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Principal Fandango

To the Editor:

Yet another fatty layer of authority is being slathered on New York City's groaning public school system. On Jan. 31, a Department of Education media release hung the newest hocus-pocus in DOE's overdressed windows - "... the Executive Principal program, in which expert principals are paid an annual bonus of $25,000 if they commit to leading struggling schools for three years."

The media release announced Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein's pleasure with the new program - ''I am overjoyed that the Executive Principal program is underway" - but there was not a word from the Chancellor or his educratic entourage at Tweed Tenement to explain how, or to what extent - or even whether - the three-year struggling schools leadership commitment must be fulfilled.

The media release pointed to other big omissions. For example: "Candidates for the position [of Executive Principal] must have a record of successful school leadership for at least three years in their current principal positions ..." Three years? Is that it? What about the nature and quality of experience? Is "satisfactory experience" synonymous with "successful experience"?

What if a Principal has been a turkey for most of his or her leadership career, but is now enjoying a three-year lucky streak, thanks to weak oversight or happenstance? Can Assistant Principals and Teachers become Executive Principals, if they are highly accomplished and possess state certification or city licensure in school administration?

I wonder how long it will take for the new Executive-Principal echelon to start bloating with Assistant Executive Principals, District Executive Principals, Borough Supervising Executive Principals, Executive Principal Mentors, and who knows what?

Our children, our Teachers, and our city budget will all lose out if a new subcategory of school leadership launches under the color of a program that is sketchy, at best, and which may yield, at most, a hand-picked horde of ordinary school administrators awarded garishly prefixed job titles and cartes blanche to score bonus pay.

MARK S. TRAVITSKY, Administrative Staff Analyst (Retired)