In the first significant change to its organizational structure since becoming independent, the Board of Palisades Charter High School voted on Monday to create two positions that will lead and manage the school’s academic instruction. The board’s 7-2 vote will add a new position, director of instruction, and it will reshape the role of principal while keeping the title. The decision preserves Executive Director Amy Held’s position, leaving her as the single head of the school. After Principal Gloria Martinez announced that she would not return to the 2700-student school in late April, a broad group of school officials, parents and faculty began critically examining the school’s administrative structure, including the position of principal. Influenced, in part, by a tumultuous application process and a divisive administrative attempt to change the school’s academic calendar, they complained of a lack of clearly defined roles for the principal and executive director that often meant unaccountability, especially among assistant principals. Rather than immediately replacing Martinez with another principal, board members discussed ways to re-imagine the school’s top academic job. One main idea that emerged from these discussions was to scrap the position of principal altogether. Many board members felt that the title was outmoded and communicated too much authority at a school where much of the decision-making is made by the executive director. As an independent charter, the school operates autonomously from the Los Angeles Unified School District, giving it control over its budget, personnel, curriculum and facilities. Since Held was hired last summer, she has managed almost all of the school’s operations outside of instruction and curriculum’and without a staff of her own. A four-member task force, appointed by the board to envision administrative reorganization, returned to the board on Monday with a recommendation that surprised many teachers and parents: divide management of the school’s academics between the principal and the director of instruction. As envisioned by task force members, the director of instruction, who will report to the principal, will be involved in day-to-day instruction at the school. Once hired, the director will work closely with department heads and manage existing academic programs like the Pyramid of Interventions, Dolphin Days and Literacy Program. Among a large array of other duties, members want the new hire to work directly with teachers by frequently visiting classrooms, leading faculty meetings and overseeing the school’s professional development programs. The director would also meet with parents to mediate classroom instruction. Freed from the daily details of the school’s instruction, the principal will be the ‘big-picture’ instructional leader of the school, say task force members. The principal will create and implement short- and long-term strategic plans. He or she will manage budgets for instructional programs and benchmark school performance against school goals and state standards. The principal, who will oversee the director of instruction, will report to the executive director. The board’s nearly unanimous vote in favor of the organizational shift masks significant disagreements among school faculty. Sometimes expressing a wide array of opinions, many teachers wanted the board to shelve the one-head school structure with Held, who has more experience in management than in education, at the top. At the board’s meeting Monday night, longtime PaliHi English teacher Rose Gilbert presented an alternative plan, in which the principal and executive director would share equal power but manage separate spheres at the school. She also expressed concern that dividing instructional leadership of the school would frustrate accountability. ‘Where does the buck stop?’ Gilbert asked. ‘That’s what I want to know. Does it stop at the principal or with the executive director? Class sizes, teacher-traveling’these are big issues. Who would be in charge of them?’ ‘I agree with the focus on instruction,’ said fellow English teacher Olivia Castro. ‘But I would still rather have two heads than one. And if we are going to have one head, the principal should be the one at the top.’ Board Member Rene Rodman, who also helped create the approved plans, defended the task force’s recommendations. ‘In the charter, the executive director is above the principal,’ she said. ‘We felt that if the principal had to run the entire school that person could never be involved in instruction. ‘We [on the task force] heard that teachers want more support and professional development,’ Rodman said, ‘Personally, I went into this process with [only having] one director of instruction. But there were all these big-picture items. We have all these lofty goals. And we see the principal as that person.’ Teachers and administrators who spoke Monday night urged the board members to delay taking immediate action on the approved plan and asked them to reconsider the large scope of work assigned to the director of instruction. ‘I think it’s moving too fast,’ said Assistant Principal Anne Davenport. ‘I disagree with the director of instruction position. I think you’re going to kill that person. One person can’t handle all of these things.’ ‘You’re sending this person to an early funeral,’ chimed Margaret Evans, another assistant principal. After the meeting Board Member Eileen Savage told the Palisadian-Post, ‘I think we made the right decision. It wasn’t my first inclination to add another layer. I can see now that this is really an important thing for us to do. There have been e-mails sent around, saying that we have made the school too top heavy. But I think current structure was really hard to work with.’ The task force made other recommendations that could significantly strengthen the role of the executive director. Those suggested changes that have not yet been approved by the board include: ‘ Giving the executive director oversight of the current assistant principals in charge of human resources, facilities and athletics, admissions and attendance. Currently, those assistant principals report to the principal. ‘ Renaming assistant principals as directors. The task force hopes that the new names will promote more accountability. The board will discuss these recommendations at upcoming meetings. But they will not necessarily be decided before the school year ends this month. A hiring committee is currently vetting candidates for the director of instruction. Members say they have several ‘highly qualified’ applicants for the position. The board’s decision means that the school can begin searching for candidates to fill the position of principal. Because it was uncertain that the school intended to hire a principal until this week, the school has not advertised for the position. Several board members, including Executive Director Held, expressed concern that finding qualified applicants this late in the school year will be difficult. Many board members say that the school will hold off hiring a new principal if it cannot find the ‘right candidate.’ ——- To contact Staff Writer Max Taves, e-mail reporter@palipost.com or call ext. 28.
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