Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 23, 1993 TAG: 9305240267
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Not long ago, students tossed out of class at James Madison Middle School landed in what some teachers looked upon as Easy Street. In-school suspension meant no homework, no rules - and no deterrent.
Frustrated, the teachers approached Madison's "site-based council."
After wrestling with the problem, the group of parents, teachers and administrators produced a list of rules for those being disciplined: No talking. No lolling around. And nothing but work, work, work.
Problem solved.
Common sense? Good teamwork?
Site-based management.
Virginia schools, meet business guru W. Edwards Deming - coming soon to a school system near you.
"Our philosophy is to put the authority for certain decisions, and the responsibility for certain decisions, back to the lowest level in the school division - the schools," said Richard Kelley, executive for business affairs with the Roanoke schools.
That's Deming's philosophy: Let the folks who have to carry out management decisions make them. Why? Because they know best how to solve their own problems. And, if you let them do that, they will be more committed to making things work.
Deming started preaching his message more than 40 years ago to businessmen in post-World War II Japan. American businesses didn't discover him until the late 1970s and early 1980s.
A decade later, industry leaders raved about the success of Deming's principles, which they passed on to their counterparts in the schools.
Today, site-based management is the buzzword of education reformers everywhere.
But what does it mean?
Ask educators what they mean by site-based management, and before they answer some are sure to make this qualification:
Not site-based management, if you please: "school-based management."
The Virginia Education Association prefers "shared decision making."
Others say "effective schools," or "total quality management."
Few can tell you precisely what any of those terms mean.
They argue, too, about whether the labels are interchangeable or if they signify different things.
Consequently, nobody knows how widespread the movement has become in Virginia's schools.
The state Department of Education doesn't keep statistics on how many school divisions have started to implement site-based management principles, which some believe ultimately will become law.
Nor does the Virginia Education Association.
The Virginia Association of School Boards hasn't even asked.
"With definitions being as slippery as they are, I don't think we'd be able to get a handle on it if we tried," said spokesman Cass Cannon.
Deming's philosophies arrived in Roanoke schools two years ago, when the city chose five schools in which to test the reforms.
The city based its decision, in part, on the advice of a Wisconsin consultant who had been using site-based management principles for three years.
Kelley said the experiment worked well enough to expand the model into all city schools last year.
Still, those involved continue to be confused over just what site-based management . . . means.
"There was a good deal of confusion from the Long Range Planning Committee," said Marsha Ellison, president of the PTA's Central Council. "Nobody could really tell us, `What is it?' "
A chance to define it
One thing everybody agrees upon is that it lets those who work in the schools have more authority in deciding how they're run.
How much more - and who else should have a voice in those decisions - varies among school divisions, and sometimes even among schools.
Should each school be allowed to set its own budget? Hire its own teachers? Principal? Decide what books to use? What classes to teach?
Or should these new powers be limited to solving day-to-day problems, like Madison's in-school suspension dilemma?
E. Wayne Harris, who will take over as Roanoke's school superintendent July 1, knows that he will have to answer these questions, and quickly.
"I'm not certain that there is a clear understanding among most of the principals what is meant by site-based management," he said, "and that's my biggest challenge.
"I think you have to say, under this umbrella, these are the things that convey site-based management to us. And as long as it stays under that umbrella, that's OK."
Right now, that umbrella doesn't make room for personnel decisions or legal issues, Kelley said. It allows schools to decide how to spend the money they get, within limits, but doesn't permit schools to set their own budgets.
Just what that umbrella may cover in the future Harris won't say. That needs to be worked out, he said, after he determines what's already being done and what those in the community would like to see included.
Community involvement
They're going to have plenty of opportunity to tell him. Harris asked Faye Pleasants, staff development executive, to arrange 14 meetings with community and civic organizations over the next two months to find out. A facilitator will take minutes and relay them to Harris.
Four will be organized as town meetings - one in each quadrant of the city, Pleasants said. The meetings will expand an annual goal-setting process that usually takes place at a public hearing before the School Board.
The additional meetings will give Harris and School Board members more time to think about residents' concerns before a July 7 planning session, at which the board will set its priorities for the year.
"It's a way to say to the community, `We are truly partners in this thing,' " Harris said.
It's also a way to emphasize that the community has a responsibility to be involved in the education of its children, he said.
That's another part of site-based management - community involvement.
Each site-based council must include teachers, parents and administrators, including the principal, Kelley said.
"But we would encourage them to have a variety of people involved," he said. "Not just PTA members and teachers."
That could mean power brokers, business leaders or social advocates - essentially anybody the school would like to pick, Kelley said.
He said the central office won't tell schools whom to include because that would fly in the face of the new philosophy.
Shifting power
It could also exacerbate tensions between central administrators and those just getting accustomed to their new authority - a problem most see as a natural consequence of any power shift.
