that our Teachers have been frustrated about for the past few years," Ms. Weingarten said in a statement. "For this to work, however, staffers in the empowerment zone must feel they are partners. Because only 30 percent of the schools initially reported that there was real consultation, the DOE made this a condition of performance agreements. That's a good thing."

But with the overwhelming majority of schools selected for the program among the city's highest-performing institutions, Ms. Levy wondered whether the program's success would be a reflection of the added autonomy or the selection process.

Queries Process

"We are concerned about why certain schools were selected and whether the process was truly voluntary," she said. "The question arises as to whether the most successful schools were skimmed from the region, leaving many struggling schools behind. Is this an experiment doomed to succeed?"

Ms. Levy added that many of the reforms are "simply functions that Principals perform already. If the performance agreement is read carefully, the empowerment becomes illusory. The document is laced with statements concluding that Principals are empowered unless and until their CEO says they are not."

Ms. Weingarten also questioned what effect additional Principal power would have on a school's work environment. "The fine print matters here. For example, do schools have real discretion in dealing with such things as the 37-1/2-minute tutoring period? Will schools be collaborative, as they are in the current empowerment zone, or will they be run by autocratic principals? What is the effect of the budget changes on the schools staying in the regions?"