Some Florida principals may get the run their schools free from the bureaucracy that is often blamed for education failures.
Don’t like the teachers you’ve inherited? Choose new ones. Don’t like the state-required textbooks? Find better ones. Rather spend your school’s money on iPads than desktops? Go for it.
The proposal, which the state Legislature will consider in the 2016 session, is designed to give principals more autonomy, and possibly more money, if can improve student achievement. Up to three districts in the state would be selected, and each would choose D- or F-rated middle or high schools for the program.
“If you envision the principal as the CEO for the building, they have to be held accountable, but in a lot of cases, their hands are tied,” said State Rep. Manny Diaz, R-Miami, who is sponsoring the bill. ” They’re not being given what they need.”
Districts would select highly-rated principals to lead the low-performing schools. The state would give about $100,000 to each district to train principals and other leaders through a school turnaround program offered by University of Virginia.
Principals would have the flexibility to choose their own teachers. Diaz said the state is also considering bonuses to principals who participate, but that’s not in the bill. The state would evaluate the success of the schools after three years.
The turnaround schools would be funded similar to charter schools, receiving state funding for each student minus an administrative fee for the district. Under the current system, state funds go to the district, which decides how much to fund each school. Some of a school’s money may be siphoned off for other purposes in the district, Diaz said.
Some local districts say the proposal is worth exploring.
“I think we would have some interest,” said Vernon Pickup-Crawford, lobbyist for the Palm Beach County School District.”The main thing is the principal considered would need to be someone who’s got a good deal of experience.”
Palm Beach County has tried several proposals in the past that promised more autonomy. In the late 1990s, five schools were designated as “deregulated,” which was supposed to give them more autonomy. But the schools, including Boca Raton High and Loggers Run Middle, west of Boca Raton, said there were limited benefits, and they had to apply for waivers every time they wanted to exempt themselves from state laws.
Then in 2001, Palm Beach County became one of four “charter school districts,” which allowed the district to exempt itself from certain laws. The district used that mainly avoid certain state requirements regarding school construction.
Neither Palm Beach County program dealt with where principals were placed.
In Broward County, Superintendent Robert Runcie initiated something similar to what’s being proposed. He used some federal dollars to give high performing principals bonuses to take over F-rated schools. Joseph Balchunas was selected to lead Park Ridge Elementary in Deerfield Beach and Philip Bullock is leading Walker Elementary in Fort Lauderdale. Runcie said the principals are eligible for up to $25,000 in bonuses each year for five years. Principals chose their own teachers, who were given bonuses of about $8,000, Runcie said.
“You need to have high quality leadership at the top, and then you use that to change the school culture and get experienced people in there,” Runcie said.
Lisa Maxwell, director of the Broward Principals’ and Assistants Association, said she’d love to see an expansion of the program, which the state bill might do.
“Principals are hamstrung because of myriad issues that prevent from having autonomy,” she said. “You can’t have real accountability when you can’t give someone the authority they need.”
