The school system reorganization: not quite back to the old days
Here, in its entirety, is one of the most dramatic proposals in Mo Green's strategic plan:
"GCS will provide quality, timely and cost-effective support to schools by reorganizing the schools and district resources into geographic regions.
" * GCS central office administrators will collaborate with regional superintendents to set outcomes and standards of consistency. Each region, including the Enrichment Region, will have support teams that provide direct and specific services to the schools and work with the communities in each region. Launch date: August 2009.
"Provide additional district support to selected schools.
" * GSC will establish an Enrichment Region to provide additional support and resources for our most impacted schools. This region will have a regional superintendent and corresponding team to provide supervision and support. The regional superintendent will report directly to the district superintendent and will have the authority to make nontraditional decisions based on the particular needs of the schools served. Launch date: August 2009."
Sixteen years after merger of the old Greensboro, High Point and Guilford County school systems, this proposed change says the consolidated model is NOT acceptably effective.
Smaller administrative units may be better.
Will they? Green thinks decentralization has worked well in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, where he helped implement a similar change.
What will the new arrangement look like in Guilford County? That's a good question, to which no answers have yet been given.
There could be from three to five regions, Green says. I would expect High Point more or less to be a separate region, but that's only a guess.
This won't be back to the future, however. Or forward to the past. For one thing, there will still be just one board of education and one uber-superintendent.
Personally, I think the idea has merit if the regional chiefs are authorized to make important decisions that recognize and respond to local needs and concerns. Principals might feel more closely supported and parents and the public will have a chance to see more of the regional decider.
Can it be implemented without increasing administrative costs? It better, because with all the other goals in Mo's plan, more money for bureaucracy is a no-go.
Comments (8)
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The plan has been rolled out.
The major theme is reorganize.
This is what companies do when they don’t know what else to do.
It’s kind of like a “group grope”
Now in all honesty. I am not qualified to know if they should reorganize or not.
However. What I do know:
1) The previous superintendent was not fired he left for greener pastures.
2) The majority of the school board was happy with his approach/results (they renewed his contract even as he was interviewing)
3) The new superintendent wants to make significant changes.
If the board agrees then those that supported the old superintendents approach have a duty to do the honorable thing and resign.
Thoughts
Posted on January 28, 2009 8:53 PM
That's logical.
Or you could argue that the board was satisfied with Grier's performance vs. the goals it set for him. Now Green wants to set much higher goals, which will require different strategies to reach.
Posted on January 28, 2009 10:03 PM
One wonders how this can be done without increasing bureauacracy costs. If now you have three to six new bureaucracies where there was only one????? Common sense seems to dictate otherwise.
Posted on January 29, 2009 8:51 AM
This seems like typical school bureaucracy. Every time a school or a school system gets a new leader, he or she wants to "make a mark". That invariably means tearing up everything the old administration did - which is what Green is proposing here.
It's no wonder America's schools are stuck in such a rut. They can never stick with anything for more than a year or so at a time.
I can only imagine what all this upheaval does to the teachers. But I suspect it's part of the high turnover rate in that profession.
Posted on January 29, 2009 9:22 AM
Grier's fatal mistake was getting pressured and caught up in an obsessive demographics grail-quest by a member of the board, diverting him from the educational quest. He was forced into defending a dead-in-the-water plan and expended valuble political capital doing so. The people in G-Boro, I imagine, could feel short-changed because they didn't have a dog in that fight.
Posted on January 29, 2009 10:34 AM
Mo Green stated at his presentation Tuesday night that the regions would not replicate the pre-merger lines of the 3 school districts.
I certainly hope High Point won't be its own region. Too much trouble there.
Posted on January 29, 2009 1:16 PM
A new region certainly would not replicate the boundaries of the old High Point system. For one thing, that system geographically was only about half the size as the city is now. It did not cover schools that are within city limits, such as Allen Jay, Union Hill and the Southwest schools.
Maybe there will be a High Point region that somewhat resembles the present city of High Point. There would be trouble, but the rest of the county might rather be separated from it.
Posted on January 29, 2009 1:33 PM
Doug: "There would be trouble, but the rest of the county might rather be separated from it."
Right. Why should High Point continue to be treated as the red-headed-stepchild??? Enough is enough.
Posted on January 29, 2009 2:47 PM