|
Making big small again
CMS boldly divides district
into six ‘communities,’
one achievement area
by Kathleen E. Conroy
kathleen@thecharlotteweekly.com
 Parents, teachers, educators and staff knew it was coming. Yet, in the midst of a 10-year capital plan proposal, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman’s 100-day plan and a recently unveiled superintendent’s standards review committee to reduce future construction costs, the plan to decentralize the district seemed to have popped up rather unexpectedly.
Many were simply caught off guard at the swiftness of the recent announcement and the reality that by July 1, CMS will be divided into six “learning communities” – each with its own area superintendent and district office – and one “achievement zone” consisting of 10 low-performing schools.
On Wednesday, Feb. 14, Gorman, flanked by Joel Ritchie, a new area superintendent, and Maurice “Mo” Green, CMS’s chief operating officer, announced the dramatic change for the second-largest public school district in North Carolina.
“We have created six geographic areas plus one achievement zone for our most challenged schools,” he said in a media conference. “We’re calling these ‘learning communities’ because they are focused on our core business – our students’ learning. We have tried to put the resources as close to the classroom as possible and as close to the people in the communities. We needed to decentralize.”
The decentralization is intended to move decision-making and authority closer to the classroom by giving schools more flexibility. The plan may have reached the implementation stage more quickly than some anticipated because it did not require school board approval.
Gorman said the plan would help each school become more closely aligned with the community it serves and would put resources and administration closer to parents and other members of the public. The districts will be called North, Northeast, West, East, Central and South.
“These are areas for service. These are not student assignment areas. They are not magnet zone areas. These are not transportation zones,” Gorman emphasized. “These are service areas.”
In fact, the division of districts does not follow even school board district boundaries, but CMS officials are quick to note that close attention was paid to a number of factors when creating the six zones.
Breaking it down
Ritchie, who was named the first area superintendent in January and led the effort to reshape the district into learning communities, said the plan was based on geographically contiguous areas, observing municipal, natural and community boundaries, where possible, and on sensitivity to student ethnic and socioeconomic status.
“We are moving quickly on this. In March through May we hope to have office facilities and staffing ready to go; and by July 1, it is our goal to have all area offices operational,” said Ritchie. “Our goal is to make big small. Our goal is to provide better services and be more responsive to each community’s needs.”
An area superintendent will lead each of the six learning communities and report to central administration. “We expect them to run their areas and make quality decisions,” Gorman said. “Consistency is key. We do expect them to operate their areas somewhat with flexibility but also to be completely accountable.”
The learning communities range in size from 17,000 to 25,000 students. Staffing is still being developed for each office, using the input of parents, principals and the community.
“We want the elementary, middle and high schools to communicate with each other about students’ needs and levels of preparation, and this plan will foster that,” Ritchie said. “If kids are coming to high school with specific needs, middle schools need to know that. If they’re coming to middle schools with specific needs, elementary schools need to know that. This decentralization sets up vertical lines of communication among the schools.”
Growing stronger schools
A seventh area, called the achievement zone and led by Curtis Carroll – former principal of Harding University High School – contains 10 schools with low test scores and high needs. These include Billingsville Elementary, Shamrock Gardens Elementary, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle, Sedgefield Middle, Bishop Spaugh Middle, Wilson Middle, Garinger High, E.E. Waddell High, West Charlotte High and West Mecklenburg High schools.
Schools will move out of the achievement zone and into one of the other six zones once local, state and federal testing performance goals are met, according to Gorman.
He also is quick to assure parents that decentralization will not change student assignment plans and encourages parents to visit the CMS Web site to offer input through a survey on offices and services.
The initial estimate to decentralize and establish area offices is about $8.4 million, which includes $2.2 million for facilities, $4.6 million for personnel, $300,000 for operations and a one-time facility cost of $1.3 million. Gorman said CMS would redirect money from the existing regional system wherever possible and look for additional cost savings.
Ritchie and Carroll are the only two area superintendents to be named thus far. Ritchie and the other five area superintendents will report to Ruth Perez, CMS’s chief academic officer; Carroll will report to Gorman.
To see a map of the decentralized districts or to view more information about decentralization within CMS, visit http://pages.cms.k12.nc.us/decentralization.
|