"One of the big drawbacks is you have a bureaucracy that's in place, and it's difficult to get some of the bureaucrats to give up control," Kelley said.
That creates the perception among some that site-based council decisions carry no weight.
Many teachers "feel like they're going to do what they want, anyway," said Ruth Pumo, who serves on James Madison's council.
But she's not ready to throw in the towel. Not by any stretch.
"You can't expect it to be perfect right from the start," she said. "I think most of it is pretty good. At least there's a place for us to voice our opinion without getting in trouble for the way we feel."
Trouble arrives when schools use site-based management to shift power and authority to principals, continuing to leave teachers and parents out of the loop, said VEA President Rob Jones.
That creates a "principal's fiefdom" instead of a "superintendent's fiefdom," he said.
Parents and teachers "have to be on board as equals," Jones said.
And they have to be elected, said Kathryn Glassbrenner, a parent who serves on Patrick Henry High School's site-based council.
"If the principal's going to appoint them, then why have them?" she said. "Because what you're going to get is the principal's viewpoint."
Patrick Henry elected its parent members on a class-by-class basis, Glassbrenner said. But other schools formed their boards through appointments.
Measuring success
Determining and measuring success of the idea may prove difficult.
James Chancey, a teacher education specialist with the state Department of Education, said the results can't be evaluated through test scores.
Site-based management hopes to improve education by creating a healthier school environment, he said.
"The premise is happy workers make happy campers that make happy teachers who make happy students," he said. "And happy students learn better because they're not worried about other things."
Others insists upon a measurable standard for success.
Most point to Ed Kelly, superintendent in Prince William County, as the state's leading expert on site-based management.
Kelly said he set goals six years ago for improving student performance - such as lowering the dropout rate to less than 2 percent and ensuring that all students read at or above grade level.
He took those goals to each school and told the site-based teams to write plans for accomplishing them. He also promised enough money to do it.
It's up to each school how it wants to spend its allocation to reach those goals, Kelly said.
"Do we think it's worked? Yes," he said. "Are we meeting all of our goals? No. But has there been continuous progress? Yes."
Not a "quick fix."
Not everybody wants to give that much power to each school.
In Roanoke County, most decisions still come through the central office, said Assistant Superintendent Deanna Gordon.
Parents and teachers are given input through a variety of committees, she said, but no authority on what books to use, how to spend money or whom to hire.
In contrast, Salem schools yield much decision-making authority to their councils, called "principal advisory committees," said Michael Bryant, director of administrative services.
Each committee tells the central office how much money it needs and decides how to spend its allocation, he said.
Still, curriculum decisions rest with the administration.
"We're not completely site-based," Bryant said. "I don't think anybody is."
But eventually, they will be, said national consultant Jerry Patterson, superintendent in Appleton, Wisc.
And most of those who try the reforms will fail, he said.
"In 90 percent of the school districts in America, it will probably fail," said Patterson, the consultant hired by Roanoke school administrators when they embarked on their site-based mission two years ago.
The reforms won't work, Patterson said, because most school divisions will see them as another "quick fix," failing to recognize that they require a major shift in power and control and may take years to produce results.
A critical step toward success, he said, is to "provide training to schools on conflict resolution and consensus building."
Jones, the VEA president, said schools also must give teachers enough time during regular school hours to attend the extra meetings this process will entail.
Most of all, Patterson said, you communicate.
School divisions must spell out clearly what they hope to accomplish and how they will revise the power structure, he said.
Harris understands that. But doing it, he said, is another matter.
"That's going to be my biggest challenge for this first year - to clarify what we mean."
\ HELP SET THE AGENDA
\ A series of meetings has been set up at the request of incoming School Superintendent E. Wayne Harris to give Roanoke residents a chance to help the School Board set its priorities for the next three years:
\ Budget Advisory Council - Monday, noon, Airport Sheraton.
\ Non-certified personnel - Tuesday, 9:30, superintendent's conference room.
\ Principals and central office staff - Tuesday, 3:30, Madison music room.
\ Student Advisory Council - Thursday, 2 p.m., school administration board room.
\ Roanoke Professional Education Association - May 31, 3:30, Ruffner Library.
\ Central Council PTA - June 2, 10 a.m., school administration media center.
\ NAACP/Concerned Citizens for Justice - June 3, 7 p.m., school administration media center.
\ Northeast town meeting - June 7, 7 p.m., Monterey gym.
\ Roanoke Area Ministries/Roanoke Valley Conference of Christians and Jews - June 7, 7 p.m., school administration media center.
\ Southeast town meeting - June 8, 7 p.m., Stonewall Jackson auditorium.
\ Southwest town meeting - June 8, 7 p.m., Patrick Henry auditorium.
\ Northwest town meeting - June 14, 7 p.m., William Fleming auditorium.
by CNB