Post by Claudette on Jun 2, 2008 17:49:09 GMT -5
This article was located on the Internet by Sarah McCree Smith:
query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5DE1339F934A35751C0A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
Trade-Off in the Schools: Principals Pay Political Dues to Get Jobs
By JOSEPH BERGER
Published: February 7, 1992
"A written test and an interview doesn't necessarily mean you can do the job," said Alan Finkelstein, principal of P.S. 57 in District 12 who got his job through the old system.
Decentralization gave the power to appoint principals to nine-member school boards that faced elections once every three years. And there is widespread agreement that it gradually made many of the schools more political places.
Many effective school executives feel the current system is the ultimate expression of democracy, with its benefits and hazards.
"Once you vote, the word 'politics' enters into it," said Ms. Rothschild, an acting assistant principal at P.S. 57. "It doesn't have to be a dirty word."
Mr. Fernandez, who came into office a year after a Bronx principal had been arrested for buying crack, moved to reduce the role of politicized school boards in principal selection by requiring that district panels of six parents, two teachers and a supervisor select pools of finalists for principal jobs.
But school board members still make the final choice. District 12: a Case Study
District 12 provides a case study of how the politics of school board elections can gradually affect the choice of school leaders.
The area stretches across the heart of the Bronx, bounded roughly by Crotona Park and Parkchester on the west and east and the Bronx Zoo and Hunts Point on the north and south. It is prey to the social ailments that accompany poverty and drugs. But it has always had a solid base of working parents and homeowners.
Its schools are among the city's worst performers, with only 33.1 percent of students reading above grade level. In recent years, two of its nine school board members were convicted of bribery, one of them for soliciting a $5,000 bribe from an acting assistant principal who wanted a permanent appointment. A former superintendent was indicted on separate bribery charges, though the charges were dropped because of his serious illness.
Lucy Cruz, a parent leader, was one board member who sought the defeat of a board majority she saw as corrupt, and her 1989 re-election effort drew the support of two dozen school administrators and teachers, some of whom felt their careers had been thwarted. She won. Educators also worked in her failed bid for the State Assembly in 1989 and in her victorious bid last November for City Council.
Miss Cruz said she told campaign workers that "if there is anyone here who is an educator who believes working on my campaign guarantees anything, I would ask you to leave." She said she believes teachers and administrators were drawn to support her because, in the largely black and Hispanic district, "I was making decisions based on qualifications, not on color."
The educators included Mr. Victor, Mr. Corominas, Ms. Rothschild and Ethel McCree, an acting assistant principal at P.S. 47, though Ms. McCree attributes her appointment to the notice she received as an administrator in the district office rather than to her political work.
Mr. Victor worked prominently in Ms. Cruz's council campaign, calling people at home and asking them to come out and vote. Mr. Corominas helped organize Ms. Cruz's Assembly bid, which he said "entailed networking with parents."
Ms. Rothschild, a 31-year school veteran, said she also called voters and "drove people around," just as she did during the years she worked for a Democratic club in Yonkers. She said she abandoned her policy of neutrality because she believed Ms. Cruz would support administrators on merit, not on an ethnic basis.
"I was blackballed because I wasn't politically involved with anybody and I was the wrong color and ethnic background," said Ms. Rothschild, who is white and Jewish.
When 15 principalships and more than a score of assistant principalships opened up in the district last summer, Alfredo Mathew, the district's current superintendent, says he picked the best people, including the four who had worked in Ms. Cruz's campaigns. "Because someone works for someone else does not disqualify him," Mr. Mathew said.
query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5DE1339F934A35751C0A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
Trade-Off in the Schools: Principals Pay Political Dues to Get Jobs
By JOSEPH BERGER
Published: February 7, 1992
"A written test and an interview doesn't necessarily mean you can do the job," said Alan Finkelstein, principal of P.S. 57 in District 12 who got his job through the old system.
Decentralization gave the power to appoint principals to nine-member school boards that faced elections once every three years. And there is widespread agreement that it gradually made many of the schools more political places.
Many effective school executives feel the current system is the ultimate expression of democracy, with its benefits and hazards.
"Once you vote, the word 'politics' enters into it," said Ms. Rothschild, an acting assistant principal at P.S. 57. "It doesn't have to be a dirty word."
Mr. Fernandez, who came into office a year after a Bronx principal had been arrested for buying crack, moved to reduce the role of politicized school boards in principal selection by requiring that district panels of six parents, two teachers and a supervisor select pools of finalists for principal jobs.
But school board members still make the final choice. District 12: a Case Study
District 12 provides a case study of how the politics of school board elections can gradually affect the choice of school leaders.
The area stretches across the heart of the Bronx, bounded roughly by Crotona Park and Parkchester on the west and east and the Bronx Zoo and Hunts Point on the north and south. It is prey to the social ailments that accompany poverty and drugs. But it has always had a solid base of working parents and homeowners.
Its schools are among the city's worst performers, with only 33.1 percent of students reading above grade level. In recent years, two of its nine school board members were convicted of bribery, one of them for soliciting a $5,000 bribe from an acting assistant principal who wanted a permanent appointment. A former superintendent was indicted on separate bribery charges, though the charges were dropped because of his serious illness.
Lucy Cruz, a parent leader, was one board member who sought the defeat of a board majority she saw as corrupt, and her 1989 re-election effort drew the support of two dozen school administrators and teachers, some of whom felt their careers had been thwarted. She won. Educators also worked in her failed bid for the State Assembly in 1989 and in her victorious bid last November for City Council.
Miss Cruz said she told campaign workers that "if there is anyone here who is an educator who believes working on my campaign guarantees anything, I would ask you to leave." She said she believes teachers and administrators were drawn to support her because, in the largely black and Hispanic district, "I was making decisions based on qualifications, not on color."
The educators included Mr. Victor, Mr. Corominas, Ms. Rothschild and Ethel McCree, an acting assistant principal at P.S. 47, though Ms. McCree attributes her appointment to the notice she received as an administrator in the district office rather than to her political work.
Mr. Victor worked prominently in Ms. Cruz's council campaign, calling people at home and asking them to come out and vote. Mr. Corominas helped organize Ms. Cruz's Assembly bid, which he said "entailed networking with parents."
Ms. Rothschild, a 31-year school veteran, said she also called voters and "drove people around," just as she did during the years she worked for a Democratic club in Yonkers. She said she abandoned her policy of neutrality because she believed Ms. Cruz would support administrators on merit, not on an ethnic basis.
"I was blackballed because I wasn't politically involved with anybody and I was the wrong color and ethnic background," said Ms. Rothschild, who is white and Jewish.
When 15 principalships and more than a score of assistant principalships opened up in the district last summer, Alfredo Mathew, the district's current superintendent, says he picked the best people, including the four who had worked in Ms. Cruz's campaigns. "Because someone works for someone else does not disqualify him," Mr. Mathew said.