Chalkbeat, the online education news site (If you don’t subscribe (it’s free), you should) muses re the next chancellor and mentions a number of names, speculation, mere guesses.
First, changing chancellors in midstream is not recommended, you either inherit the last chancellor’s leadership team or replace them in the middle of the school year, neither choice is viable.
If you’re going to change leadership the ideal time would be in the late spring, time to staff up, get to know the players and the turf and begin running in September, or, of course, you can keep the team you have now.
And, a little question hanging out there, who would pick the next chancellor? Mayoral Control is the law until the legislature and the governor change the law. The current law (Read here) sunsets, meaning unless it is extended or revised it defaults to the previous law: a board appointed by the borough presidents and two members by the mayor, a seven member board who selects their chair, unlikely.
Choices:
Extend the current mayoral control for a year, select a blue ribbon commission to recommend a new governance structure, or present your plan to the legislature early in the session, hold public hearings and viola! a new Panel for Educational Priorities, the current panel, 25 members is unwieldy and mostly deals with contracts, no one knows who’s on the board, we need a board of respected leaders. and let’s go back to calling it the Board of Education, and grant more authority to Community Education Councils, formerly known as School Boards, maybe with a teacher member.. Currently CECs have many vacancies and the meetings are poorly attended, and, under the current law their only statutory power is zoning and that power can be overridden.
If the law is changed early in the legislative session the new leadership vehicle might choose the chancellor
Options:
Do you reinvigorate the Affinity District concept, clusters of schools managed by not-for-profits, similar to Educational Organizations (EMO), who operate within the union contract.
Do you expand the UFT-created PROSE schools.
PROSE is about school-level innovations. It offers schools the ability to alter some of the most basic parameters by which they function including the way teachers are hired, evaluated and supported; the way students and teachers are programmed; the handling of grievances; and certain city and state regulations. Schools in the program explore and implement a variety of innovations at their schools.
In other words do we want to bring educational decision/making down to the school level?
Currently the trumpets blare and the “new thing” is announced and school staffs are expected to salute and implement, if kids were identical widgets it might make sense, teaching is not tightening bolts on machinery, kids differ, teaching is an art and it is our job to identify the approach to each of our students, a complex and ofttimes frustrating activity.
Schools have individual cultures and our goal should be to create collaborative cultures.
Sorry for the rant.
As far as picking a chancellor the Chalkbeat guesses are depressing. Picking an outsider without deep knowledge of the system has not been successful in the past, it has been disappointing, or worse, remember Joel Klein, a litigation attorney, what did Shakespeare say about lawyers? (“Kill all the lawyers”)
A few highly competent educators.
Shael Polikoff-Suransky, former deputy chancellor and president of Bank Street, highly qualified, although his current job is undoubtedly far more rewarding, maybe a member of the new central board.
Mark Dunetz leader of New Visions for Public Schools, currently an EMO running over 100 schools with impressive results.
Are any of the current superintendents up to the job? I’m not familiar with the crop, I have my doubts.
Whatever the Mayor-elect (three weeks away from removing the word “elect” from his title) decides, it will be contentious, it’s in New Yorkers DNA.
I was the union rep in a district with a superintendent who was committed to school-based management/ school-based decision-making. A detailed set of training sessions for school leadership teams, meetings with the UFT chapter leaders in all schools regularly, he lived in the district and was a jogger, usually ended up at a school around 8 am, welcoming the students, parents and staff, took a stroll around the school with the principal, entered classrooms engaging with the students, in other words was highly visible, approachable and gave schools wide latitude, of course it all ended with mayor control.
I don’t wager on sporting events ( the only winner is bookie), casinos exist to make money, not to enrich the gamblers. I’m not predicting a chancellor choice.
Mamdani has surrounded himself with smart and highly competent folks, education is not at the top of his agenda, the 26-27 budgeting process is already underway, due February 1. The governor’s State of the State message in early January and Preliminary Budget at the end of January, will the speech and the budget include any Mamdani priorities?
In the meantime: have you started your Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa shopping?
Ed in the Apple: Blogging on the Intersection of Education and Politics Title 