Gorman discusses decentralization
Public reaction ‘cautious’
compiled by Kathleen E. Conroy
kathleen@thecharlotteweekly.com

CMS has been quietly working on the plan since January, when Joel Ritchie was named the first area superintendent. Ritchie has led the effort to reshape the district basing the learning communities on geographically contiguous areas, observing municipal, natural and community boundaries where possible and sensitivity to student ethnic and socioeconomic status. Each learning community includes prekindergarten through 12th grade based on high school feeder patterns.

Charlotte Weekly asked Gorman about public reaction to district decentralization and exactly what it means for CMS children and their parents.

What has the response been from parents, educators and administrators to the learning-communities plan?

The response has ranged from cautiously positive to positively cautious. Our sense is that parents and educators at CMS are hopeful about this plan and that it will help us do a better job of delivering more personal services to our students, our schools and our communities.

The caution felt by some people is rooted in this area’s history of drawing lines on a map, which is immediately associated with student assignment as much as anything about the plan itself. Anytime you draw lines on a map for CMS, some members of the community get nervous – and that’s understandable in light of this district’s history of segregation. But we believe this plan is fair and it’s carefully designed for better service delivery so that we can do what’s best for every student.

We think this system of learning communities will be good for all of our students because it will move the delivery point of services out of the downtown education center and closer to the classroom and communities.

One source of unease, I think, has arisen from a widespread misunderstanding about the learning communities. These areas do not in any way alter student assignment, which is set by the board of education. These areas are built on the existing high school student assignment and feeder patterns for K-12 but do not alter those assignments at all.

We built the plan on the existing student assignment because we thought it was important to have continuity where possible. Under this plan, children can progress from kindergarten through 12th grade under one area learning community in most cases. We also want better communication among our schools. We want high schools communicating with middle schools of feeder students to coordinate efforts for challenges or issues that need to be better addressed in middle school. Likewise, we want middle schools to talk to elementary schools about any challenges or issues students may have as they leave elementary school for sixth grade.

We think this will improve our delivery of educational services because we can identify and address problems promptly.

What possible drawbacks do you see from decentralizing? Do you fear that it will fragment or fracture the system – the county, the community as a whole – in any way?
Because this will not be a complete decentralization, we think we will get the benefits of decentralization while retaining the strengths and efficiency of a centrally run district. The benefits of a centralized district are that we can make sure that every student has access to the same educational opportunities and resources. By standardizing curriculum and instruction and equitably allocating resources, we can ensure that all students have access to a good education. It’s important that the same skills and topics are taught in every classroom, so that all students have equal educational opportunity to learn. It’s also important to make sure that schools get the resources that they need – and needs can vary from school to school.

Another benefit of centralization is that we can coordinate offerings of accelerated and rigorous courses in all of our high schools, not just some of them. We want to ensure access to appropriate exceptional children services at every school, so that our students with special needs get what they need no matter where they live. These are things that many smaller districts can’t provide but we can and we do.

We also get some important economies of scale and efficiency from centralization in terms of purchasing. A volume-discount price is important when you serve 102,000 lunches every day, and you have 1,195 buses making more than 5,358 runs a day for a total of 135,000 miles traveled daily.

But we also get the benefits of a decentralized district. Shaping CMS into six separate learning communities will allow us to make big feel small to the community and schools. This decentralization, which was charted in our Strategic Plan 2010: Educating Students to Compete Locally, Nationally and Internationally, is aligned with the Board of Education’s Theory of Action, which called for the decentralization of central administration.

Why should parents be excited about this? Why is this a smart move for CMS?
Instead of a large bureaucracy that can feel like a maze to parents and students who come downtown, we will put area superintendents and support staff in the communities where the schools are. If a parent has an issue that can’t be resolved at the school level, that parent now has to come to the education center downtown or wander through a thicket of calls to try to get the right person to help.

Starting next year, when our learning communities will be in operation, that parent will be able to drive to, or call, an area superintendent’s office in the community rather than coming downtown. The parent’s interaction with school administration will be local, more convenient, more personal and more responsive from individuals who more intimately know their specific community.

Parents should be pleased with this for several reasons. First, it puts delivery of services closer to the classroom – something that is good for kids. It also will bring more responsive service from the CMS administration, which is good for kids and parents. It also will mean that more decisions about the classroom are made at the school and local level rather than by a central office, keeping in mind that our standards and other institutional functions will remain centralized. This will allow us to offer the services and support that each school and each classroom needs.

Education isn’t a one-size-fits-all proposition, really – every school, every classroom, every student is different. We want our services to fit these individual needs, and we think that localizing delivery of those services will help us to do that and allow each child to better meet his or her potential.

The long-range goal, of course, is improving student achievement and educating every student well. We think learning communities will help us do that by making our staff and support more responsive to our local students’ needs. It will put resources closer to the classroom – and the classroom is where learning happens.