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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. News & Comment By John F. Bailey. February 9, 2009: Dr. Christopher Clouet, the Superintendent from
Dr. Christopher Clouet steps into a position that for the sake of the schools and
The
The Board of Education has for the nine years I have been reporting on this district accepted excuse after excuse and incremental gain after incremental gain in the achievement gap hand-wringing crisis. They have approved budget after budget doubling inflation rates in increases year after year. They have spent money on projects whose need is because they would be nice.
The Board has been masterfully compromised by administrators who do not take responsibility and make excuse after excuse for not delivering results and not being able to show results reliably. Every year the budget is decided upon before the previous year’s School Report Cards are published by the state (a disgrace).
25% of the Boston City School Budget
The White Plains budget, educuating 7,123 students with 5 elementary schools, two Middle Schools and one high school, has grown to the point AT $184.4 Million where it is slightly less than 25% of the school budget for the city of
Well, this year, Timothy Connors the present Superintendent leaves June 30 turning over the leadership to Dr. Clouet.
Clouet is a used to a small budget, $50 Million compared to this year’s budget of $184.4 Million for the
Dr. Clouet instead moves into
A Poisoned Atmosphere
However all is not “all for the kids this year.” The Board of Education who this year has suddenly discovered that perhaps a 6% to7% increase in a budget might be a little politically incorrect this year. They have declared war on the Teachers Union and are handing Clouet a charged negotiation atmosphere.
It never occurred to the Board of Education as they ran up the budget compounding and raising expenses the last nine years that the public income was not keeping pace with their school taxes. The Board of Education even refused to negotiate with the White Plains Teachers Association over a contract, throwing the ball to the New York State Public Employers Relations Board going to mediation.
This is the situation Dr. Clouet steps into: the question is what does the Board of Education really want him to do? Cut the budget next year? Close the Achievement Gap? Rein in spending more? Bring in fund-raising from the community and the state to shore up the budget? Trim the teaching staff or increase it? Negotiate a contract and tweak a pay and step schedule that pays new teachers less going forward and trims step increases? Trim the fat from the administration or tone it up? Evaluate programs more effectively? Make the faculty bilingually correct and effective?
Those are just some of the issues the Board of Education needs to decide and tell Dr. Clouet. It’s called leadership. And perhaps if they have given Dr. Clouet a “To Do” list, perhaps they should tell the public what it is, instead of a Strategic Plan that is developed behind closed doors.
Or does the Board of Education just want an earnest, committed and charismatic Superintendent to sell the budget? Dr. Clouet does not appear to be that kind of man. He deliberately puts himself into very hard situations and gets beat up but keeps fighting for what he believes in, apparently.
When this search for a new Superintendent began, I wrote a mock ad for what
WANTED
Savior of Schools
For
Experience: Proven credentials as a leader or Assistant Superintendent of a school district of up to 10,000 students of diverse population.
He or she should bring to the district a demonstrated record of academic improvement in upgrading academic performances of a diverse student body in a 3-year or less time interval with a significant ESOL student population in a district respected by the collegiate community, demonstrated by the number of students continuing to collegiate education.
They should be capable and familiar with the challenges of and demonstrated ability to manage a school budget of $200 Million for maximum educational achievement with prudent financial cost conservation in the face of dwindling taxpayer support and significantly increased costs.
He or she should be able to interact productively with parents, taxpayers, faculty and administrations and city management to contain costs in a manner that will not overburden taxpayers and compromise quality of education.
Proven Administrator Motivator
Able to reorganize district management, academic administration, and information reporting to demonstrate timely feedback on the effectiveness of skills, practices, and managers.
Innovative Amiable but Firm Negotiator
Able to work with teaching faculty to attract high quality new recruits with pay-benefits ratios acceptable by employee to deliver bottomline effectiveness, arresting out of control salary escalation now affecting district – with pragmatic department-trimming skills to lower overall budget.
Endowment Specialist/Fundraiser –
Able to interact with the community, city and government to build a district endowment fund to transition the district from a totally taxpayer supported operation into an endowment/taxpayer combination to finance major new construction and limited borrowing.
Innovator – problem-solver
Capable of undertaking a major cost-cutting management initiatives to lower the costs of operations without sacrificing educational effectiveness.
Salary: $300,000K and Up Plus generous incentive package based on performance in bringing school budget growth under control.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Let’s see how they did.
Dr. Clouet appears to fit these parameters in some respects, and not in others. His present district is just 3,000 students, but it is about 80% black and Hispanic.
Demonstrated record of improvement after three years. It depends on whom you talk to in
Cost cutting? Wow. Where does he start with that one?
