Leading Role for Parents in Schools
New Leadership Teams Required by Fall Term

By MATTHEW COREY

Community control of city schools, won by parent protests a generation ago, took a hit two years ago when the state legislature stripped local school boards of much of their power. But at the same time the state struck a blow to the boards -- many of them notoriously corrupt -- the new law also planted the seeds for a new wave of decentralization, this time all the way down to the school level in the form of school leadership teams made up of equal parts parents and school staff.

By the fall, every elementary, middle and high school in the city is required to form such a team to make major budgetary and policy decisions in that school. The team must include the principal, the president of the parents association, and the leader of the school's chapter of the United Federation of Teachers. The team can also invite representatives of community-based organizations (CBOs) to join. Under the new rules, the number of parents must be equal to teachers and administrators combined, a hard-won provision included by Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew after a push by parents and education advocates.

"We don't pretend at central [Board of Ed] to know how money is best spent at each school," said J.D. LaRock, a board spokesman. "We hope school leadership teams create a good atmosphere in schools by enabling the various stakeholders at the school level to be directly involved and informed about what's going on."

The specific powers of the school leadership teams are: to create a comprehensive education plan for the school and an academic blueprint for the coming year, to draw up the school-based budget, to decide on how to spend the $10,000 for expenses and training, and to devise the team's own bylaws. That last power may sound like a minor bureaucratic detail but may hold the key to controlling a team, said Kavitha Mediratta, an analyst with the NYU Institute for Education and Social Policy.

"You can't underestimate the importance of this," Mediratta said. "The bylaws specify when the team meets, if the team meetings are open to the public, the kinds of communication with the community. These are major things, because they affect how a parent can participate effectively."

New York City began experimenting with school-based management 20 years ago, and 779 schools now have some form of leadership team in place. A Brown University survey found that team members were 48 percent teachers, 12 percent administrators, and 24 percent parents.

The challenge is clear. Many schools in New York City have difficulties maintaining their parents associations with enough active members to hold an election. Now, school leadership teams expect to draw a new group of parent volunteers, most of whom will have either full-time work or child-rearing responsibilities at home, from the same pool. Some insiders are skeptical.

"The 50-percent issue was an issue they were never going to touch," said Kim Suttell who served on one of the early school leadership teams in the Bronx. "There was just deep, deep pessimism. And the PA president was the worst." Suttell spoke at a forum held by the NYU institute last month.

Activists like Bruce Ellis, a Brooklyn father and member of the Community Advocates for Educational Excellence, see budgetary control as the plum that will attract parental interest.

"Parents respond to very basic things," Ellis said. "They respond to crisis and they respond to money. You should use the decision to spend money to bring people in."

To bring laypeople up to speed on budgets and public policy, the Board of Ed has dedicated dollars to leadership training. At the district level, $65,000 has been earmarked per year for development of school leadership teams. In addition, each team in the city receives $10,000 for training, outreach, or compensation or reimbursement of members.

On training as well as on voting power, parent activists want across-the-board equality.

"How can you be equal members if the parents get four hours of training down at Metrotech, while the teachers and administrators get two weeks at Yale University?" said Carleton Gordon, president of the Presidents Council representing parents of Brooklyn's Community School District 13.

Besides training funds, Gordon also raised a caution flag on meeting times. Teacher contracts state they must be paid for hours spent on school grounds outside the workday. But parents work elsewhere during the day and push for evening schedules.

"Central is currently negotiating with the teachers' union to get another reason to pay the teachers, besides the $10,000," Mediratta said. "I'm worried because $10,000 won't go very far if you have to pay overtime, which is about $33 an hour."

"Meeting times are probably the toughest thing about school leadership teams," Gordon said. "You have to be very vocal to have parent-friendly times to meet." His own team finally decided on 6 p.m. once a month as a compromise time.

Locally, schools are awakening to the Board of Ed's timetables, which demand each school have a team with equal number of parents and school staff by Oct. 1. For Mediratta, earlier steps to parent empowerment have put local Community School District 10 on stronger footing than others.

"District 10 was always way ahead of most New York City districts," Medirattasaid. "[Superintendent] Irma Zardoya implemented school-based budgeting when she came in." Parents associations in District 10 schools already have to approve their school's budget before Zardoya's staff will review it.

But even a willing administration cannot pass power to parents who are not there. At Fordham Bedford's PS 246, Principal Frank Gonzalez said forming a team according to the chancellor's guidelines would not be easy.

"I've spoken to my Parents Association, trying to get the story out," Gonzalez said. "It's a tough row to hoe. We have 1,100 children in the school, but unfortunately the parent representation is minimal."

"Right now, we're trying to get things in place," he said. "Anyone who works with schools knows that anything can happen that can throw us off schedule, but we're moving ahead."

While many schools scramble to lay the foundation for a team, PS 33, an elementary school on Jerome Avenue at Fordham Road, volunteered last year to be a guinea pig for the new citywide program and already has a full team in place. The chair is not a teacher, principal or parent but an aide at the school, Migdalia Salcedo. Her team, which she likens to a family, has used its power to choose which reading and math curricula to buy.

"We make all types of decisions on how we're going to spend our money," Salcedo said. "In every grade, we try our best to get the proper books, the proper materials to increase the reading level of the children."

"We're a very cohesive unit," said Tobi Weisel, a PS 33 math teacher. When asked if she felt pressured to vote with her boss, Principal Elba Lopez Spangenberg, who also sits on the team, Weisel said, "Not ever. Most of us feel we do have our own voice."

As of now, PS 33's team has not reached the 50-percent parent mandate. PA President Leticia Padro, and parents Hilda Burgos and Maria Valencia are the only parents among the 14 people at the table.

Salcedo said elections would be held at the beginning of the school year for more parent leaders, who, according to Spangenberg, will be welcome to share the responsibility of running the school.

"The more, the merrier," Spangenberg said. "Each person here now is working so much."

To join the school leadership team at your child's school, contact the principal's office or parents association president. The rights of parents to participate on a team are clearly explained in the Chancellor's Plan for School Leadership Teams, available in English and several other languages at 935-4700 or online at www.nycenet.edu.

News | Opinion | Schools | Features | Ongoing Story | Home
About Us | Past Issues