A complete overhaul of the maintenance program would be in order. How do you budget $3 Million a year for maintenance of the schools and wind up in 5 years having to borrow $15 Million for infrastructure improvements? How about use of teaching assistants? Do we really need a high school office the size of the White House greet staff (I exaggerate to make a point)? Interaction with the city? Good luck on that one. Maintenance in
He or she should be able to interact productively with parents, taxpayers, faculty and administrations and city management to contain costs in a manner that will not overburden taxpayers and compromise quality of education.
Proven Administrator Motivator
Able to reorganize district management, academic administration, and information reporting to demonstrate timely feedback on the effectiveness of skills, practices, and managers.
That’s going to be tough because the management, academic administration and data people say they do that now, but the district year after year cannot get meaningful figures on data. The district pays 4 data processing executives close to a million dollars a year in salary and benefits and we can’t get the data we want. Clouet is a data specialist and is closely attuned to measuring results. This should be an interesting conflict and interaction. Let’s face it: if you provide inconclusive data, nothing changes, because you can’t make a decision. That has been the strategy (whether intentional or just convenient incompetence on the part of the administration) that has kept things moving along to the $200 Million level in the
Innovative Amiable but Firm Negotiator
Dr. Clouet based on his record in
In
Administrative talent evaluation. Here is where Clouet will be most challenged. Who does he really need? What positions does he want to keep and what eliminate? More to the point, what does the Board of Education want him to do?
But, I digress.
Endowment Specialist/ Fund-Raiser
Here, Dr. Clouet, with his boundless enthusiasm and relentness questing that he demonstrated in
Innovator-Problem Solver.
This apparently is Dr. Clouet’s strength. My description above in the mock job ad I created, focused on cost-cutting. But that may be short-sighted. Is it time to rethink the busing that goes on in
Class-size? Can smarter students have larger classes? The list is endless.
The
Meeting the Parents
Dr. Clouet has apparently passed with flying colors the power-groups that the Board of Education allowed to meet him prior to his being announced. So he has already been seen as a “friend to education,” “a supporter of the kids,” and has heard a litany of their hopes and dreams of the realtors, the neighborhood movers and shakers, the teachers, the district administration.
Dr. Clouet at the High School January 29.
Will he work for them or work for what apparently, given the future the district faces, dwindling tax base and compounding school budget, a repackaging of the district to make it something White Plains can afford?
Does he see his job as an assignment to keep the status quo by finding ways to pump more money into it and sell the taxpayers on it, or does he see his job as trimming the fat while making education better? What has the Board told him they want him to do, again?
Introduction to the Community.
Dr. Clouet visited
He impressed the audience, saying he took the
He said on the subject of testing that he felt exhaustive testing diminished the district ability to nurture the spirit of learning in children, but nevertheless realized the necessity for testing. He felt tests should not be given every year, but perhaps every other year. This was a very politically neutral statement.
He said to a question from a person who did not have students going to the district schools that he was aware of the tax pressures on such families. He told WPCNR he had met with the Mayor of White Plains and been acquainted with the tax pressures in the district from assessments and other matters.
He strongly supported language programs and the dual language program just begin in the White Plains Public Schools. He has started a similar program in
He acknowledged that he considered himself a good fund-raiser and hoped to bring about private corporate funds in the district through his contact in the city as a way to bring more revenue to the district.
He praised the district Strategic Plan. This plan by the way, is the plan for moving the district forward – without any specific ways or commitments in place of achieving its objectives.
He is personable, earnest and radiates enthusiasm that wins over an audience. You could see him easily selling a budget to the PTA, the League of Women Voters, and the parents of the district very easily. He is, if any one person could be more Tim Connors-like than the present Superintendent, Tim Connors, that person.
Working With Connors, Monitoring.
I asked him after the talk if he would be working closely with outgoing Superintendent, Mr. Connors. He said, taking a cue from President Obama , that there can only be one superintendent at a time, but would be keeping in close touch with Connors to monitor budget developments. Asked if he would have veto power on any cuts in the budget now being shaped, he said he would not.
He said he believed in teacher input in curriculum and listening to teachers in the classroom as to how to improve programs. That will play well to the White Plains Teachers Association which is on record as deploring the district reliance on consulting.
What was sad about the community meeting with Dr. Clouet were the questions that were not asked. There were no hard questions.
The parents acted worried and seemed to seek reassurance from this man, that he had his heart in the right place, and would continue school as we know it in
No one asked about his experience in
But
No one asked how he might change the operations of the
The head of the teachers union thought Dr. Clouet was an excellent choice because of his intelligence.
This is a dream job for Dr. Clouet, He has never worked in a district that was an upper middle class school district. He said the right things, promised even more community involvement and parent interaction than we have now. (
We shall see.
Tonight the Board of Education will authorize the President of the Board of Education to hire him.
I and we should wish him well and support him.
He is going to need our support.
And we need to tell him what we want directly.